Hello! i really hope I am at the right sub forum with my little guide. Since there is a Video Guide about Steam and Origin but not Battle.net i thought i would write a little guide here on how to install your games on a network storage like unraid or similar even with the battle.net launcher or blizzard game installer does not support network locations or sym. and mk links.

 

If its the wrong sub forum feel free to move it! 

 

In this Guide we will create a virtual HDD on a network storage device like unraid and "code" a little script to automatically mount it when we launch the battle.net launcher. Since its an .vhd file it would be a pain in the ass without the script since you would need to mount it after every restart again in the "Disk Management" part of the system settings but with the script it works like a charm!

 

I am really sorry i cant provide you with English screenshots of every step but i will try to explain how everything works and give my best with my limited English skills.

 

So lets start.

 

STEP 1 - Create a .vhd File in the Disk Management

 

Version A - Create a big .vhd with its final size and just move it to the User Share (slower)

 

Go into the "Disk Management", click "Action" and select "Create virtual HDD".

Just save it directly to the Desktop, apply the size you want it to be like 250GB and set it so a fixed size and click OK.

Select your newly created Disk on the bottom of HDD list in the "Disk Manager" with a right click and "initialize" it.

Select MBR and press ok, now create a new Volume and assign a drive letter. (you only need to assign it ONCE! i choose Z since its Blizzard)

Eject the newly created HDD and move it to its new location on your user share (this transfer may take a while depending on the size of your choosing)

 

Version B - Create a small . vhd File and move it to its final destination and expand it with a few commands (faster)

 

Follow the Steps above but only make the .vhd a few gb big - like 5GB for example and move it to its final location on the user share.

Now you need to open the command prompt, enter "diskpart" and press enter. the diskpart cmd window should appear.

 

 

Now follow my Instructions like its shown on my Screenshot:

 

 

 

STEP 2 - Mount it automatically with a click onto the Battle.net launcher

 

Now we need to create 2 files. 1 .bat file which will be the executable and 1 .txt file which will tell the .bat what it needs to mount. You can put these 2 files anywhere in your system it doesn't really matter where they are but i saved them into my Dropbox so i have access to it on all of my PCs but you definitely could save it on the user share itself. 

 

REM = Notes in the script - they will not be executed but if you want you can delete them.

 

.txt - tell diskpart to mound the .vhd

 

Open the Editor/Notepad and insert the following:

 

 

SELECT VDISK FILE="Location of your virtual HDD "
REM >>> SELECT VDISK FILE="\\UNRAID\Games\BlizzDrive\BlizzardHDD.vhd"


ATTACH VDISK

Save it as normal .txt file and remember the name for the following .bat file.

.bat - Making the executable file

 

Open the Editor/Notepad and insert the following:

 

 

@ECHO OFF
SET VirtualDiskLocation="Location of your virtual HDD"
REM >>> SET VirtualDiskLocation="\\UNRAID\Games\BlizzDrive\BlizzardHDD.vhd"

SET DiskPartScriptLocation="Location of your Diskpart Script .txt file"
REM >>> SET DiskPartScriptLocation="C:\Users\USER\Dropbox\SCRIPT\BlizzMountSkript.txt"

ECHO SELECT VDISK FILE=%VirtualDiskLocation% > %DiskPartScriptLocation%
ECHO ATTACH VDISK >> %DiskPartScriptLocation%

ECHO Mounting %VirtualDiskLocation%...
DiskPart /s %DiskPartScriptLocation%

sleep 20000

start "" "Location of your Battle.net Launcher.exe"
REM >>> start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Battle.net\Battle.net Launcher.exe"

exit

 

Save as .txt file and change the extension to .bat so it will be an executable or save it directly as .bat file

 

the "sleep 20000" is the delay until the client starts - 20000 = 2 seconds ( about 2 seconds work fine for me but your mileage may vary so you might need to adjust it slightly)

 

STEP 3 - Making the Magic work

 

Now just link your Battle.net launcher icon to the .bat file instead the normal launcher.exe and feel the magic. 

 

If you launch it now there will be 2 windows opening for a few seconds for the mounting purpose but they will be automatically closed. After 2s the Launcher will start and everything is ready - dont forget to change the default install location now to the new "internal" .vhd hdd and everything works like it would normally do with a normal hdd inside the pc.

