Hey People, heres the deal i got a laptop right, p3 800mhz, but doesnt supprt usb booting. recently the hdd died and i dont really want to buy a new hdd just yet.. or at all.. id rather save n buy a new laptop all together. What i was thinking i could do, (i think its possible, a guy on a irc channel did didnt tell me how!!) was boot from a floppy with usb support, mount my usb stick as c: (its a 512mb which is more then enough to fit windows 98 onto it or even 95), format it to fat and install windows. Niffty idea heh? But how would i go about doing this? ive tried many usb boot disks and i cant get it to read my usb stick (well its an mp3 player) i can format it to a usb boot stick and works perfetly on my pc but i havent managed to figure out how to oot via floppy then access the usb to format it to fat and insatll windows. Any ideas? Sorry for bad sentencing i just had to write it all before i forgot to add sumfin which i thin ki did...

THanks in advance,
Anarklov3r

Hi,

Unless the computer BIOS supports "Boot from USB devices" you will not be able to boot from a USB flash drive, floppy disk or external enclosure USB hard disk.

There may be an upgrade for the BIOS for the machine which gives this feature, but I doubt it.

There is virtually no support for USB in Windows 95 , evem in 95c & 95d it was very basic.

Windows 98 USB support is poor. Win 98 SE better. USB support also really only came in with XP.

Your USB flash drives may also be USB 2, which Win 98 has no native support for USB 2. USB 2 devices may not work with the machine because of this.

Ceri

The drivers I use to access a USB are:

USBASPI1.SYS /v
DI1000DD.SYS

Getting it to boot on floppy then run 9x on USB may be a little buggy.

Try a few last linse in your autoexec like:

x:
set comspec=x:\command.com
windows\win

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

Hmmm well will that allow me to actually install windows onto the usb?
@ ceri sheeran iknow 95 dun supprt usb.. i wasnt planning on using usb devices, if i could install windows to the usb it would think it was a HDD correct?
and how would i used that Mechanix2Go? just add it to the autoexec and substitute X: with C: to make it my C: drive? could you please send me a boot disk via msn or gmail? anark_lover@hotmail.com and anarklov3r@gmail.com

Thnk you for such quick replies

I sent you the imz. If it falls through the cracks you can get it here:

USBinDOS

You're probably going to fight 98 all the way.

It's not going to like booting on FD and running on USB stick. And AFAIK, it won't think the stick is a HD because of the media desriptor.

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

A PIII 800 still has some value on the second hand market. Certainly more than a replacement hdd will cost you. Especially if you also bought the hdd second hand.

Windows 9x will only install on the C: drive. Convincing the installer that your MP3 player is the C: drive will take some effort. Then even if you were able to achieve this, you would need to be a very patient person to use it. Memory card transfers are way slower than hard drives.

ok well i tried that usb floppy imag eu sent me... boots up.. asks for usb boot.. i press enter and it brings up this error

ERROR : UHCI I?O Port not assigned
ERROR : PCI UHCI/OHCI/EHCI USB host controller not found

ASPI Manager not installed

ANy ideas/ happened with other usb thingys too what am i doing wrong :|:|

If Rimfire is correct, and I assume he is, you're shovelling against the tide.

At best, your config will take a great deal of tinkering to even access the stick. And then w9x may not install.

I think I would file this under "not worth the hassle".

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.