The USBASPI.SYS Panasonic(TM) USB to ASPI driver v2.06 Reference

Rev 3.0
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For a brief history on how I got to research on this very useful driver, check out

http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/13447.html

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Description: USBASPI.SYS

File size : 37,903 bytes
File date : 27 Nov 2002

Supports UHCI/OHCI (USB 1.x) and EHCI (USB 2.0) and is compatible with many USB implementations from major chipset manufacturers like INTEL, VIA, NVIDIA, SiS, NEC and TI for most integrated, onboard, PCI bus or CardBus USB 2.0 host controllers.

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Download Sources:

The USBASPI.SYS driver is primarily supplied with portable USB 2.0 drives from Panasonic and available in the Japanese market. Here is a Japanese link for the manufacturer's self-extracting drivers:

http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/f2h_usb.html

Follow the link to download F2H_USB.EXE - these are Japanese files for a startup disk creation tool for their various USB optical drives on popular Japanese portables. USBASPI.SYS is extracted from the F2H subdirectory, and is tested compatible with English version DOS.

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Uses:

When used in conjunction with an ASPI Mass Storage Driver, it allows USB storage devices to be accessible in DOS. This is particularly useful in drive cloning, partition resizing and image backup utlities that need to run in DOS mode (e.g. emergency disks for GHOST 2003, Partition Magic, etc...) Examples of USB storage devices are:
1. external hard disks
2. removable storage like Zip, Jaz, LS-120, and floppy drives
3. flash memory like pen drives, or memory cards in USB card readers

Furthermore, with a USB CD-ROM Driver, it allows USB optical drives (like DVD-ROM, CD-ROM drives, and (re)writers) to be used in DOS after MSCDEX extensions are loaded. This makes it possible to install burned images or Operating Systems onto newly formatted systems or replacement hard drives.

Advantages over other drivers for USB storage in DOS:
1. Support for USB 2.0 as well as USB 1.x (There are many other files named USBASPI.SYS but most are actually limited to USB 1.1 devices).
2. Compatible with many USB chipset implementations, including Intel, NEC, VIA, NVidia and SIS - onboard, PCI bus, Cardbus.
3. Automatically obtains configuration parameters from Motherboard PnP/ PCI BIOS to minimize difficulties with I/O, Mem and IRQ mapping.

============================================
NOTE: USB support in DOS is considered experimental!
Most hardware manufacturers do NOT provide support for their USB DOS drivers.
============================================

Recommended Usage:

> To detect and map your USB mass storage device to an ASPI device, add this line to your boot diskettes' CONFIG.SYS file

device=USBASPI.SYS /w /v

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USBASPI.SYS Switches:

Here are the known valid switches identified so far with the Panasonic(TM) v2.06 USBASPI.SYS driver in CONFIG.SYS

device=[{path}]USBASPI.SYS [/e] [/o] [/u] [/v] [/w] [/r] [/l[#]] [/f] [/slow] [/nocbc] [/norst] [/noprt]

You can specify more than one controller type (e.g. /e /u). This switch can also be used to force slower speed operation on high-speed USB controllers & devices.
The driver will scan for all types of USB controllers, so use these switches to specify which port types to enable. This allows for faster USB scanning. By specifying /u or /o and omitting /e, it forces Full-Speed mode on High-Speed devices. But a Low-Speed (LS) or Full-Speed (FS) device cannot be made to run at High-Speed (HS).
/e EHCI, for enabling only USB 2.0 controller
/o OHCI, for enabling only add-on/onboard USB 1.1 controller
/u UHCI, for enabling integrated USB 1.1 controller

In verbose mode. USBASPI displays details on controller type and USB devices it detects. It displays the vendor & product ID codes, the controller address range (memory map or I/O port map) of controllers, and the connection speed code for each device.
/v Verbose, shows USB details - excellent troubleshooting tool

These switches modify driver actions
/w Wait, displays prompt message to allow swapping/attaching of target USB device
/l# Luns, to specify highest number of LUN assigned, default /L0
/slow to enter SLOW down mode, gives longer delays when scanning USB devices
/nocbc for NO Card Bus Controller, to disable detection of USB on CardBus slots
/norst for NO ReSeT, this is useful when legacy USB devices (e.g. a USB keyboard or mouse) had been pre-initialized by the BIOS so by preventing a USB reset, these devices would still function after USBASPI.SYS has loaded.

This switch is typically used on portable systems with an external USB floppy drive connected to the single USB port for boot-up. Used in conjunction with RAMFD.SYS so after the boot floppy is copied to a RAM drive, (and after the /W pause...) the USB floppy can be removed, and the target mass storage device can be attached and detected
/r Resident, allows driver to stay resident in memory when USB floppy drive is detected.

There are a number of switches whose specific function is still unknown. Please post your discoveries in the USBMAN end-user forum, or the Computing.Net DOS forum.
/noprt - Have found that on some systems with USB on Intel chipset (1.1 or 2.0), if UHCI is normally I/O mapped, using this switch causes USBASPI.SYS to "hang" while detecting host controllers. Could it be to force I/O port addressing mode?
/f
/p=xxxx - As per F2H documentation, this sets the I/O port address, but have been unable to get this to work on standard desktops. Could it be for CardBus?

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Other Useful Files:

The USBASPI.SYS driver is also available from these links:

http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/cdrrw/kxlrw40an/driver/kxlrw40an.exe
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/cdrom/kxl840an/driver/kxl840an.exe
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/combi/kxlcb30an/driver/kxlcb30an.exe
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe

These are Windows self-extracting file format for Panasonic driver files for different OEM drives. Besides USBASPI.SYS in the F2H subdirectory, some other useful drivers are:

USBCD.SYS v1.00 from Panasonic, USB CD-ROM device driver
RAMFD.SYS v1.01 from Panasonic, copies boot floppy disk contents into a RAM disk, write protects and remaps the RAM disk drive letter.

Since USBASPI.SYS just maps a USB storage device to an ASPI device, an additional driver is needed to map the ASPI mass storage to a DOS drive letter. For magnetic or flash storage, the "Motto Hairu" driver includes this important piece, and can be downloaded from:

http://www.driver.novac.co.jp/driver/Mhairu_351u_drv/mhairudos.zip
http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/mhairu.zip

UnZip the file to get these files (the latter has an english translation readme file)

DI1000DD.SYS v2.00 from Novac, ASPI Mass Storage Device Driver {reportedly drive needs to be ATA66 or faster)

In case you have compatibility problems, there are some similiar drivers here

http://www.datoptic.com/Drivers/DAT.exe

This image file creates a bootable diskette that supports USB and firewire in DOS. Of relevance are these drivers:
USBASPI.SYS v2.01 from Medialogic Corp, is very similiar but less-featured version than Panasonic's USBASPI.SYS.
NJ32DISK.SYS v1.06 from Workbit Corp. is very similar to Novac's DI1000DD.SYS.
SBP2ASPI.SYS v1.02 from Medialogic Corp provides ASPI mapping of Firewire storage devices.

