USB 64MB "pen" type drive

[Rudders]

I will be taking delivery of one of these things soon, and as my PCs won't boot from a USB device, I wondered what I would have to load in a Floppy boot disk, to pass control to such a USB flash device.

Are there any USB drivers for DOS, and how would I get it to work and effectively boot into the USB drive from an initial floppy boot?

Your input woulf be appreciated...as always!

Thanx

Rudders

[Platypus]

Worth a look for DOS USB support:

http://darkehorse.web.com.

Without BIOS support for USB bootable memory key, I don't know whether to think it could be successful. I haven't searched lately for a successful DOS driver for a memory key.

I guess with COMMAND.COM on the key, COMSPEC could be tried, but I'm not certain whether the USB driver would be loaded and functional before the command processor. I must investigate.

[Rudders]

Thanx Platypus, I found the site...just waiting for the drive to try out the drivers I got from there!

Rudders

[fishy]

Jeez - What a protracted membership routine just to pass on
a simple piece of info...

Hi matey... The site you need for info on DOS USB for CDROM,
Compact Flash, H-Disks, PEN DRIVES, etc, is:

http://darkehorse.web.com/

Read the forums, download either the Iomega or 'Motto Hairu' device drivers, and you'll soon be in business.

The place was so helpful I stayed around and made friends.

[Platypus]

Originally posted by fishy
a simple piece of info...

The site you need for info on DOS USB for CDROM,
Compact Flash, H-Disks, PEN DRIVES, etc, is:

http://darkehorse.web.com/

You could also try http://darkehorse.web.com.

[Rudders]

Thanks for all you info...that site is a good one for this sort of stuff.
Anyway, I got it to work!
I cannot boot from my usb drive since the BIOS doesn't support it on my Presario 1690 laptop...and as per usual, Compaq will not write a BIOS update for it any more...not that they ever did an upgrade anyway!

I boot from DOS Floppy, with the dirvers loaded from Config.sys, then I load in the CD drivers too, then add the "other" startup utils such as DOS CPU cooling software and (as I have a K6-3+ with powernow), software driver to set the desired speed of the Processor on boot up. And it all works seamlessly.

Anyone know how to boot from a DOS boot floppy then pass control to the USB drive and boot Linux from the Pen drive?

Sounds complicated, but anyone ever done that?

Rudders

[ShadowWynd]

I don't think that is easily doable.

If you have DOS loaded, it becomes the OS. It is possible to load another OS, but only if based on that same kernel. For example, you can use DOS to load Win3.1, or Win9x, but not WinNT/2k/xp (win3.1 and Win9x are based on DOS, WinNT/2k/XP are not).

The same is true with Linux. I have never been able to load Linux from DOS. Many Linux distros I have have a dos program to make a Linux boot floppy, from which you can set up the system, but as far as I know you can not load the Linux kernel on top of DOS.

If you are set on doing it this way, you will need to get a linux driver for the pen drive and get that on a linux boot disk.

[imagoon]

Use LOADLIN.EXE to load linux from dos. Linux will purge dos from memory but you may have issues with the USB when linux init's the usb bus and the / disappears.


~Chris

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by ShadowWynd
....If you have DOS loaded, it becomes the OS. It is possible to load another OS, but only if based on that same kernel. For example, you can use DOS to load Win3.1, or Win9x, but not WinNT/2k/xp (win3.1 and Win9x are based on DOS, WinNT/2k/XP are not).

Mmmm sorry..... but win 3.1 or any old 9x is just a 'shell' on top of MS DOS, they are not 'real' operating systems, whatever Uncle Bill told you....!

You want to have a play with VMWare if you think you can't run an other o/s from within another .... I was surprised first time I played with that ....

Anyways there's loads of linux distro's that are capable of booting from a floppy so I'll agree with your advice if not your logic!

You need to go find a linux forum now Rudders !! You don't want dos for this if you must boot from floppy....