Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-1496755-20171111143841

Welcome to Mounting Floppy Images 101 - enjoy this amazing training course.

Before you begin
 * Make sure the image files are not read-only. DOSBox hates that and can't mount them. Uncheck the attribute, if it is present.
 * Make sure you know the file extension of the image(s) - the most common ones are .IMA and .IMG, though you might encounter others occasionally.

If we assume your image is called EXAMPLE1.IMG and is located on D:, this is the mounting command:

imgmount a D:\EXAMPLE1.IMG -t floppy

This will mount it as drive A:, which is the classic drive letter for floppy drives in the 1990's (along with B:, if there was more than one drive).

But some games come on multiple volumes. How do you handle that? There are two methods:

Method 1: Dumping - The easier method. Just create an empty folder somewhere on your DBox "hard drive". Then mount the first floppy image and copy all of its contents to the empty folder. Then mount the second floppy and do the same (copy contents to the same folder)... continue until you have copied (dumped) the contents of all images to the folder in question. Then just run the installer - most of them should detect that all necessary files are present and thus won't ask you to "Please insert Disk #2". This method works for X-wing and TIE Fighter.

However, it doesn't work with all games - some of them absolutely require you to switch disks (e.g. the original installer for Spear of Destiny), even if you have dumped everything to the folder. Then we use this:

Method 2: Switching - This method is closer to the genuine installation process from the 1990's. Here, you have to mount all images on the SAME drive letter. Assuming we have 4 images files, the command is:

imgmount a D:\EXAMPLE1.IMG D:\EXAMPLE2.IMG D:\EXAMPLE3.IMG D:\EXAMPLE4.IMG -t floppy

No commas or semicolons between the image names! Now all four are mounted to the same drive letter, however only EXAMPLE1 is the currently active image. Start the game installer... and one point it will ask for Disk #2 - then press Ctrl-F4 to switch to the second image (EXAMPLE2 becomes the active image) and continue the installation. Repeat this process until installation is complete. Feel like a 1990's gamer yet?

Note: If you have reached the last image and the installer asks for the first one again, just press Ctrl-F4 again and it will go back to EXAMPLE1 being the active image.

Another note: The Ctrl-F4 "switch" command works with multiple mounted CD's as well. 