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Examples:

If you want to enable only the high-speed USB controller and the mass storage drive, try

device=USBASPI.SYS /e
device=DI1000DD.SYS

If you have only a single USB port and need to boot from a USB floppy first and then switch to the USB hard drive, use this CONFIG.SYS combination:

device=RAMFD.SYS
device=USBASPI.SYS /w /r
device=DI1000DD.SYS

With a CD-ROM drive, install the ASPI CD-ROM device driver after loading USBASPI.SYS in CONFIG.SYS like this:

device=USBASPI.SYS /v
device=USBCD.SYS /d:USBCD001

and in AUTOEXEC.BAT:

MSCDEX /d:USBCD001

If you want to connect a USB 2.0 optical drive and an external USB2.0 hard disk simultaneously, put these in the CONFIG.SYS file:

device=USBASPI.SYS /e
device=USBCD.SYS /d:USBCD001
device=DI1000DD.SYS

and in AUTOEXEC.BAT:

MSCDEX /d:USBCD001

> For troubleshooting USB connections, install all your devices and boot from your diskette with this in CONFIG.SYS:

device=USBASPI.SYS /w /v

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Thank you to members of the DarkeHorse, Computing.NET and USBMAN forums for sharing their knowledge and experiences.

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Important Notes:

There are other USB 2.0 DOS drivers released on the web, but were found to have a number of limitations in terms of compatibility and configuration:

1. DATOptic's Speedzter supports USB 2.0 & Firewire - their DOS driver seems to be the next best driver in terms of compatibility and functionality.
2. Cypress(TM) DUSE (ver 4.4) supports USB 2.0 and offers many options but seems to have issues for I/O port address or Memory address settings - particularly a limit on the address space range.
3. Iomega(TM) USB & Firewire drivers also support USB2.0 (via ASPIEHCI.SYS) and is also used in Norton/Symantec GHOST but has limited compatibility.

Your boot OS determines what kind of partitions will be supported in your USB device. For FAT32 support, use the DOS boot disk for Windows 98 (MS-DOS 7.10) or the Windows ME Emergency Boot Disk (MS-DOS 8.00). You can add support for long file names using special drivers. Check out these site for relevant links - http://www.opus.co.tt/dave/utils.htm

On the still unknown switches:

/f - does NOT seem to be speed related (as in full-speed or fast device detection). Suspect it could be for "floppy" or "flash memory" devices ...

Troubleshooting USB connections
To isolate USB hardware issue, install all your devices and boot from your diskette with this in CONFIG.SYS:

device=USBASPI.SYS /v

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Troubleshooting Info:

With the /v option, USBASPI.SYS provides a lot of useful info regarding the USB devices connected to a PC.

Use this info to determine if a problem is in the hardware level, or a Windows driver/configuration issue.

Example result:

Controller : 00-09-0 VID=1033h PID=0035h (3782h-0035h) OHCI
: MEM=DF000000h-DF000FFFh(4KBytes)
Controller : 00-09-1 VID=1033h PID=0035h (3782h-0035h) OHCI
: MEM=DE800000h-DE800FFFh(4KBytes)
Controller : 00-09-2 VID=1033h PID=00E0h (3782h-01E0h) EHCI
: MEM=DE000000h-DE0000FFh(256Bytes)
USB Device : HOST [00-09-2 VID=1033h PID=00E0h (3782h-01E0h) EHCI]
: |-- VID=05ABh PID=0060h HS
: |-- VID=05E3h PID=0702h HS
: ^-- 2 device(s)
USB Device : HOST [00-09-0 VID=1033h PID=0035h (3782h-0035h) OHCI]
: ^-- nothing
USB Device : HOST [00-09-1 VID=1033h PID=0035h (3782h-0035h) OHCI]
: |-- VID=066Fh PID=4200h FS
: ^-- nothing
ASPI Device : ID:0 LUN:0 = IC25N010 ATDA04-0 0811
: ID:1 LUN:0 = E-IDE CD-ROM 48X/AKU T3A

Interpretation:
1. There are 2 OHCI and 1 EHCI controllers detected. All are running in MEMory map mode (not I/O mapped) with the respective address spaces displayed.
2. Two devices are mapped to the EHCI controller. The HS indicates they are running at High Speed. VID=05ABh PID=0060h is an In-System Design (now part of Cirrus Logic) USB 2.0 ATA Bridge, while VID=05E3h PID=0702h is a Genesys Logic USB 2.0 ATA Bridge.
3. One device is mapped to the 2nd OHCI controller. The FS indicates runs at Full Speed only. ^-- nothing indicates no USB storage devices were found. VID=066Fh PID=4200h is a SigmaTel IrDA Bridge. As it is NOT a storage device, it isn't mapped to an ASPI device.

4. Two of the devices connected are detected as storage devices. Each is mapped to an ASPI ID, and it's identifier is displayed.
5. This config has an IBM 10GB notebook HD & a 48x EIDE CD-ROM drive.

Notes:
1. The actual USB devices can be identified by referring to the 2-byte Vendor IDs and Product IDs.
2. Most of the configuration is automatically obtained from BIOS PnP info. Unfortunately, USBASPI.SYS does not identify IRQ's used.

I am trying to access a usb cdrom from a boot floppy. I have tried all of the instructions above and the driver installs and it does find the CDROM however, I am unable to access it even when I specify a drive letter to assign to it. Any Suggestions?

Please check on these:

You need CONFIG.SYS to have these two lines at the bottom :
device=USBASPI.SYS /v
device=USBCD.SYS /d:USBCD001

and AUTOEXEC.BAT should have this line:

MSCDEX /d:USBCD001

HTH

Incidentally, I have tested USB boot functionality on a recent system boards using the AMIBIOS 7.0 core (http://www.ami.com/support/doc/amibiosdesktop.pdf). I believe the feature is also applicable to PhoenixBIOS 4.0 (http://www.phoenix.com/en/products/phoenix+cme+firstbios/system+firmware/products/phoenixbios.htm)

The BIOS may offer one or more of the following options in its setup interface that affect USB:
• Enable/disable USB host controller
• Enable/disable legacy USB support
• Assign IRQ to USB host controller
• Monitor IRQ for APM events

This text is taken from (https://www.codidirect.com/shop/thefactsbehindbootability.htm)

" Modern BIOSes add support for USB in one form or another. The most basic support available is known as USB Legacy Device Support. This extension to the PC BIOS supports the use of a USB keyboard and mouse during the boot process. It simply means your keyboard and mouse will work as soon as the PC is turned on.

Many modern BIOS also support, in a limited fashion, the ability to boot from a USB device. Support for this feature does not automatically mean you can boot from any USB device. It means you can boot from some USB devices. Currently, for most BIOS, this means a USB floppy drive. However, some BIOS that claim to support booting from a USB hard disk contain bugs that prevent them from doing so properly, and may require patches or upgrades.

Some BIOS also support booting from a USB zip drive or CDROM but again this is an exception, not the rule.