 

 

HAPPY GAMING!

 

Greetings from Austria

-DonFale

 

Edit: Works like a Charm for Origin! Since Origin doesnt support Network Drives this makes the life much easier once its set up. Perfect Timing for the upcoming Blockbuster Battlefield 1!

many thanks for this guide! 

many thanks for this guide! 

 

Im glad someone found this usefull

You mentioned a video for the steam and origin, would you mind linking that as i am curious.

You mentioned a video for the steam and origin, would you mind linking that as i am curious.

 

Sorry for the late answer. The video i mentioned was the official video limetech.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYuELiNKzZA

 

 

 

 

Thanks!

Before I try this, I have few questions.

 

How is the gaming performance?

Are the vhd auto expand?

If you have enough space on local disk, would you still do this? (I have enough space for my steam game, but I can live with my steam game on mapped network drive)

 

Thanks.

 

By the way, Star Wars Battlefront DLCs are unlocked this Christmas.(or so I heard)

I know this thread is old but this has worked like a charm for me. Only question I have now is can you mount the same vdisk on 2 VMs simultaneously?

5 hours ago, FumblingintheDark said:

I know this thread is old but this has worked like a charm for me. Only question I have now is can you mount the same vdisk on 2 VMs simultaneously?

This will not be possible.    If you try it you can find any way to try and force it you will just end up corrupting the vdisk.     You are trying the equivalent to trying to connect the same physical drive to two different physical PCs.

Sorry!

 

For all the late answers. I was absent for pretty much a year in this forum and a lot has happened to my. after a loss in my Family and finding a new workplace/moving i couldnt use my Setup anymore  because of its size/form factor so i did forget about unraid for a while but ill try to answer your questions. 

 

On 24.12.2016 at 12:43 PM, publicENEMY said:

Before I try this, I have few questions.

 

How is the gaming performance?

Are the vhd auto expand?

If you have enough space on local disk, would you still do this? (I have enough space for my steam game, but I can live with my steam game on mapped network drive)

 

Thanks.

 

By the way, Star Wars Battlefront DLCs are unlocked this Christmas.(or so I heard)

 

1. Gaming Perdormance is great, no lag or tearing on my end

2. pretty much at the top of my guide there is mentioned that you can set a fixed filesize wich i use, but you could also make it auto expandable.

3. i pretty much did that because i had no local space on my disks and i couldnt expand since i used all my sata lanes/ports. (And there just wasnt enough space in the case)

 

ill add a pictures of my pc desk solution so you can see why i had to use unraid for external media like games. all the internal drives i had for mass storage are full with files i need for work.

 

 

 

 

On 7.2.2018 at 5:53 PM, FumblingintheDark said:

I know this thread is old but this has worked like a charm for me. Only question I have now is can you mount the same vdisk on 2 VMs simultaneously?

 

 

Sure you can do this BUT only access the files with one drive at a time or it will cause really bad loading times and as mentioned from another user above corrupt your saves.

 

First off, thank you for this.



 



I had a problem with the script file where it wouldn't attach the vdisk so I had to go back to disk management and attach it from there. Everything is working as it should now.

edit: Do I need to fill out the echo select / attach/ mounting parts for the .bat file or just leave as is?

 



Just out of curiosity, is this still the only way to get this to work or are there easier methods available now?

Edited December 31, 20196 yr by cyndor1

I didn't used the scripts as when I reboot the VM I can't reatach the disk, but it was working for a while.
It's ok for playing, but as soon as a game update arrives, it detects that it's on a VHD and stops working :/.

That's unfortunate to hear :/.

 

I haven't had to do a game update yet since I'm only using it for a single game (CoD), but I guess I now have that to look forward to.

Sorry for necro'ing this thread, but if your going to attach a virtual disk, why not let unraid handle it for you instead of doing it through the vm? then no scripts are required?

 

nevermind, this is because that the actual gaming is being done on a normal pc, not a vm

Edited May 27, 20206 yr by MadGuy

its possible to be mounted the vhd in 2 vms at the same time? , its work very well but when i start another vm calls and error the vhd its in use

2 hours ago, angel said:

its possible to be mounted the vhd in 2 vms at the same time? , its work very well but when i start another vm calls and error the vhd its in use

not possible