OpenMSX Harddisk Emulation

By IC

Hero (557)

03-04-2004, 13:40

I'v noticed that OpenMSX supports Harddisk emulation. Since the many GB's on my PC are not used.. I'd like to make a harddisk drive for openmsx on my PC...

But still I have a few questions before I wanna initialise the harddisk..Like:
- can openMSX fuck up the harddisk of the PC?I'v noticed that OpenMSX supports Harddisk emulation. Since the many GB's on my PC are not used.. I'd like to make a harddisk drive for openmsx on my PC...

But still I have a few questions before I wanna initialise the harddisk..Like:
- can openMSX fuck up the harddisk of the PC?
- will there be a problem when using an PC IDE-Raid controller?
- do I need to emulate a SCSI (Gouda's Novaxis or BERT (& Ernie)?
- are there any limitations for the size of the harddisk?
- does it slow down the emulator much?

T.i.a.

By Arjan

Paladin (782)

03-04-2004, 14:18

I'm not really sure, but I think HD emulation just uses a big image, so it will be pretty similar to regular disk emulation.

By Manuel

Ascended (19314)

03-04-2004, 14:54

Replying to your questions:
- no, openMSX creates a file which is used for harddisk image, similar to disk images
- no, it uses normal file access, as I just said
- only IDE emulation is implemented
- no
- no

Feel free to try it out. It's safe, but can just cost you quite some harddisk space

By ro

Scribe (4920)

03-04-2004, 18:08

I too am getting more interrested in use OpenMSX (currently using NLMSX) now that I notice HD support and REAL files instead of images (which always prevented me to code in emulation cuz of lack of diskspace/speed)
In my Real MSX env. I use only HD..

So, Downloaded the latest version and the catapult for windows (I'm lazy remember)
Now I need to have the firmware files installed, correct? and where do I get these? or is this another breach of mrc policies (asking for softs)?

By Manuel

Ascended (19314)

03-04-2004, 18:25

ro: if you need any help join the #openMSX channel on irc.freenode.net, post e-mails to openmsx-user@lists.sourceforge.net and at least read the manual on http://openmsx.sf.net/manual/

Anyway, the real files function is still experimental. You can only use 712kB of files in one directory and subdirs and DOS2 are not supported yet.

Using emulated harddisk is quite comfortable though!

By DarQ

Paragon (1038)

03-04-2004, 19:41

aha! this is HOT news! ill be waiting until its all perfect and with real files instead of images

By Manuel

Ascended (19314)

03-04-2004, 21:26

Hot news? It's been there for ages! Last modification was in September 2003 or so
(So, it's not actively under development at the moment...)

The feature is actually called "Dir As Dsk", by the way

By IC

Hero (557)

04-04-2004, 01:50

thanks manuel.. will give it a try...

By DarQ

Paragon (1038)

04-04-2004, 02:39

dir as dsk.... hmmm, i suddenly remember reading ab out that in the manual.. i should read the manual again

By ro

Scribe (4920)

04-04-2004, 11:57

so euh.. how about the machine layout files?

By Manuel

Ascended (19314)

04-04-2004, 15:15

What's the problem, ro?