Mounting and Creating Disk Images in DOSBox-X

Disk images are exact binary copies of floppy disks, hard drives, or optical discs stored as single files on your host computer. DOSBox-X can mount these images directly so DOS programs see them as real hardware. The IMGMOUNT command handles mounting, and the companion IMGMAKE command lets you create new blank images ready for formatting and use.

IMGMOUNT — Mounting Disk Images

Syntax

IMGMOUNT <driveletter> <imagefile> [imagefile2 ...] [options]

<driveletter> — Drive letter (A–Z) or BIOS drive number (0–3) to assign inside DOS.
<imagefile> — Path to the image file. Multiple images can be listed for a swap list.

Running IMGMOUNT with no arguments lists all currently mounted image-based drives and their swap positions.

Options

-t <type>

Image type: floppy, hdd, iso (also accepted as cdrom), or ram (RAM drive). DOSBox-X auto-detects the type from the file extension when this flag is omitted.

-fs <filesystem>

Filesystem type: fat, iso, or none. Use none to attach the image directly to BIOS INT 13h without a DOS filesystem layer (needed for raw disk access).

-size <sectsize,heads,cyl,sects>

Override disk geometry for raw images. Provide sector size (bytes), number of heads, cylinders, and sectors per track.

-ro

Mount the image read-only. Changes made by DOS programs will not be written back to the file.

-u

Unmount a drive. Pass the drive letter or BIOS number after -u.

-ide <slot>

Attach the image to a specific IDE controller slot (e.g. 1m for secondary master). Defaults to auto.

Supported Image Formats

Floppy image formats

Extension	Description
`.img`	Raw sector-by-sector floppy dump — the most common format
`.ima`	Identical to `.img`; used by several archiving tools
`.xdf`	Extended Density Format; used for some IBM OS/2 floppies
`.fdi`	FDI floppy disk image (Japanese PC-98)

Hard disk image formats

Extension	Description
`.img`	Raw hard disk image; sector layout follows disk geometry
`.vhd`	Virtual Hard Disk format; fixed-size and dynamic VHDs are supported
`.hdi`	Hard disk image (Japanese PC-98)

CD-ROM / optical image formats

Extension	Description
`.iso`	ISO 9660 CD-ROM image, data-only
`.cue` + `.bin`	CUE sheet with binary track data; required for audio tracks
`.cue` + audio	CUE sheet referencing external audio files (MP3, OGG, FLAC, WAV, Opus)
`.chd`	Compressed Hunks of Data; stores CD-ROM and hard disk images
`.mdf` / `.mds`	Alcohol 120% image format
`.nrg`	Nero Burning ROM image
`.gog` / `.ins`	GOG.com CD image variants

DOSBox-X supports FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32 filesystems on disk images. FAT32 requires reporting DOS version 7.0 or higher (which enables long filename support). DOSBox-X can automatically set the reported DOS version when a FAT32 image is mounted if the fat32setversion option is enabled.

Examples

Floppy Images
Hard Disk Images
CD-ROM Images
Raw BIOS Access

REM Mount a standard 1.44 MB floppy image
IMGMOUNT A C:\floppy.img -t floppy

REM Mount multiple floppy images as a swap list
REM Press Ctrl+F4 inside DOSBox-X to cycle to the next image
IMGMOUNT A C:\disk1.img C:\disk2.img C:\disk3.img -t floppy

REM Mount a floppy image read-only
IMGMOUNT A C:\original.img -t floppy -ro

REM Mount a raw hard disk image as C:
IMGMOUNT C C:\harddisk.img -t hdd

REM Mount a VHD image
IMGMOUNT C C:\win31.vhd -t hdd

REM Mount with explicit geometry (512-byte sectors, 16 heads,
REM 1023 cylinders, 63 sectors per track)
IMGMOUNT C C:\rawdisk.img -size 512,16,1023,63

REM Mount an ISO image as D:
IMGMOUNT D C:\game.iso -t cdrom

REM Mount a CUE/BIN image (required for audio tracks)
IMGMOUNT D C:\game.cue -t cdrom

REM Unmount D:
IMGMOUNT -u D

REM Attach a disk image to BIOS drive number 2 (no DOS filesystem)
IMGMOUNT 2 C:\rawdisk.img -t hdd -fs none

REM Then mount a partition from that BIOS disk as C:
IMGMOUNT C -bd 2 -fs fat

Drive letters A: and B: automatically default to -t floppy. For any other letter, the default type is hdd. Pass -t cdrom (or -t iso) explicitly for optical images.

