Create the hard disk image

Run ARAnyM, once you reach the GEM desktop, press Pause (or the OS-dependent key which has this feature, read the doc), and go to disk submenu. There you can choose the floppy disk image, and one hard disk image for each IDE device (master and slave).

Select Path and choose the location (and name) of the hd image. Then select the size (in MB), and click Generate. ARAnyM asks for confirmation, then does its job. A geometry has been chosen for this hd image (C/H/S = 8/16/63). Enable it by selecting the Present checkbox. Select Apply to go back to menu, then save the config file. If you shutdown ARAnyM, and edit the config file, you'll find what has been done in section [IDE0] of the config file.

On a real machine, it means we have plugged an hard disk in our machine, it does not mean there is software to drive it, which is the task of a hard disk driver. EmuTOS has one embedded, whereas TOS has not. However, the hard disk image must be partitionned to be used directly by EmuTOS:

  $ aranym -e
  ARAnyM 0.9.2pre1
  Using config file: '/home/patrice/.aranym/config'
  [snip]
  hda: Non-ATARI root sector
  [snip]

We need software to partition our hard disk image. Either from host side (with host specific tools that must create an Atari root sector), or from Atari side (using floppy disks or images to run software).