Support in the BIOS for booting from a USB device is accomplished through "IDE Emulation". IDE Emulation lets the BIOS scan the computer's USB ports looking for actual IDE devices or devices that look like (emulate) an IDE device. So, if a BIOS supports booting from a USB floppy drive, it will look for a real USB floppy drive or another device that can emulate the behavior of a USB floppy drive. "

Note that for an OS/driver/application to take over a USB controller, it has to follow a specific protocol, as failure to do so could result in hanging.

From my tests:
1. Generally, USBASPI.SYS is incompatible with systems where Legacy USB support is enabled if the Legacy mode enables IDE/floppy emulation.
2. When USB legacy is enabled and the USB storage is set as bootable, it becomes the 1st hard drive (C:). and the internal ATAPI drive becomes the 2nd hard drive (D:)
3. When USB legacy is enabled but not the boot device, USB storage is still mapped as a typical ATAPI drive in DOS mode.

I have both of the config.sys lines at the bottom and the same autoexec.bat line as you stated. It boots up and this is what is shows me:
------------
ASPI for UHCI/OHCI USB Mass-storage Version 1.07
Controller: UCHI VID8086_PID7112
BASE I/O : FCE0h
BASE Memory : 00000h
VID04B4_PID6830 FS
ID:0 LUN:0 = SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-816B H000

USB CD_ROM Device Driver Version 1.00
#0 : Samsung DVD-ROM SD-816B

CD-ROM Device Driver is Installed
------------
However, I still can't seem to get to the drive and I've tried the alphabet. It is a laptop that I'm working with and it does not have a USB Legacy option in the system bios.

Incidentally, you are using a different version of USBASPI.SYS (v1.07) from what I discuss above(2.06) so many of the options do not apply.

Get USBASPI.SYS v2.06 from the F2H subdirectory of this zip file:
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/f2h_usb.html

Now you've got CONFIG.SYS working - but what about AUTOEXEC.BAT - what does MSCDEX report as the drive assigned?

Finally, I GOT IT!!! It was the mscdex driver I was using. MSCDEX wasn't reporting anything as being assigned. I did however download the latest USBASPI.sys driver as well. The new driver was also reporting that the device driver was loaded.

I was using the Win95 version of MSCDEX and I think that was my problem. After config.sys ran and displayed the drive and that the driver was loaded, the autoexec.bat file only displayed MSCDEX /d:USBCD001 /L:f (/L is the switch to assign a drive letter to it) It never confirmed that a drive letter was assigned. When I replaced the mscdex driver to the Win98 version of mscdex it did confirm the drive was assigned to F. Thanks so much for your help! I hope this helps anyone else that runs into the same problem.

I'd like to use Ghost 2003 on my laptop ( http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/pd_spec.asp?product_id=156 ) that has SiS 645DX + SiS962 chipset.

aspiehci.sys that comes with Ghost 2003 can recognize the HD but thrn guest.exe can mount it. And at start up Ghost crashes.
I tried to substitute guest.exe with DI1000DD.SYS but it can't find anything, too. And at start up Ghost crashes.

I tried Usbaspi.sys but it can found any EHCI devices and it chash detecting OHCI devices.

What could I try ?

Bye,
Cris

What is your storage device?
Can you capture what USBASPI.SYS reports with the /V option?
What error does GHOST report? Does GHOST start when you don't have USBASPI? or APIEHCI loaded?

> I tried Usbaspi.sys but it can found any EHCI devices and it chash detecting OHCI devices.

OHCI is for USB 1.x while EHCI is for USB 2.0 - what is your device?

Hi cris,

I have the same problem. My recent Notebook don't recognize this drivers : "ASPIEHCI.SYS", "USBASPI.SYS" and "DI1000DD.SYS" for external disk usb 2.0. It is recognized directly by Phoenix Bios 4.0 Release 6.0. The only problem, that it's very very slow on Dos (Win 98) and very quick on "Windows XP". I have between 10 Mo/Mn trough 20 Mo/mn with "Ghost 2003" for Image Backup on Dos (Win 98) and 1 Minute for copy 1 Go with Windows Xp. On my Desktop with a PCI Card and the same External Disk Usb 2, I have 500 Mo/Mn for Image Backup with "Ghost 2003" on Dos (Win 98). My Notebook is a Medion MD 2625 with 3 Usb 2.0 Port and Chipset Usb 2.0 Sis 7001.
What is your opinion and Excuse-me for my Bad English.

Thank you for a response.

Does anyone successfully got USB 2.0 speed using DOS drivers?
I did not (m/b iE7205).

Hi MadmaxUSB,

--What is your storage device?

I have a general storage that use the chip GL811USB (just a IDE TO USB 2, I found here the datasheet: www.genesyslogic.com/pdf/GL811_r13.pdf ). The HD is a Fujitsu MPD3064AT (I use this for experiment but I'd like to connect my Maxtor 160GB.

--Can you capture what USBASPI.SYS reports with the /V option?

The only way to capture the output of USBASPI.SYS /v is a photo by my digital camera. I'll do soon.
Anyway it can't find any EHCI devices and detect 3 OHCI. During the scanning of these 3, it chash detecting the device attached on 2nd OHCI device.
Anyway as you can see here: http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/pd_spec.asp?product_id=156 my laptob has usb2.0 port.
It has a SiS962 south bridge and as you can see here [ http://www.sis.com/products/chipsets/southbridge/96x.htm ] it has one EHCI USB 2.0 Controller and 3 OHCI USB 1.1 Controllers. I suppose that all 4 USB ports are connected to EHCI.

--What error does GHOST 2003 report?
No errors. When Iomega .sys is installed it correctly detect FUJiTSU HD with ID =1. But then the guest.exe can't find ant ID. Then Ghost 2003 start and it stopped before the menu with hourglass. It's lock.

--Does GHOST start when you don't have USBASPI? or APIEHCI loaded?
With USB 2.0 drivers Ghost doesn't start.
With Iomega see above.
With USBASPI.sys it can start because Panasonic USBASPI.sys block all during the scanning of 2nd OHCI.

--OHCI is for USB 1.x while EHCI is for USB 2.0 - what is your device?
Yes, I knew. Sis962 support EHCI (See above) and GL811USB on external storage support EHCI (and I can use it at his full speed on WinXP).

Thank you for your support,
Cris

ee/cris

> My recent Notebook don't recognize this drivers : "ASPIEHCI.SYS", "USBASPI.SYS" and "DI1000DD.SYS" for external disk usb 2.0. It is recognized directly by Phoenix Bios 4.0 Release 6.0. The only problem, that it's very very slow on Dos (Win 98) and very quick on "Windows XP". I have between 10 Mo/Mn trough 20 Mo/mn with "Ghost 2003" for Image Backup on Dos (Win 98) and 1 Minute for copy 1 Go with Windows Xp. On my Desktop with a PCI Card and the same External Disk Usb 2, I have 500 Mo/Mn for Image Backup with "Ghost 2003" on Dos (Win 98). My Notebook is a Medion MD 2625 with 3 Usb 2.0 Port and Chipset Usb 2.0 Sis 7001.

