I have built a bootable ghost CD with multinetwork for various desktops and a couple laptops in my firm. All of the desktops and laptop use IDE CD ROMs except for one laptop which uses a USB CD ROM. I have the proper driver for the usb cd rom and can boot with it. The only thing is the IDE multinetwork CD and USB multinetwork CD are seperate boot disks. Is there a way where I can create a condition in config.sys/autoexec.bat so that when I boot to the desktops/IDE laptop it can ignore the usb laptop and vise versa? Right now when I load the CD and boot to the usb CD for the laptop, it boots, but when I boot to any of the desktops, it either locks up when loading the IDE CD ROM along with the USB CD ROM driver it somehow can't find the IDE CDROM. I would love to be able to use a command and setup in my autoexec and config.sys so that both drivers exist on one bootdisk, but only I can command it to load only one driver based on a condition I can set in these 2 files. Please let me know if anyone out there has any ingenious ideas to help me with this. I would love to make this work. Thanks.

You can set up a multi-config Config,sys file prompting the user to choose the correct boot, but that requires you *exactly* report what version of DOS you used to build the CD (e.g. MS-DOS 6.22 or FreeDOS or any other DOS clone).

What is a multi config Config.sys? I am using MS DOS 6.22 as the boot version. I just wanted to repeat that these configs work on seperate CDs. One for IDE and one for USB cd rom. Here is what my config.sys and autoexec.bat currently look like: IDE Config.sys with Multnetwork boot: [menu] menuitem=E1000, Intel 1000 - GX280 menuitem=E1000PL, Intel 1000 PL- Thinkpad T60 menuitem=E100, Intel Pro 100 - Thinkpad T30 Series menuitem=B57, Broadcom NetExtreme - GX281, GX620, and HP DC5700 [COMMON] DEVICE=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001 LASTDRIVE = Z [B57] DEVICE=\B57\protman.dos /I:\B57 DEVICE=\B57\dis_pkt.dos DEVICE=\B57\B57.dos [E1000] DEVICE=\E1000\PROTMAN.DOS /I:\E1000 DEVICE=\E1000\DIS_PKT.DOS DEVICE=\E1000\e1000.dos [E1000PL] DEVICE=\E1000PL\PROTMAN.DOS /I:\E1000PL DEVICE=\E1000PL\DIS_PKT.DOS DEVICE=\E1000PL\e1000.dos [E100] DEVICE=\E100\PROTMAN.DOS /I:\E100 DEVICE=\E100\DIS_PKT.DOS DEVICE=\E100\e100b.dos USB CD ROM Multinetwork boot config.sys: [menu] menuitem=E1000, Intel 1000 - GX280 menuitem=E1000PL, Intel 1000 PL- Thinkpad T60 and Thinkpad X60 menuitem=E100, Intel Pro 100 - Thinkpad T30 Series menuitem=B57, Broadcom NetExtreme - GX281, GX620, and HP DC5700 [COMMON] DEVICE=usb_cd.sys /D:TEAC-CDI LASTDRIVE = Z [B57] DEVICE=\B57\protman.dos /I:\B57 DEVICE=\B57\dis_pkt.dos DEVICE=\B57\B57.dos [E1000] DEVICE=\E1000\PROTMAN.DOS /I:\E1000 DEVICE=\E1000\DIS_PKT.DOS DEVICE=\E1000\e1000.dos [E1000PL] DEVICE=\E1000PL\PROTMAN.DOS /I:\E1000PL DEVICE=\E1000PL\DIS_PKT.DOS DEVICE=\E1000PL\e1000.dos [E100] DEVICE=\E100\PROTMAN.DOS /I:\E100 DEVICE=\E100\DIS_PKT.DOS DEVICE=\E100\e100b.dos Here is the ide autoexec.bat: @echo off SET TZ=GHO+05:00 mscdex /L:D /d:mscd001 \net\netbind.com MOUSE.COM echo Loading Ghost... D: cd \ghost GHOST.EXE -nousb Here is the USB autoexec.bat: @echo off SET TZ=GHO+05:00 MSCDEX.EXE /L:D /D:TEAC-CDI \net\netbind.com MOUSE.COM echo Loading Ghost... D: cd \ghost GHOST.EXE -nousb Please let me know what I must adjust in the config.sys file and autoexec.bat file to make my Multinetwork Bootable CD work with both the IDE and USB driver on the same cd with a multi config.sys. Thanks.

Sorry, I understood you want to merge the two config.sys/autoexec.bat into one bootable CD. Your posted config.sys are just multi-config files,i.e. made up by machine specific sections. More, as far as I can see they seem to be correct. So are you sure the IDE boot sequence is affected by any CD driver conflict? I doesn't know Ghost syntax, but I see the same switch -nousb on both autoexec.bat, is that right? Sorry again to waste your time.

No worries, man. I tried with and without -nousb switch. It doesn't make a different with or without the switch. I get the same result when combining both cd rom drivers in the [Common] section of the config.sys area. It will see or try to see the usb driver. If it is not there, the ide fails. If the usb cd rom is there the usb driver is loaded, and it just gives me a message that the ide cd rom cannot be found, naturally and it continues fine. As you can see I have multiple menu items, which is the first thing you see when you boot to the CD ROM. You choose an item and it loads those network drivers which I never had a problem with and along the way it loads what CD ROM driver is being commanded to load (IDE Bootable CD) or (USB Bootable CD). When both are CD drivers are combined on the same CD, we have trouble if I want to boot to my desktops or laptop that has IDE CD ROMs. What happens in autoexec is I am commanding the bootable CD to change to D drive and then automatically launch Ghost. Cool trick, just gets complicated when you have 2 different CD ROM drivers that you want to combine on the same CD. I take it I need some condition set or command that will tell config.sys and\or autoexec.bat to ignore one driver to load and load the other depending on some condition. I just don't know the commands or how to go about implementing that into the configuration DOS files. Do you have any idea how I can do that?

I have to disclaim I do not understand fully what you are trying to say, in so detailed way; so as I can't figure out if you want to merge the files or just have the same drivers on both CDs, I show you the one thing you seem to ignore. You can test in autoexec.bat what config you choosed in Config.sys as that sets up a variable named %config%. So if you selected from boot menu e.g. B57 then in autoexec.bat you can code if "%config%"=="B57" GoTo (or load your driver) You have to reconfigure your config.sys, but I hope this can help to solve your trouble that, I repeat, is not clear to me.

What I am looking for is to have both CD ROM drivers exist on the same Bootable CD, but only use USB CD driver and ignore the IDE CD ROM driver when I choose Thinkpad T60 and X60 series. When I choose a desktop or some other menuitem that uses IDE CD ROM, ignore the loading the USB CD ROM driver. Sorry for the confusion and large description. The last response I was explaining the behavior of what was going on when both CD drivers are loading from Config.sys. OK. I will try if %config%=="xxxx" Goto (driver) Should I also use, if not "%config%"=="xxxx" Goto (driver) as well to distinguish which CD ROM driver to load and which to ignore? Or is DOS not that smart to understand that? Or should the command language be used differently in autoexec.bat if I want to specify that? Or should I just keep to if "%config%"?