[Virtualacorn-list] Second virtual Hard drive

[T.O.M.S.]

Hello folks

Can I barge in as Dave Symes's post at 14:49 on 10 April gives a clue 
as to the confusion:

> Boot-Configure-Discs and set hardDisc to an extra one, and
> yes up pops a new Hardisc icon of 50 Mbytes. Name that as
> HD5 and Bob's me wotsit...

Correct - but that is not a *HostFS* partition. It's a 'special' (to 
VirtualRPC) *IDE* partition, specifically for use on those very rare 
occasions when a RISC OS application will not run under HostFS - but 
will under IDE. Sibelius comes to mind.

I hope this doesn't sound like blowing our own trumpets (yet again), 
but there some more detail on that on p33 of the VirtualRPC In Use 
booklet on http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/support/vrpcinuse/index.htm

Note that this IDE partition is very, very slow compared to HostFS 
and, by default, is set to 50MB. You can increase the partition size, 
but it's not a very user-friendly procedure.

So assuming that all you want is another *HostFS* 'hard disc' (in the 
form of another standard Windows folder to back up RISC OS stuff), 
then a *HostFS* 'HardDisc5' is a good way to do it. Read/write is very 
much faster and, in practice, is not size-limited.

As others have said, you can set up a new HostFS 'drive' via the 
Tools-Options-HostFS bit at the top of the VirtualRPC window. That's 
in the VirtualRPC UserGuide and (if you don't change the address) will 
result in 'HardDisc5' simply sitting alongside the default 'HardDisc4' 
folder.

Under Windows, you can find them in the C:\Program 
Files\VirtualAcorn\VirtualRPC-xxx folder (for the variant of 
VirtualRPC installed). All the other VirtualRPC goodies (e.g. the 
Model and PlugIns folders) are in the same place.

If you want, you can right-click over the 'HardDisc5' folder icon, 
select Create Shortcut, then drag-and-drop the shortcut onto the 
Desktop. Double-clicking on that will open the extra 'drive' storage 
folder.

There's more blether on all that on p27 and p31 in the VirtualRPC In 
Use booklet.


But as Jeremy Nicholl said at 13:11, 'HardDisc5' doesn't have to be 
alongside HardDisc4, it can be anywhere else on drive C:, or indeed on 
any other storage device. In principle, all you need to do is to type 
the desired leafname and folder name into the Tools-Options-HostFS 
window.

Or alternatively generate the folder manually, wherever you want it, 
by right-clicking somewhere in the parent directory viewer, select 
New-->Folder [Enter], then rename the new folder as HardDisc5. To 
'see' it under RISC OS, you'll then need to set up a mount for it, 
again via Tools-Options-HostFS.

Phew... HTH.

Alex Hamilton
pp T.O.M.S.