In your PhoneixBIOS, you have a USB Legacy Support option which, when enabled, allows your system to recognize the USB hard disk as an internal IDE drive. However, it seems that it cannot deliver USB2.0 speeds at this mode. If you really want to try USBASPI.SYS or ASPIEHCI.SYS, you need to disable the Legacy Support mode as the two conflict.

Geppo:

> :Does anyone successfully got USB 2.0 speed using DOS drivers? I did not (m/b iE7205).

There are practical limits to the speeds one can obtain from USB mass storage devices. While USB claims 480Mbps (which is supposedly close to 50MB per second) actual transfer rates are much slower depending on:

1. interface to system - is it from main motherboard chipset, PCI bus or Cardbus?
2. cards installed - are there a number of other cards sharing the bus (like PCI or Cardbus video cards, sound cards, I/O cards)
3. actual USB chipset and USB-IDE bridge chips
4. cable length and quality
5. actual mass storage device used
6. what benchmarks are you using?

In practical terms, I can observe transfer rates of 250-350 MB per min when Ghost2003 does a Check - Disk from an NEC USB2.0 PCI card and an Intel 875P onboard USB.

Cris

> general storage that use the chip GL811USB
> The HD is a Fujitsu MPD3064AT

Both these devices should be able to work on EHCI to get USB2.0 speeds - so the fact that EHCI is not detected is the big problem since your system

> SiS962 south bridge has one EHCI USB 2.0 Controller and 3 OHCI USB 1.1 Controllers

does support USB 2.0

> The only way to capture the output of USBASPI.SYS /v is a photo by my digital camera. I'll do soon.

If you can pause the screen and take the time to copy what it detects. If you want to focus on EHCI only, use this line

device=USBASPI.SYS /W /V /E

to force only EHCI detection.

> Anyway it can't find any EHCI devices and detect 3 OHCI. During the scanning of these 3, it crash detecting the device attached on 2nd OHCI device.

I am sure you'd prefer EHCI support, so let's forget OHCI for now. Can you go into your BIOS setup and look for an options like "USB Legacy Support" - this needs to be disabled for USBASPI.SYS to work. (Problems may arise if you use a USB keyboard/mouse combination)

P.S. - another way to check if EHCI is working is "working" to see if your notebook Windows detects the Enhanced Host Controller under COntrol-Panel - System - Hardware, and then connect your USB storage.

Hope this helps.

MadmaxUSB,

"In your PhoneixBIOS, you have a USB Legacy Support option which, when enabled, allows your system to recognize the USB hard disk as an internal IDE drive. However, it seems that it cannot deliver USB2.0 speeds at this mode. If you really want to try USBASPI.SYS or ASPIEHCI.SYS, you need to disable the Legacy Support mode as the two conflict.".

I have tested according to your suggestions :
When I disable "Usb Bios Legacy Support" :
1/ my External Floppy on Usb 2 is not recognized
2/ "Usbaspi.sys" of panasonic version 2.06 has an error :
"Error : EHCI memory mapped I/O can not assigned"
"Error : PCI UHCI/OHCI/EHCI USB Host controller not found"
3/ DI1000.sys ASPI DISK Driver Ver 2.00 of Novac is not installed
4/ My external Disk Usb 2.0 is recognized with very slow speed, like indicated in my previous response number 10.

Thank you for another suggestions.

I tried with USB Legacy support enabled and disabled.
The result it's the same, with device=USBASPI.SYS /V I get this:

http://utenti.lycos.it/chicchino77/USB2.JPG

The PC it's locked.

With device=USBASPI.SYS /v /e
I get only the line "ERROR: EHCI memory mapped I/O can not assigned."

In Windows USB2 and 160Gb Maxtor work fine.
Here is the Resource in System - Hardware:

http://utenti.lycos.it/chicchino77/USBWIN.GIF

It' in Italian but the work are quite similar to English.
.
.
.

Have you any other creative idea ?

.
.
.

Maybe is out a different or updated DOS driver?
Iomega driver that come with Ghost 2003 can correctly recognize the HD but GUEST can't mount it... and Ghost lock at startup with hourglass.

Can this help ?

Bye,
Cris

MadmaxUSB,

I know there are pratical limits to the obtainable maximum transfer rate, but maybe my question was too much concise.....
I got good sustained transfer rate (13MB/s) *** using Windows 2000 *** from a 2.5" HDD IBM Travelstar 40GN and a Crown Data Pocket USB 2.0 enclosure (Genesis GL811 chipset), but I got a mere 800KB/s using *** DOS *** drivers USBASPI.SYS 2.06 - DI1000DD.SYS 2.0 or ASPIDISK.SYS 4.01. I tried also DUSE 4.4 and 4.9, but they did not run at all.
I simply measured sustained transfer rate (of the whole disk/interfaces/disk system!) copying a 1.5GB file from my PC HDD to the Data Pocket. I don't need to get exact results..........
My hardware platform:
- Asus P4G8XDeluxe (iE7205)
- 1GB DDR RAM
- 2 x IBM 120GXP series HDD
- Crown Data Pocket USB 2.0 / IBM Travelstar 40GN 2.5"
Connecting Data Pocket directly to the M/B USB 2.0 port or through a USB 2.0 HUB does produce measurable changes.
In pratical terms, I need to get decent speed in DOS environment, maintaning compatibility to USB 1.1 standard.

Thank you for any suggestions.

MadmaxUSB,

There is a typing error in my previous message, please correct as follow:

Connecting Data Pocket directly to the M/B USB 2.0 port or through a USB 2.0 HUB does ***NOT*** produce measurable changes.

Cris / Ee

Am sorry, but (unlike DUSE) the limited options available in USBASPI.SYS make it difficult to override the MEMory address range automatically provided by the PnP BIOS.

My experience with some systems recently have shown that disabling the "USB Legacy Mode" or "USB Legacy Support" does fix the " "ERROR: EHCI memory mapped I/O can not assigned" problem on PhoenixBIOS systems.

Beyond that, my only other suggestion is to look for the device or BIOS conflicts that may be causing the failure.

Cris

You initially stated "aspiehci.sys that comes with Ghost 2003 can recognize the HD but thrn guest.exe can mount it. And at start up Ghost crashes.
I tried to substitute guest.exe with DI1000DD.SYS but it can't find anything, too. And at start up Ghost crashes. " so I guess ASPIEHCI.SYS works better for you - does it allow you to access the USB HD in DOS mode? Ghost does have a number of command line switches - maybe you can enable the ASPI access and see if it changes things...

ee

I haven't had experience with USB floppy operation - but trying to boot over a USB bootable device does put practical limitations on what can be done with your system :-(

There are cases for single-port USB systems which suggest using RAMFD.SYS to copy your boot disk into a RAM disk and then USBASPI.SYS /R /W options to prompt you to remove the USB floppy and plug in the USB HD. See if this helps you...

