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How to extend disk space inside dosbox?

Open reignerdeustcher opened this issue 1 year ago • 7 comments
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I have windows 98 installed in dosbox pure, but i've made the virtual hdd only with 1gb and there's no space for installing red alert 2, is there any way to resize it instead of having to reinstall windows?

reignerdeustcher avatar Jan 11 '24 02:01 reignerdeustcher

If you go to: Core Options > System > Advanced > Free Space on D: in OS

You can then increase the D: drive space to 8GB. Then install games on D: instead of the C: drive, which i'd always recommend doing anyway unless a game specifically requires the C: drive.

Or if you want to increase the size of C: you can do it with UltraISO.

  1. Open the Windows installation .IMG file with UltraISO (it's inside the 'system' folder within the RetroArch directory)
  2. Go to Actions > Change Image Format and increase the size to 2GB.
  3. Save it as a .IMG file (it saves as .IMA by default).
  4. Place the new image file in the 'system' folder and go to Core Options > Audio > MIDI Output > Scan System Directory to refresh the list of operating systems.

But with this method you can only go up to 2GB. Anything over and the OS wont boot. So if you want to make the C: drive larger than 2GB you'll have to create a new Windows installation with DOSBox-Pure.

PoloniumRain avatar Jan 11 '24 16:01 PoloniumRain

If you go to: Core Options > System > Advanced > Free Space on D: in OS

You can then increase the D: drive space to 8GB. Then install games on D: instead of the C: drive, which i'd always recommend doing anyway unless a game specifically requires the C: drive.

Or if you want to increase the size of C: you can do it with UltraISO.

1. Open the Windows installation .IMG file with UltraISO (it's inside the 'system' folder within the RetroArch directory)

2. Go to Actions > Change Image Format and increase the size to 2GB.

3. Save it as a .IMG file (it saves as .IMA by default).

4. Place the new image file in the 'system' folder and go to `Core Options > Audio > MIDI Output > Scan System Directory` to refresh the list of operating systems.

But with this method you can only go up to 2GB. Anything over and the OS wont boot. So if you want to make the C: drive larger than 2GB you'll have to create a new Windows installation with DOSBox-Pure.

did the ultra iso thing and when i run the iso it says ''booting from drive C...'' and gets stuck there forever

also there's no scan system directory in the core options

i can't install the game in D: says that there's no enough space even the game is much smaller than that

reignerdeustcher avatar Jan 11 '24 19:01 reignerdeustcher

Are you using the latest DOSBox-Pure version 0.9.9?

This is how the settings should look in UltraISO:

Snip_2024 01 11__20-05-16

And here's the Scan System Directory option:

https://github.com/schellingb/dosbox-pure/assets/50634894/202113b5-72fd-4fe0-8699-65d159bb3b9f

If that doesn't work then i've no idea why not because i've done this multiple times before and i just tried it again and it still works...

PoloniumRain avatar Jan 11 '24 20:01 PoloniumRain

Are you using the latest DOSBox-Pure version 0.9.9?

This is how the settings should look in UltraISO:

Snip_2024 01 11__20-05-16

And here's the Scan System Directory option: Scan.mp4

If that doesn't work then i've no idea why not because i've done this multiple times before and i just tried it again and it still works...

is the last version and i did it just like that T_T

reignerdeustcher avatar Jan 11 '24 21:01 reignerdeustcher

The "Scan System directory" option only appears on systems which are very slow at ready the system directory. If it doesn't appear it means it is refreshed automatically at startup and isn't needed.

schellingb avatar Jan 12 '24 00:01 schellingb

now i managed to get it work, booted windows and installed the game but it goes with bad performance with clicked audio, different cycles in the performance option doesn't improve it

weird

reignerdeustcher avatar Jan 12 '24 03:01 reignerdeustcher

Try increasing the RAM: Core Options > System > Memory Size

256MB would be more than enough. Otherwise what happens if you set the performance really low to like 66MHz? Does it slow down? If it does then that setting is working and it might be your hardware/CPU. It can be very demanding to run games released in 2000 with DOSBox, although i wouldn't have thought that Red Alert 2 is all that demanding :-/

PoloniumRain avatar Jan 12 '24 03:01 PoloniumRain