Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

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ppgrainbow
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Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by ppgrainbow »

Okay.

Since I'm using MS-DOS 6.22 on the Award SIS 496/497 486DX2 66 MHz machine, I currently have installed four 2 GB IDE hard disks and no CD-ROMs at all.

Since we're heading towards the next major release of PCem, is there a way to add CD-ROM ISO support on the primary master/slave or secondary master/slave slots and add support for up to 4 CD-ROM ISOs?

In the Settings > CD-ROM, CD-ROM ISO image support will need to be implemented though. If it is, users who go to Disc > Configure Hard Discs can select either hard disk image (.img) or CD-ROM ISO (.iso) radio buttons.

If the user selects CD-ROM ISO support, then the ability to configure hard disk CHD parameters will have to be disabled unless the hard disk image radio button is selected again.

CD-ROM ISOs can be useful to install operating systems such as Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0, which is capable of booting directly from CD-ROM. CD-ROM ISO can be used to install OS/2 Warp 3 or 4 where as booting for the floppy disk image is required to set up the hard disk and access the CD-ROM to install OS/2 Warp. It can also be used to install software on the CD-ROM ISO where as the original CD-ROM disc is starting to go bad.

Right now, installing an operating system like Windows 95 or OS/2 Warp from floppies or the host CD-ROM can be time consuming.

As far as I know, in the Award 430VX WinChip 100MHz machine is reserving the host CD-ROM as the secondary slave and NOT the secondary master slot. I can tell by this in the Award Software System Configuration when the machine is starting to boot up:
CD-ROM on secondary slave.png
CD-ROM on secondary slave.png (51.77 KiB) Viewed 12629 times
Once CD-ROM ISO support is successfully implemented, I will be able to do a test installation of OS/2 Warp 3 and OS/2 Warp 4 on the Award SiS 496/497 and Award 430VX machines to see if the installation from the CD-ROM ISO is a success or not.

Comments about this idea anyone?
Battler
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by Battler »

I absolutely agree. Support for directly loading ISO images would be nice.
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ppgrainbow
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by ppgrainbow »

Battler wrote:I absolutely agree. Support for directly loading ISO images would be nice.
Me too. :)

The only downside is once I start using CD-ROM ISO images, I will have to get rid of at least one hard disk image to make room for the CD-ROM slot.
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SarahWalker
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by SarahWalker »

This is possible, but I won't get to implement it for v10. For now you'll need to use a virtual drive (eg Daemon Tools) to mount images.
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ppgrainbow
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by ppgrainbow »

TomWalker wrote:This is possible, but I won't get to implement it for v10. For now you'll need to use a virtual drive (eg Daemon Tools) to mount images.
Thank you for telling me. I guess that I'll have to stick to using floppy drives for a while until at such a time it gets implemented in the near future.
Battler
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by Battler »

- ppgrainbow: Any reason why you can't install something like Daemon Tools?
Alegend45
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by Alegend45 »

Actually, on Windows 10, you can just use mount-diskimage in powershell with no additional software required.
nerd73
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by nerd73 »

Alegend45 wrote:Actually, on Windows 10, you can just use mount-diskimage in powershell with no additional software required.
That's been there since windows 8.
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ppgrainbow
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by ppgrainbow »

Battler wrote:- ppgrainbow: Any reason why you can't install something like Daemon Tools?
You can use ImDisk to mount CD ISOs and hard disk/floppy disk images.
Battler
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by Battler »

- ppgrainbow: Then why not just mount an ImDisk drive into PCem?
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ppgrainbow
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Re: Add support for CD-ROM ISOs?

Post by ppgrainbow »

Battler wrote:- ppgrainbow: Then why not just mount an ImDisk drive into PCem?
That's what I should be at least doing until CD-ROM ISO support gets added in the near future even though it won't be included in v10, but possibly in later revisions.
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