Re: How to make a bootable compact flash

On 2005-06-19 Martin S said:

   > The OP has USB drive, FreeDOS knows nothing about USB at all.

Yes.  This is the crux of the entire problem.

In order to use -ANY- peripheral device connected to a USB port
from true DOS, you -MUST- install a third-party, DOS-based USB
software driver.

True DOS knows nothing about USB ports, and can't access them
without a driver.

There are several USB software drivers available for DOS.  Try
one or two, until you find one that recognizes the presence of
the USB drive.

Google for 'USB + DOS' (without the quotes).

Once you've installed an appropriate DOS USB driver, it will
then be necessary to partition, format, and sys the USB drive.

Make certain that you do this with the O.S. that you'll be
using on the drive.  Don't try to do it with a Mikro$loth
product.

Frankly, I wouldn't fsck around with FreeDOS at all.  DR-DOS
version 7.xx is free, is much better than FreeDOS, and is a
hell of a lot more stable.

http://www.drdosprojects.de

Have fun!

On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 23:54:09 +0000 (UTC), "DOS Guy" <me@privacy.net>
wrote:

>In order to use -ANY- peripheral device connected to a USB port
>from true DOS, you -MUST- install a third-party, DOS-based USB
>software driver.
>
>True DOS knows nothing about USB ports, and can't access them
>without a driver.

Unless your BIOS supports USB drives, in which case no drivers are
needed.  Most newer machines do include BIOS support for USB
mass-storage devices, and can even boot from them.

-- 
Charles Dye     raster@highfiber.com