I was setting up Daggerfall yesterday, and absent-mindedly used the auto-detect function to configure music and sound. Only after I had already done this, did I notice the warning:

"If this machine contains a SCSI hard disk it is unadvisablle to proceed with the auto detection process as data loss can occur"

As far as I know, I am using a SATA hard drive. However, I was running Daggerfall on Dosbox 0.72 in a Windows Vista x64 system, and I had my entire C:\ drive mounted at the time (I know this is not recommended).

Has any data loss occurred from my use of auto-detect? I checked my files and they seem ok, but can't really be sure. I'd be grateful for any input--thanks.

No, and hasn't been since the DOS days.

As Sur Warlock says, you won't have suffered any data loss because Dosbox is only emulating an old DOS computor, if you were running on a real DOS computor with a SCSI drive it would be a different matter.
Never mount all your C drive with Dosbox, it even tells you in the Readme that it could cause problems, always mount a sub directory like c:\dosgames as your Dosbox C drive

I don't think it breaks your drive. I use SCSIs (they're the best) and have tried that auto-detect a few times. Of course, that feature isn't really needed as the IRQ, DMA, etc. initially provided in the field is what everybody uses. Still, the only thing it could break would be an emulated SCSI drive existing within the directory you have mounted, and if you have such a thing, you may as well just buy an old computer with Windows 95 on it for all your Daggerfall needs.

Hmm... I see. I'm moving all my DOS applications to a new directory now, so I won't mount C: anymore. Also, I don't know if this matters, but I was running DOSBOX as an administrator.

As Sur Warlock says, you won't have suffered any data loss because Dosbox is only emulating an old DOS computor, if you were running on a real DOS computor with a SCSI drive it would be a different matter.

I would be very careful about stating this so flatly. We don't know how it's emulating, and it could be doing all kinds of crazy stuff. It seems unlikely, I'd agree, but I'd be on the safe side, as the consequences are dire.

I agree, we don't know how it does the emulating and its best to be cautious, but since Dosbox cannot access any hardware directly, you would have to be very unlucky to suffer any data loss. On the other hand, one of the easiest ways to lose all your data is by mounting your whole C: drive because you are giving Dosbox access to the full drive, and if the game/program you are running has a virus it will take the lot with it.