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First post, by h-a-l-9000

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Imgmake is a DOSBox command that can create floppy or harddisk images, formatted or not formatted. It can also write a batch file with the needed imgmount command and read real floppy drives on the Windows platform.

For floppy images there are only predefined types, harddisk images can either be predefined or with custom size. The maximum supported size is 2GB.

Example:
'imgmake c:\floppy.img -t fd_1440' creates a formatted 1.4MB floppy image

'imgmake c:\harddisk_2gb.img -t hd_2gig' creates a formatted 2GB harddisk image

'imgmake c:\harddisk.img -t hd -size 123' creates a formatted ~123MB harddisk image

'imgmake c:\floppy.img -source a' reads the image from the disk in the A: drive

The path where the image should be created is on the host, not on mounted DOSBox drives.
For additional information and predefined image geometries type 'imgmake -?'.

Download: http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/dosbox_files/imgmake.zip (source + windows binary)

The patch also includes:
Changes to the imgmount command:
- when mounting an image as a, b, 0, 1 assume -t floppy if not otherwise specified
- drive parameters auto detection: extract drive parameters from MBR if possible instead of assuming bximage geometry (no need to pass parameters with formatted images created by imgmake)
- refuse image if it is too large or geometry was passed that could not be handled by INT13

Changes to the boot command:
- don't boot if the MBR / boot sector signature is missing as a real BIOS would do

1+1=10

Reply 1 of 23, by wd

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don't boot if the MBR / boot sector signature is missing as a real BIOS would do

Depends on the bios btw. and some can override the checking/disable it.

Thanks for keeping up with the imgmake 😀

Reply 5 of 23, by DosFreak

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Started playing with this today. Lost about 15-20 minutes because DOSBox was not recognizing the HD image.

I was using imgmount 3 95.img instead of imgmount c 95.img.....Frickin' frustrating. Figured it out because I knew you wouldn't release something that didn't work so I looked at the imgmake switches and the created .bat file and used them as they are supposed to be used and they worked just fine.

Nice to have 2gb images easily created for DOSBox now!

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Reply 6 of 23, by h-a-l-9000

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Yes, since the images are already formatted you can directly mount them as c. In that case you also shouldn't need the batch file, it is useful for dosbox versions without modified imgmount.

1+1=10

Reply 10 of 23, by pardream

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The steps:
first, prepare the dos622 install disks, total 3 1.44 Floppy disks

1. imgmake e:\vos\dosbox.img -t hd -size 256
2. imgmount c: e:\vos\dosbox.img
3. boot e:\vos\dos622_1.img
(then boot from the first dos622 disk, and auto run setup.exe)
4.when assist with message "please insert the following disk in drive A Setup disk 2", I donnot konow how to do it.

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Reply 11 of 23, by DosFreak

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Open the HD .img with Winimage.
Copy all MS-DOS disks to a folder on the image.
mount the HD image in DOSBox.
Boot off of an MS-DOS 6.22 floppy image in DOSBox.
At the command prompt type in "SYS C:" to make the HD image bootable.
Exit DOSBox
Execute DOSBox
Boot the HD image.
Navigate to the directory where you copied MS-DOS
Install MS-DOS.

Last edited by DosFreak on 2008-09-07, 04:39. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 12 of 23, by pardream

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another question:

I make the hd image with dos boot up partion
but when I try to boot from the image, failed.

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Reply 14 of 23, by pardream

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using fdisk first, then format c:/s
and sys c: again.

I used another way different from DosFreak 's.

I mount the 3 dos622 install disks, then copy files in it to HD image.
imgmount -t floppy x: e:\vos\dos622_1.img
...
copy x:\*.* c:\setup
....
If I boot up from dos622_1.img, I cannot run c:\setup\setup.exe, It seems must run it from disk a.

If I boot up from HD image, then error occured I posted forward.

Reply 15 of 23, by DosFreak

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You may be able to specify multiple floppy images with imgmount and switch between them with CTRL+F4. Not sure if this works when MS-DOS is loaded.

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Reply 17 of 23, by pardream

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Thank DosFreak, Thank h-a-l-9000
imgmount cannot work when boot from dos disks.

boot -l c can boot up from HD image ok.

but if I run setup.exe in hd folder, display message below:

To install MS-DOS, insert Setup Disk 1 in
Driver A and press CTRL+ALT+DEL. This will
restart your computer and begin the Setup
program.

Anyway, I can uncompress files myself.

Thanks again!
Thanks a lot!

Reply 18 of 23, by h-a-l-9000

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Patch updated to compile on GCC too. Attached to this post.

TODOs:
- DOS 6.22 installer doesn't like smaller disk images like the st-251
- think of something to really autodetect the image type to allow boot <filename> for harddisk images too

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1+1=10

Reply 19 of 23, by DosFreak

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I noticed today that Windows 95B Scandisk mentions something about LBA support when using a 2gb image (and 2gb partition).

Scandisk appeared to run properly. Is it safe to use 2gb partitions?

I'll try to write down exactly what it states next time I run it.

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