I bought a external caddy and placed my own Hard Drive into the unit. I used a Seagate 40GB. I then used Partion Magic to create muti partions and then loaded my own partions into the apporiate spots using Nortion Ghost. This was the easy part. I am looking to be able to use the external drive to image with I know how to do this, but need to be able to boot into, the windows operating systems so that I can readjust when needed. I have tryed many driver types, but nothing really seems to work. I used WinXP to create MS-DOS bootable and then I put my files in and edit my Config.sys and it seem to be a nice handy coaster thats about it (I used the usb sys files from Norton Ghost 2003).
So If I could get assistance in what method would be the best on how to create this disk. If I could get a detailed step-by-step instruction it would be wounderful.
Basicly I already know how to make a bootable floppy I just need to know what ASPI sys files to use and how to type out the config.sys as well as the autoexec.bat, I would appreciate the help. Thank YOU!

I believe you are in the wrong forum, this is the STANDALONE DOS FORUM, WinXP has never had any standalone version of DOS incorporated, try the Forum applicable to your O/S.

Alternatively True Image from www.acronis.com will offer better USB support than Symantec Products.

Hi Paul,

These are the ones I use for an IDE HD in an external case attached to a USB port:

USBASPI1.SYS /v
DI1000DD.SYS

M2

http://www.computing.net/drivers/wwwboard/forum/4736.html

"but need to be able to boot into, the windows operating systems so that I can readjust when needed."

Does this imply that you want to "boot" from the external drive? That would be a function of the BIOS ... booting from USB. If your BIOS does not offer this, you can't do it.

Best

Wait, i take that back. You can boot into non-NT class OS with a floppy, my stupid Compaq computer is set up to boot from floppy which transfers to WFW on hard drive. Certainly NOT to XP, it won't talk to DOS at all. So if you make a DOS/98 partition, then into that.

I suggest a boot disk that loads the HD's drivers. If you have a USB storage thing on your keys/pen you can just use that; here's how.

This is from another post I made so just read what you need:

Most USB boot problems come from two things:

1) Files were for Floppy/CD and contain bad drive letters. Example config.sys has DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.EXE. To fix, delete A: and leave DEVICE=\HIMEM.EXE.

2) Bad boot sector. The USB must have a boot sector, so copying files to it is not enough and regular format/image tools simply do it incorrectly and give it jacked up boot sectors. The HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is the only thing I've come across that works on every USB every time (not just HP stuff, everything, even my canon camera). http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html

The best thing to do is to put the files you want into a folder (extract them from the floppy image if it's an image and not onto the USB as you are about to format it). Run the HP USB thing and make sure you check the make it a boot disk box and point it to your files. When its done copy the files to the USB drive (the HP tool will have copied a few for you, don't overwrite them) and you have a bonafide bootable USB with correct boot sectors and no drive letters in your config/autoexec because you remembered to remove them, didn't you? Yes you did; good boy (or girl).

How cool will you look when you use your iDuck to boot up your friend's laptop? Not cool at all. You'll look like a huge dork with a glowing duck, but you can use that duck to steal his passwords so screw him for judging you!

Disclaimer: I do not now nor have I ever owned an iDuck. Any use of bootable devices be they USB, floppy or otherwise to steal passwords is bad unless it is your computer and forgot or your ex changed your password on you or something similar to that.

-Isaac
Master of the bootable USB crap

My fist post was horribly unclear as to answering your question, sorry. What I was trying to put forward is the option of creating a USB boot disk to load your drivers (I would try the win98 usb drivers as they aren't very integrated) but I now see that you are trying to boot from the hard drive?

If your problem is the drive isn't booting properly the HP thing will work on it but that would be stupid as it formats the drive. If your problem is BIOS won't boot from it, some machines make you turn off all boot options and turn on only the USB or external device or whatever your BIOS says to force the USB drive to boot. Others, you just pick boot from USB. Still others can't boot from USB.

-Isaac
Master of the bootable USB crap