VirtualAcorn Technical support:
Renaming HostFS::HardDisc4

This article was originally published in RISCWorld Magazine.

Re-naming HardDisc4

We have been asked a couple of times now about how to rename the HostFS::HardDisc4 mount. I don't recommend renaming a harddisc under RISC OS for a number of reasons. Firstly there's a high degree of probability that some things in your boot sequence simply won't use relative names.

As an example suppose there is a reference to:

HostFS::HardDisc4.$.Printing.!Printers

In the boot sequence - if you rename the harddisc to, for example Jim, then the real path to the file would now be:

HostFS::Jim.$.Printing.!Printers

So RISC OS would no longer "find" !Printers and would throw up an error on booting.

If the entire !Boot sequence uses relative names, such as:

.^.Printing.!Printers

then renaming the harddisc shouldn't cause as many problems, although apps (and the pinboard) may still complain that they can't find things.

You can "rename" the existing HardDisc4 from the HostFS control panel by making a new HostFS mount that points to the HardDisc4 folder (as seen by the Mac) with a new name (for example Jim). You would then have 2 HostFS mounts that point to the folder called HardDisc4 that sits next to the VirtualRPC application. Removing the one named "HardDisc4" would just leave the one called Jim, which would then become the first drive, and hence the boot drive.

Also note the mount flags for Bootable and Show DOS extensions need to be set so the new mount has the same flags as the old HardDisc4 mount.

However I really don't recommend doing this, if you really must and are prepared for the potential problems then firstly back up the VirtualAcorn model files:

VirtualRPC-AdjustSA\Contents\Resources\Models\Arm710\Model.cfg

(To open the VirtualRPC-AdjustSA application right click on it and select Show Package Contents)

So if it all goes wrong you can put things back. Also note that if you do rename the harddisc and it does all go wrong we won't be able to provide any support and will simply tell you to put it back, or even to re-install your VirtualRPC. You have been warned!