HTH

Incidentally, another form of BIOS Setup option that may cause

ERROR : EHCI memory mapped I/O can not assigned

is USB Emulation = ON so try setting to OFF.

Unfortunately, this may prevent use of USB mice, kbd or floppy.

Geppo

> I got good sustained transfer rate (13MB/s) *** using Windows 2000 *** from a 2.5" HDD IBM Travelstar 40GN and a Crown Data Pocket USB 2.0 enclosure (Genesis GL811 chipset), but I got a mere 800KB/s using *** DOS *** drivers USBASPI.SYS 2.06 - DI1000DD.SYS 2.0 or ASPIDISK.SYS 4.01. I tried also DUSE 4.4 and 4.9, but they did not run at all.
>
> I simply measured sustained transfer rate (of the whole disk/interfaces/disk system!) copying a 1.5GB file from my PC HDD to the Data Pocket. I don't need to get exact results..........
>
> My hardware platform:
- Asus P4G8XDeluxe (iE7205)
- 1GB DDR RAM
- 2 x IBM 120GXP series HDD
- Crown Data Pocket USB 2.0 / IBM Travelstar 40GN 2.5"
> Connecting Data Pocket directly to the M/B USB 2.0 port or through a USB 2.0 HUB does produce measurable changes.
>
> In pratical terms, I need to get decent speed in DOS environment, maintaning compatibility to USB 1.1 standard.

I have done some tests on how fast my USB 2.0 device is using the rough benchmark tests you mentione. My environment is
- MSI 875P 512MB DDR RAM
- 1 x Maxtor 80GB 7200 rpm HDD
- Matrix USB 2.0 (GL811) / IBM Travelstar 10GN 2.5"

Test 1:
Set USB Legacy mode disabled
Boot from WinME "emergency boot disk" with USBASPI.SYS and DI1000DD.SYS
Copy file from USB disk to local hard disk

File 1 10MB zip file ~ 3 sec
File 2 25MB exe file ~ 5 sec
File 3 518MB gho file ~ 80 sec

Transfer rate is 3.3 ~ 6.5 MB/sec

Test 2:
Set USB Legacy mode enabled
Enable boot from USB disk
Boot from Win95 (OSR2) basic DOS system
Copy file from USB disk to local hard disk

File 1 10MB zip file ~ 8 sec
File 2 25MB exe file ~ 18 sec

Transfer rate is 1.25 ~ 1.39 MB/sec

Conclusions:
1. Current USB Legacy mode seems to be running only at USB 1.1 speed as 12Mbps is a theoretical 1.5 MB/sec but since there is certainly some protocol & OS overhead, the 1.2-1.3 MB/sec seems logical.

2. USBASPI.SYS is running at USB 2.0 mode at DOS but practical limit seems to be 6.5 MB/sec which is over 5x better than USB 1.1 throughput but seemingly less than 1/8th the theoretical USB 2.0 480Mbps limit. Still, it is much better than USB 1.1's 12Mbps limit.

Geppo

So the question is - why are you getting what seems to be USB 1.1 speeds?

1. Is the EHCI host controller mapped succesfully or do you get an "ERROR : EHCI memory mapped I/O can not assigned"

2. Does USBASPI.SYS map your Crown Data enclosure under an EHCI controller or only a UHCI controller?

There should not be any physical problem (cables, connections, power) as you can get Win2K to work very well with it. Use the /V option to see what is going on.

Also, note the major discrepancy between DOS USB 2.0 speeds vs what you could probably get in Win2K - I attribute this to the 32-bit disk accessesplus the support of DMA in Win2K vs pure 16-bit I/O in DOS.

HTH

MadmaxUSB,

>So the question is - why are you getting what seems to be USB 1.1 speeds?

>1. Is the EHCI host controller mapped succesfully or do you get an "ERROR : EHCI memory mapped I/O can not assigned"

>2. Does USBASPI.SYS map your Crown Data enclosure under an EHCI controller or only a UHCI controller?

No. I got no errors. USBASPI.SYS correctly maps and inizializes Data Pocket under *EHCI* controller. But I found USBASPI.SYS very critical to load in memory. It does not run if loaded high or with EMM386 NOEMS (it does not detect Data Pocket - without errors).
I also tried to update m/b firmware to ver. 1006, but this does not solve.
Enabling/disabling USB legacy support does *NOT* produce major changes in transfer rate.....

>There should not be any physical problem (cables, connections, power) as you can get Win2K to work very well with it. Use the /V option to see what is going on.

I always start USBASPI.SYS with /V option, but I can't see anything interesting...

MadmaxUSB,

this is what I can see using USBASPI.SYS with /v option. Do you note something interesting?

ASPI Manager for USB mass-storage Version 2.06
(C)Copyright Panasonic Communications Co., Ltd. 2000-2003

===============================================
=== Connect the target device to USB port. ===
=== Press [ENTER] to continue. ===
===============================================

Controller : 00-29-0 VID=8086h PID=24C2h (1043h-8089h) UHCI
: I/O=D800h-D81Fh
Controller : 00-29-1 VID=8086h PID=24C4h (1043h-8089h) UHCI
: I/O=D400h-D41Fh
Controller : 00-29-2 VID=8086h PID=24C7h (1043h-8089h) UHCI
: I/O=D000h-D01Fh
Controller : 00-29-7 VID=8086h PID=24CDh (1043h-8089h) EHCI
: MEM=E4000000h-E40003FFh(1024Bytes)
USB Device : HOST [00-29-7 VID=8086h PID=24CDh (1043h-8089h) EHCI]
: |-- VID=0409h PID=0058h HS(HUB)
: |-- VID=05E3h PID=0702h HS
: ^-- 1 device(s)
USB Device : HOST [00-29-0 VID=8086h PID=24C2h (1043h-8089h) UHCI]
: |-- VID=0471h PID=0308h FS
: |-- VID=058Fh PID=9215h FS(HUB)
: |-- VID=03F0h PID=6004h FS
: |-- VID=059Bh PID=0033h FS
: |-- VID=058Fh PID=9215h FS(HUB)
: ^-- 1 device(s)
USB Device : HOST [00-29-1 VID=8086h PID=24C4h (1043h-8089h) UHCI]
: ^-- nothing
USB Device : HOST [00-29-2 VID=8086h PID=24C7h (1043h-8089h) UHCI]
: ^-- nothing
ASPI Device : ID:0 LUN:0 = IC25N020 ATDA04-0 0811
: ID:1 LUN:0 = IOMEGA ZIP 100 90.J

DI1000 ASPI DISK Driver Ver 2.00
Copyright(C)2001 NOVAC Co.,Ltd.

Available ID = 00 1234567
ID 0 = HD .. IC25N020ATDA04-0
#1 : PRI DOS(FAT32) 19996MB drive = L:

1. Your device is obviously this:
VID=05E3h PID=0702h HS

Are you connecting through a USB hub - can you conect directly to the PC and eliminate the hub(s)?