IMGMAKE — Creating New Disk Images

IMGMAKE creates a blank, pre-formatted disk image file on the host filesystem. The resulting file can immediately be mounted with IMGMOUNT.

Syntax

IMGMAKE <imagefile> -t <type> [options]

Disk Types

Choose a floppy type

Type	Size	Description
`fd_160`	160 KB	5.25” single-sided, 8 sectors
`fd_180`	180 KB	5.25” single-sided, 9 sectors
`fd_200`	200 KB	5.25” single-sided, 10 sectors
`fd_320`	320 KB	5.25” double-sided, 8 sectors
`fd_360`	360 KB	5.25” double-sided (most common 5.25”)
`fd_400`	400 KB	5.25” double-sided, 10 sectors
`fd_720`	720 KB	3.5” double-sided, double-density
`fd_1200`	1.2 MB	5.25” high-density
`fd_1440` / `fd` / `floppy`	1.44 MB	3.5” high-density (most common 3.5”)
`fd_2880`	2.88 MB	3.5” extra-high-density

Or choose a hard disk type

Type	Description
`hd`	Custom size hard disk; specify size with `-size <MB>`
`vhd`	Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format; specify size with `-size <MB>`
`hd_250`	~250 MB preset
`hd_520`	~520 MB preset
`hd_1gig`	~1 GB preset
`hd_2gig`	~2 GB preset
`hd_4gig`	~4 GB preset
`hd_8gig`	~8 GB preset
`hd_st225`	Classic 20 MB drive (Seagate ST-225 geometry)
`hd_st251`	Classic 40 MB drive (Seagate ST-251 geometry)

IMGMAKE Examples

REM Create a standard 1.44 MB floppy image
IMGMAKE C:\floppy.img -t fd_1440

REM Create a 360 KB 5.25" floppy image
IMGMAKE C:\old.img -t fd_360

REM Create a 500 MB hard disk image
IMGMAKE C:\hd.img -t hd -size 500

REM Create a 2 GB VHD
IMGMAKE C:\bigdisk.vhd -t vhd -size 2048

After creating an image with IMGMAKE, mount it with IMGMOUNT and then use FORMAT inside DOS to write a filesystem if needed (the image is already pre-formatted for floppy types).

On Windows, IMGMAKE can also read a physical floppy drive and produce an .img snapshot of it, preserving every sector including boot records. Use the drive letter of your floppy drive as the source.

BOOT — Booting from a Disk Image

The BOOT command exits the DOSBox-X internal DOS shell and boots directly from a floppy or hard disk image, or from a mounted drive letter. This is useful for running operating systems other than the built-in DOS emulation.

Syntax

BOOT [imagefile1 imagefile2 ...] [-l <driveletter>]

Examples

REM Boot from a floppy image
BOOT C:\boot.img

REM Boot from a swap list of floppy images
BOOT C:\disk1.img C:\disk2.img C:\disk3.img

REM Boot from an already-mounted drive (e.g. a hard disk image at C:)
BOOT -l C

After BOOT executes, the DOSBox-X internal shell is no longer active. The booted operating system takes full control of the virtual machine. To return to the DOSBox-X shell you must restart the emulator.

Getting Started

Configuration

Drives & Storage

Emulation Features

Troubleshooting

Mounting and Creating Disk Images in DOSBox-X

IMGMOUNT — Mounting Disk Images

Syntax

Options

-t <type>

-fs <filesystem>

-size <sectsize,heads,cyl,sects>

-ro

-u

-ide <slot>

Supported Image Formats

Examples

IMGMAKE — Creating New Disk Images

Syntax

Disk Types

IMGMAKE Examples

BOOT — Booting from a Disk Image

Syntax

Examples

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Getting Started

Configuration

Drives & Storage

Emulation Features

Troubleshooting

Documentation Index

​IMGMOUNT — Mounting Disk Images

​Syntax

​Options

-t <type>

-fs <filesystem>

-size <sectsize,heads,cyl,sects>

-ro

-u

-ide <slot>

​Supported Image Formats

​Examples

​IMGMAKE — Creating New Disk Images

​Syntax

​Disk Types

​IMGMAKE Examples

​BOOT — Booting from a Disk Image

​Syntax

​Examples

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

IMGMOUNT — Mounting Disk Images

Syntax

Options

Supported Image Formats

Examples

IMGMAKE — Creating New Disk Images

Syntax

Disk Types

IMGMAKE Examples

BOOT — Booting from a Disk Image

Syntax

Examples