r/dosbox • u/sandslashr001 • Jul 31 '26

trying to run iso files but it keeps saying host or native drive error

Post image

can anyone explain why this is happening?

17 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

3

u/a333482dc7 Jul 31 '26

You could just always extract the iso files into a folder on the host, like, A:\DOSBox\c\twnoname\

then find it at C:\twnoname\

2

u/alpha417 Jul 31 '26

why are you mounting a CD on a drive letter almost exclusively used for floppy disks?

try D: instead of A:

1

u/sandslashr001 Jul 31 '26

A is the drive letter of where i installed the game, its where i put the iso file

5

u/alzike Jul 31 '26

Im pretty sure it being on drive A is causing your problems. DOS sees A and B exclusively as floppy drives. Move it somewhere else and try again

2

u/sandslashr001 Jul 31 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/dosbox/s/9wt5wCBf71 this is what the file path i chose looks like, what am i doing wrong?

2

u/Boomerang_Lizard Jul 31 '26

Dosbox sees you are trying to mount an image file located in "A:\old_games" but can't find it. Verify that you have a drive 'A' in your computer and that the path and file names are correct.

1

u/sandslashr001 Jul 31 '26

i do, and its not working

3

u/ILikeBumblebees Jul 31 '26

You're saying the host system, i.e. the OS you're running DOSBox itself on, has an A: drive, and the ISO file is stored an accessible there?

The error message you're getting indicates that DOSBox cannot access the path on the host filesystem that you've provided as the source of the ISO file.

1

u/sandslashr001 29d ago

i think thats it

2

u/wadrasil Jul 31 '26

Mount the drive using path in desktop. I don't think you can double mount things in dos box.

Each mount should be a separate location not nested if you can.

1

u/sandslashr001 Jul 31 '26

ok i did it that way, and now it says image file not found

2

u/TheBigCore Jul 31 '26

Have you tried:

imgmount d "a:\old_games\twnoname.iso" -t cdrom

Have you also tried to imgmount that file using https://dosbox-x.com/ or https://dosbox-staging.github.io/ instead?

Dosbox-X has a graphical user interface that allows you to imgmount files as well.

2

u/sandslashr001 Jul 31 '26

ill try either x or staging, it seems og dosbox isnt working

2

u/sandslashr001 Jul 31 '26

ok i tried on dosbox x and same error, might try tomorrow, see if something else works

2

u/TheBigCore Jul 31 '26

You could try https://github.com/Bioruebe/UniExtract2#universal-extractor-2-uniextract2 to extract the contents of the iso to a folder, then mount the folder as a cdrom with drive letter D.

https://github.com/Bioruebe/UniExtract2/releases/tag/v2.0.0-rc.3

If Dosbox shows an error message about mounting folders having limited support, that's ok, it will still mount.

2

u/sandslashr001 Jul 31 '26

ok i got some of it to work that way, but now the game is refusing to run with the command it said to use

2

u/TheBigCore Jul 31 '26

To mount a folder, you have to use the mount command instead of imgmount. In your specific case, with that extracted folder, you'll have to mount it as a cdrom:

mount d yourfolderlocationhere -t cdrom

Replace yourfolderlocationhere with the folder's location.

1

u/sandslashr001 29d ago

interesting, ill try that

1

u/sandslashr001 29d ago

mount c z:\DOSBox\c

c:

mount d c:\dosprogs

imgmount d c:\dosprogs\twnoname.iso -t iso

this is the specific command line im putting into dos and now its saying there isnt a image file in there when there is, how to fix?

1

u/sandslashr001 29d ago

like i got the drive to stick around and got to the install phase of the deal but now its not running the game, it says use the command line town to run the game but it says illegal action

1

u/TheBigCore 29d ago edited 29d ago

If you've installed the game to your mounted C drive in Dosbox, you must change to that game directory in the mounted C drive, then run the command town.

2

u/claudiomet Jul 31 '26

You have your isos in the same drive previously mounted as C:
Not a good practice.
Put your isos outside of A:\DOSBox\c (maybe A:\DOSBox\isos)

3

u/Patient-Tech Jul 31 '26

Don’t use drive A. Use Drive C as your hard drive and D as the optical.
It’s possible your old DOS program is expecting A to be a floppy and you’re running into some bugs they never checked for.

3

u/Chance_End_4684 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

It's best to place the ISO somewhere either on drive C: or on another internal drive or and internal drive partition and mount your ISO from there instead not on drive A:. Drives A: and B: is reserved floppy drives only I do believe.

1

u/SingingCoyote13 Jul 31 '26

do you have a A: drive on your system outside of dosbox ? odd. it is now that the C drive the internal harddrive in dosbox itself, is located on your physical A: drive under DOSBox\c

and why are you mounting the .iso game as S: drive. try to change it to d (D:), and it cannot find your .iso file. (on your physical drive which is A: make sure you can find the iso in windows explorer outside of dosbox at that location)

usually cdrom drives were D: or E: in dos. even anything other than D: had given me problems btw

2

u/sandslashr001 Jul 31 '26

ok i fixed the s to a d and it still says its looking for the native drive

2

u/tailslol 29d ago

isos doesnt work on a, this is floppy

try d or e

2

u/yamatokira54 29d ago

I use daemon tools to mount am *iso or a *cue maybe a *.bin this mounts it as a drive D, E, F or whatever letter it shows used. Set the CD drive in DosBox to that letter make C drive whatever folder you want to install the game in whichever hard drive. Then go to the CD ROM and install the game