2. Can you disconnect your other devices which aren't usable in DOS mode?
0471 Philips
0308 PCVC680K WebCam [pwc]
03f0 Hewlett-Packard
6004 ?????
059b Iomega Corp.
0033 ?????

Other than this, You may have other drivers loaded that are slowing things down.

HTH

=VEGs

MadmaxUSB,

I already did all these tests before posting my first question....
I normally boot using a quite complex config.sys/autoexec.bat, but for testing purposes, I used a simple config.sys/autoexec.bat as exposed in the following examples:

- Test 1 (Data Pocket directly connected to the PC - No other USB devices connected)

Config.sys

DEVICE=A:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=A:\DOS\EMM386.EXE
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\USBASPI.SYS /V /W
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\DI1000DD.SYS

Autoexec.bat

Empty

Result: transfer rate 770 KB/s

- Test 2 (Data Pocket directly connected to the PC - No other USB devices connected)

Config.sys

DEVICE=A:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\USBASPI.SYS /V /W
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\DI1000DD.SYS

Autoexec.bat

Empty

Result: transfer rate 1050 KB/s
EMM386 seems to slow down a bit.... but it is quite unimportant: I'm looking for major changes, about one order of magnitude!

- Test 3 (Data Pocket directly connected to the PC - No other USB devices connected)

Config.sys

DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\USBASPI.SYS /V /W
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\DI1000DD.SYS

Autoexec.bat

Empty

Result: USBASPI.SYS hangs scanning devices

I obviously tried a lot of other drivers/configurations including UMBPCI, ASPIDISK. These are the best performances I got.

I think USBASPI.SYS does not correctly inizialize M/B registers.....

Geppo

See my comments in [brackets]

Controller : 00-29-0 VID=8086h PID=24C2h (1043h-8089h) UHCI
: I/O=D800h-D81Fh
Controller : 00-29-1 VID=8086h PID=24C4h (1043h-8089h) UHCI
: I/O=D400h-D41Fh
Controller : 00-29-2 VID=8086h PID=24C7h (1043h-8089h) UHCI
: I/O=D000h-D01Fh
Controller : 00-29-7 VID=8086h PID=24CDh (1043h-8089h) EHCI
: MEM=E4000000h-E40003FFh(1024Bytes)

[You have 6 USB ports implemented on Intel chipset, and your system is USB2.0 enabled]

USB Device : HOST [00-29-7 VID=8086h PID=24CDh (1043h-8089h) EHCI]
: |-- VID=0409h PID=0058h HS(HUB)
: |-- VID=05E3h PID=0702h HS
: ^-- 1 device(s)

[You have 2 USB2.0 devices - an NEC based USB 2.0 hub and a Genesys Logic mass storage device was detected]

USB Device : HOST [00-29-0 VID=8086h PID=24C2h (1043h-8089h) UHCI]
: |-- VID=0471h PID=0308h FS
: |-- VID=058Fh PID=9215h FS(HUB)
: |-- VID=03F0h PID=6004h FS
: |-- VID=059Bh PID=0033h FS
: |-- VID=058Fh PID=9215h FS(HUB)
: ^-- 1 device(s)
USB Device : HOST [00-29-1 VID=8086h PID=24C4h (1043h-8089h) UHCI]
: ^-- nothing
USB Device : HOST [00-29-2 VID=8086h PID=24C7h (1043h-8089h) UHCI]
: ^-- nothing

[An Alcor Micro Corp AU9814 Hub (4 port?), a Philips PCVC680K WebCam, a Hewlett-Packard (camera?) and an Iomega (Zip 100) running at USB 1.x speeds are installed. The Iomega drive was detected as a mass storage device]

ASPI Device : ID:0 LUN:0 = IC25N020 ATDA04-0 0811
: ID:1 LUN:0 = IOMEGA ZIP 100 90.J

[The 20GB IBM drive and the ZIP drive were mapped as ASPI devices]

DI1000 ASPI DISK Driver Ver 2.00
Copyright(C)2001 NOVAC Co.,Ltd.

Available ID = 00 1234567
ID 0 = HD .. IC25N020ATDA04-0
#1 : PRI DOS(FAT32) 19996MB drive = L:

[The 20GB IBM drive connected via USB is drive L:]

Suggestions - as only the USB drive and the Iomega drive can be mapped as usable USB devices in DOS, can you:
1. Remove the hub(s) and see if it changes performance? Connect the storage device directly to the USB 2.0 port.
2. Remove all other devices running at USB 1.x and see if it changes performance? Am particulalry concerned with the use of hubs, and detection of the Iomega drive.

If it isn't these, I suspect the problem lies in other drivers.

Hope this helps.

Sorry about the repeat posting - it seems my proxy cache did not update and I though my previous post failed.

- Test 1 (Data Pocket directly connected to the PC - No other USB devices connected)

Config.sys
DEVICE=A:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=A:\DOS\EMM386.EXE
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\USBASPI.SYS /V /W
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\DI1000DD.SYS
Autoexec.bat

Result: transfer rate 770 KB/s

- Test 2 (Data Pocket directly connected to the PC - No other USB devices connected)

Config.sys
DEVICE=A:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\USBASPI.SYS /V /W
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\DI1000DD.SYS
Autoexec.bat

Result: transfer rate 1050 KB/s

- Test 3 (Data Pocket directly connected to the PC - No other USB devices connected)
Config.sys
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\USBASPI.SYS /V /W
DEVICE=A:\UTILITY\DI1000DD.SYS
Autoexec.bat
Empty
Result: USBASPI.SYS hangs scanning devices

> This is strange behavior.
1. What DOS boot disk version are you using?

2. Are you overclocked in any way? I observed in my system that when I overclock the processor, USBASPI.SYS does have a problem in detecting devices on my 875P system. This is addressed when I lower the AGP/PCI clock speed to within standards. When running WIndows, the problem does not show up. Can this clock freq be adjusted in your Asus board?

MadmaxUSB,

1 - I use a bootable WIN98 SE boot disk customized for my specific need. I have several boot disks built on this OS version and I never had problems with them. I usually use quite complex boot disks adding networking support and much more.......
2 - I NEVER overclock any system because I think that (generally) overclocking is a good way to increase 10% system's performance paying it by 50% less reliability.
I manually set AGP/PCI clock to its minimum value 66.6/33.3, but I got the same behaviour.

In my previous post I wrote: "I found USBASPI.SYS very critical to load in memory". I did not conduct extended test on USBASPI.SYS, but I tested it on my Acer TravelMate 529 notebook too (only USB 1.1 ports - No other USB devices connected):

- If loaded high (DEVICEHIGH=....) it simply does not detect any device
- If loaded low with EMM386 added in config.sys, it correctly detects my Data Pocket
- If loaded low with EMM386 NOEMS added in config.sys, it simply does not detect any device

Now the question is:
I'm going to built a boot disk which has to run on fifty different machines without any change....... maybe adding USBASPI.SYS is not a good start ;-)

I have to concur - as USB support in DOS is very dependent on BIOS, chipset and hardware config, a "universal" recovery disk built around USBASPI.SYS (nor Cypress DUS nor Iomega ASPIxHCI.SYS) driver is not possible.

MadMaxUSB:

I was successful in getting my Kingston 128Meg USB flash memory stick to be recognized and assigned a drive letter but could not read any files or directories. When I would select the drive, the system would lock up and I would have to reboot.

My config is as follows:

device=a:\himem.sys
devicehigh=a:\emm386.exe
device=a:\usbaspi1.sys/w/v
devicehigh=a:\di1000dd.sys

Nothing in Autoexec.bat
Also, Im running a Compaq 500Mhz
and using a bootable disk from Win98.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for your attention.

Frank

frankamato706

Is the usbaspi1.sys you refer to the Panasonic v3.06 driver? I am only familiar with this USBASPI.SYS driver.

Check the BIOS setup if there are any options which may affect the USB handling - like Legacy Mode Support - and disable it.

Can you try adding /f and /slow one at a time see if things change?

HTH

Oops - make that USBASPI.SYS Panasonic(TM) USB to ASPI driver v2.06

Updated thread is posted here

http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/13845.html

madmaxUSB:

Now that I have my USB flash memory stick working, I noticed that after booting, the
internal hard drive (c:) is not available nor given a new drive letter. However, my USB memory stick now has drive letter c: asigned to it. Is there something I can do to get the internal drive available again so I can access it?

My config is as follows:

device=a:\himem.sys
devicehigh=a:\emm386.exe
lastdrive=z
device=a:\usbaspi1.sys/w/v
devicehigh=a:\di1000dd.sys

Nothing in Autoexec.bat

Also, Im running a Compaq 500Mhz
and using a bootable disk from Win98.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for your attention.

Frank

Does anyone know if there is a way to get a USB mouse working in with this USBASPI.SYS?

Thanks for any info.

Also for those Norton Ghost 2003 people. There is a live update that updates the aspiehci.sys to a date of 05/28/2003. So you may just need to run the liveupdate and then recreate the floppies, but it is only a idea.

madmaxUSB,

By any chance have you used the ASPIDISK.SYS OR ASPICD.SYS from the adaptec dos driver pack?

The (ASPI Manager for USB mass-storage Version 2.06) USBASPI.SYS driver package only came with a USBCD.SYS and I found I also needed use of a external hard drive. I did find using the ASPIDISK.SYS worked with the external 80GByte hard drive, but was just trying to see if anyone has tried using the ASPICD.SYS? Or would it be worth even using it?

Thanks for any info.

madmaxUSB:

Now that I have my USB flash memory stick working, I noticed that after booting, the
internal hard drive (c:) is not available nor given a new drive letter. However, my USB memory stick now has drive letter c: asigned to it. Is there something I can do to get the internal drive available again so I can access it?

My config is as follows:

device=a:\himem.sys
devicehigh=a:\emm386.exe
lastdrive=z
device=a:\usbaspi1.sys/w/v
devicehigh=a:\di1000dd.sys

Nothing in Autoexec.bat

Also, Im running a Compaq 500Mhz
and using a bootable disk from Win98.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for your attention.

Frank

Frank,

When you was in the BIOS settings did you turn off anything that deals with the IDE or C: drive options?

What OS is on your internal hard drive?

Sharky.

Sharky,

I am running Win98 on one system that does see the internal HD drive c:. However, on two other systems each running Win NT 4.0, one a Compaq and another an Omnitech, both do not show the internal HD. I haven't touched the BIOS at all. Since I am booting from the floppy disk and apparently (or I suspect so) not even using the HD initially, I would think that the OS wouldn't matter.
I don't know is there is something I'm missing in my config or autoexec files.

Any ideas?

Frank

Frank,

If you don't use the floppy disk or the flash drive, does the system boot ok from the hard drive?

Do you have GOBACK or any other hard drive bootsector LBA translation software installed?

I have found in my own service work that people that use GOBACK or LBA translation software to allow larger hard drives to be used on a system that does not normally support causes problems with booting from a normal floppy disk or other boot device.

The main reason for that type of action is that GOBACK creates a NON-DOS partition and puts your real partitions in that NON-DOS partition.
The LBA translation software/bootsectors also do the same thing, your real partitions are actually hidden inside the NON-DOS partition created by the LBA translation software and makes it so that a normal startup floppy does not see your hard drives.

These are just a few of my own ran into problems with boot floppies, but I myself still need to know if your system is still booting normally off of your main hard drives ok if you don't use the boot floppy or flash drive.

Sharky.

Frank,

Also I just thought of something. On the other 2 systems that you said that have Windows NT 4 on them. Do you have those partitions in NTFS? If you do have your partitions as NTFS on those DOS also can not see NTFS volumes.

Just a little bit of extra info there.

Thanks,

Sharky.

Sharky:

Thank you for your resopnse.

All my systems boot normally from their HDs.

I don't know what GOBACK is that you refer to but I'll check.

Also, as to NTFS, I'll check to see har the partitions are done.

If it helps, I have my boot disk created from Win98. I was wondering if I should use DOS 7.1 instead to create the boot diskette.

Regards

Frank

Sharky:

What I found was that the two systems with Win NT 4.0 use NTFS. Also when I use a bootable floppy using DOS 7.1 the HDs are still not detected. However, there is no such problem with the system that runs the Win98 OS. Got any ideas?

Thanks

Frank

Frank,

On the 2 systems that are using NTFS for the file system you can not have access to the hard drives for DOS. This is because DOS does not understand NTFS. MSDOS 6.22 and under only support FAT16 and the dos that comes with Win95B/C, Win98FE/SE, & Windows ME can do FAT32. This is the main reason why you don't see the drive letters in DOS with those 2 systems.

If you wish to have NTFS read/write access you will have to have a addon package that gives you that access as a emulated volume, but those access packages to get access to NTFS normally run about $400 US. This is why most people don't buy them, unless you are a service tech needing that type of access for repairing a corrupt file on the NTFS drive or data recovery when the motherboard dies and you need data off of the system.

Do you really need NTFS access under pure DOS?

I hope that info helps.

I'm booting from a USB CD ROM disk which creates a RAM drive and loads the USB CD ROM drivers. Once this happens, I can no longer access the boot files on the CD ROM disk (A:). Why does this occur and is there a workaround that allows the boot sector of the CD to be accessible after the CD ROM drivers are loaded? More to the story...the real problem is that at some point my system is looking for a file in the A: drive letter...I think. If I put the following line in the autoexec.bat then the problem doesn't occur.
c:\dos\subst a: c:\dos
I'm using a ruggedized tablet computer running a Phoenix BIOS.

Sharky:

Thanks for the info. I think I know someone that may have such a source for the NTFS access to the WIN NT system.

Thanks for your help.

Frank

Greg,

Well one it would be better to have the system copy all the contents of the boot floppy to the ramdisk before activating the USB drivers.

This is a common problem that I have ran into myself. When the USB drivers take control of the USB ports the BIOS is unable to have control. As of yet I have not found a work around for this problem.

Best to just copy all bootfiles from the bootloader to the ramdisk then activate the usbdriver then you should be good to go.

Thanks,

Sharky.

Thanks for the follow up Sharky.
I am copying the contents of the boot sector to the RAM drive and then loading the CD drivers. That all works but the problem is that later in the process something is apparently looking for something on the A: drive.
Once you've loaded the drivers do you still have access to the A: drive (boot sector of the hard drive)? If not, why? Have you found any documentation on this? If I can't fix it then I would at least like to know why the failure occurs.
Thanks again. G

Hi,

I have been using the information on this site in an attempt to get a Micro-Solutions Backpack CD-RW (USB) working in DOS with Norton Ghost 2003. Has anyone had any luck with this setup or something similiar? If so, I would appreciate some tips.

I have tried using the USBASPI.SYS driver and the backpack USB sys file, but I have not had any luck. The USBASPI.SYS file loads and scans for USB devices and shows information that looks like the folllowing...

Why does it say "^-- nothing"?

USB Device : HOST [00-29-1 VID=8086h PID=24C4h (1043h-8089h) UHCI]
: ^-- nothing

After outputting this message, the driver says something like "Error: Target device not found."

What does this mean? Is there a specific target device that the driver is looking for?

Thanks for your help!

Brian

Greg,

Well the problem is that the DOS based drivers take over the USB controller and ports and the BIOS is unable to use them one the controller is taken over.

There is a reason that you are still trying to access the A: drive. When booting from the A: drive you still have the COMSPEC set to A: drive for loading the COMMAND.COM when it needs to be reloaded. You will need to also make sure you have COMMAND.COM copied to the RAM drive and the COMSPEC updated to point at the new location for COMMAND.COM.

Thanks,

Sharky

Brian,

Well one question is do you have your USB CD-R/RW connected directly to the USB port on the computer or do you have it connected to a USB hub then to the computer?

The USB DOS ASPI Driver I have found does not like all USB hubs.

Second Do you have the drive attached to the computer and powered up before you turn on the computer? I have found on some computers and USB devices that may have power feedback problems if powered up after computer is turned on.

Thanks,

Sharky

Hi Sharky,

Yes, the CD-R is connected directly to the computer and it is attached and powered on before turning on the computer.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Brian

Brian,

Hmmm, ok the next question is. Does this drive work as a normal CDROM drive if you plug it directly into a Windows ME/2000/XP system?

The reason why I ask that is that I have ran into some drives that do not use a fully mass storage device compatable USB interface.

Have you tried this drive on another system with your boot disk you are trying to use? (trying to rule out problems with USB controller problems.)

Brian,

Also I myself do not use that brand of external CDRW drive. I have a generic ADSTECH USB2.0/Firewire box that I put a AOpen CRW4048 drive into. Most of these USB2.0 to EIDE boxes should work fine with this USBASPI.SYS driver. A friend of mine is using a HP DVD300n external drive with this same driver and it seems to work fine. He did have a problem with it not working on his Toshiba notebook on the USB port. Finding out later it had something to do with the way the USB port was wired on the motherboard.

These are just a few reasons why I ask so many questions. The same boot disk you have and your drive may work on another system, or if the drive is a older type drive that needs special drivers to be used then a driver that is designed for generic mass storage protocol may not work correctly.

Any and all information is usefull.

The other thing is that if this drive is a USB2.0 drive does it also say it will work on a USB1.1/1.0 port. I have seen(not very many) some external CDRW USB2.0 drives that will only work on USB2.0 cards because they were not designed with the USB1.1/1.0 compatability. That is also why I am stating that fact is that I saw on your message about your USB controller being a UHCI controller. For those USB2.0 drives they need to be on a EHCI controller if they are not compat. with USB1.1/1.0.

Sharky,

I am running Windows 2000 and the drive does work properly when I am using that OS. The current machine I am using is a Dell PowerEdge 6650, but I just tried the drive and boot disk on two different Dell Optiplex desktops and it reported that no USB controller was found. So, I'm not sure what that means...

I used the boot disk one more time on the 6650, so I could record the information and provide you with it. So, here goes....

-------CONFIG.SYS FILE-------
[menu]
menuitem=FROMFLPY, This computer was started from a Ghost boot disk
menuitem=FROMCD, This computer was started from a Ghost bootable CD

[FROMFLPY]

[FROMCD]

[COMMON]
DOS=HIGH,UMB
LASTDRIVE = Z
DEVICE = HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off

DEVICEHIGH = usb\USBASPI.SYS /v /o /w /slow

DEVICEHIGH = usb\DI1000DD.SYS

rem DEVICEHIGH = usb\USBCD.SYS /D:USBCD001
DEVICEHIGH = usb\USBCD.SYS

rem DEVICEHIGH = usb\bpusbdrv.sys
rem DEVICEHIGH = usb\BPCDDRV.SYS /D:USBCD001

-------AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE-------
@echo off

echo Setting timezone...
SET TZ=GHO+05:00

echo Loading mouse driver...
MOUSE.COM

echo Loading USB driver...
LH \MSCDEX.EXE /D:USBCD001 /L:f

if %config% == FROMFLPY goto FLPYBOOT
if %config% == FROMCD goto CDBOOT

goto FAILED

:FLPYBOOT
echo Insert Ghost boot disk 2 (containing Ghost.exe)
pause
if exist a:\ghost\ghost.exe goto GHOSTFND
goto FLPYBOOT

:CDBOOT
echo Insert Ghost boot disk 2 (containing Ghost.exe)
pause
if not exist b:\ghost\ghost.exe goto CDBOOT
b:
goto GHOSTFND

:GHOSTFND

cd \ghost
echo Loading Ghost 2003...
GHOST.EXE
goto END

:FAILED
echo Unknown boot menu selection
goto END

:END

-------BOOT MESSAGES WITH STARTUP DISK-------
ASPI Manager for USB mass-storage Version 2.06
(C) Copyright Panasonic Communications Co, Ltd. 2000-2003

***** Entering Slow Down Mode *****

Controller: 00-15-2 VID=1166h PID=0220h (1166h-0220h) OHCI
MEM=FE100000h-FE100FFFh (4kBytes)

USB Device: HOST [00-15-2 VID=1166h PID=0220h (1166h-0220h) OHCI]
|-- VID=0AC9h PID=0010h FS
^-- nothing

ERROR: Target USB device not found

DI100 ASPI Disk Driver Ver 2.00
Copyright (C) 2001 NOVAC Co., Ltd.

ASPI Manager not installed

USB CD-ROM Device Driver Version 1.04
Device Name: USBCD001

At this point the system hangs and must be restarted.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Brian

Thanks Sharky,
The process I'm using is very complex but I thought the COMSPEC was set to the RAM drive where command.com is copied. I'll verify this just to be sure.
G