Booting Windows 98 from CD and USB attached hard drive

[Toad]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Hi,

I have a real challenge! I have a laptop that has XP installed on it.
This has been provided by my employer and is locked down. I also want
to use the PC for domestic use using Windows98. I have Windows98 on a
bootable 2.5in disk, but the laptop doesn't enable easy change of fixed
disk. So, I have put the 2.5 inch drive in a case with USB
attachement.

What I want to do is create a bootable CD that brings up just enough
functionality to recognise the USB attached drive and then use it as
the primary boot drive, loading the rest of Windows 98 from
it.......(when using Windows 98 I do not want to access the internal
(XP) hard drive).

By the way, the PC doesn't appear to have USB boot option (in the
BIOS).

I tried (on another PC) creating a nootable Windows98 diskette and then
having booted from it used DUSE.EXE to recognise the USB.....it
recognised the disk but couldn't mount it for some reason. (The disk
is recognised when I plug it into the USB port when XP is running).
And that is as far as I have got.

Any help would be much appreciated. Remember, I cannot touch the
internal drive.....e.g. no option to install boot management s/w etc.
on it.

Best regards,

Tim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi Tim,

I would check to see if the Ultimate BootDisk has USB support for
your chipset.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
He esteems too lightly


toad wrote:
> Hi,
>
> What I want to do is create a bootable CD that brings up just enough
> functionality to recognise the USB attached drive and then use it as
> the primary boot drive, loading the rest of Windows 98 from
> it.......(when using Windows 98 I do not want to access the internal
> (XP) hard drive).
>
> By the way, the PC doesn't appear to have USB boot option (in the
> BIOS).
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tim
>
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[Toad]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Many many thanks......well when the DUSE runs, I get "USB Support
Enabled" but then "Failed to load USB storage device". It wants to
allocate "F" as C: is the internal drive D: is a RAMDRIVE created by
the boot diskette, and E: is the CD./ Once I have the USB drive
recognized I want it to be the C: drive!? Can this effectively be
"spoofed" assuming I ever get that far!?

Tim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On 26 Feb 2005 14:17:58 -0800, "toad"
<peterprivate2003@hotmail.com> wrote:
snip
>
>I tried (on another PC) creating a nootable Windows98 diskette and then
>having booted from it used DUSE.EXE to recognise the USB.....it
>recognised the disk but couldn't mount it for some reason. (The disk
>is recognised when I plug it into the USB port when XP is running).
>And that is as far as I have got.
>

What does "recognized the disk" mean? Are there drive letters?

W98 only boots off a DOS C;\. Even if the original W98 install
on the 2.5 drive was put on another partition with only booting
off C;\ , upon boot, from the USB, the drive letters must still
correspond correctly (reference to original C;\). Otherwise
Windows can't find all its files. E.g., if the USB drivers see
the XP drive then that may have become DOS C;\

So, the question is, what drive letters does the USB boot give"
And once started up, W98 may try to install its own USB drivers
and thus the rearrange drive the letters yet its internal files
are all referenced to a C:\ ! DOS USB drivers in the W98
config.sys and autoexec.bat may be worth a try for this.
..
Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On 27 Feb 2005 03:58:44 -0800, "toad"
<peterprivate2003@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Many many thanks......well when the DUSE runs, I get "USB Support
>Enabled" but then "Failed to load USB storage device". It wants to
>allocate "F" as C: is the internal drive D: is a RAMDRIVE created by
>the boot diskette, and E: is the CD./ Once I have the USB drive
>recognized I want it to be the C: drive!? Can this effectively be
>"spoofed" assuming I ever get that far!?
>
>Tim

W98 only boots off C;\ ,or A;\ but can load the rest of itself
from any partition. .

Perhaps DUSE has boot or configuration options that will solve the
drive loading; I'm afraid I've never used it. Is the port
powering up at boot?

Regarding "spoofing", not that I'm aware of although IDE drive
assignments in can be changed before booting in some BIOS and
during boot by some boot loaders. That must be done in a bootable
hard drive root partition, a Catch 22 here it would seem.

Since the installed drive is seen as C:\, hiding it's bootable
and all MS partitions with a boot manager may work but it would
mean altering the installed drive's boot partition before each W98
boot. One mistake and all data could be lost on the installed
drive..

I haven't thought this next out completely but if the CD and DUSE
boots using W98's DOS 7 then one idea is installing W98 on that
USB drive but on another laptop using 3 small dummy primary
partitions so W98's install is on the F:\ partition, the one DUSE
assigns .

Then make a DOS 7 bootable CD -- that includes DUSE -- from the
boot floppy for that W98 partition . This means copying and
editing the msdos.sys file from the W98 install to the bootable
floppy so the Windows boot and system directories are correct.
Try the floppy and CD on the other laptop being used for the W98
install.

Hide the dummy partitions after the W98 installation and before
USB case insertion. In other words, W98 boots off the floppy
emulating CD which it sees as A:\ then loads Windows proper from
F;\ from msdos.sys This depends on how DUSE works however.
It's been a long time since I tried booting W98 from a floppy but
it is possible. Good luck

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On 27 Feb 2005 03:58:44 -0800, "toad"
<peterprivate2003@hotmail.com> wrote:

snips

Regarding "spoofing", not that I'm aware of although IDE drive
assignments in can be changed before booting in some BIOS and
during boot by some boot loaders. That must be done in a bootable
hard drive root partition, a Catch 22 here it would seem.

snips

Just saw this on a different matter:
http/www.v72735.f2s.com/LetAssig/index.html

 

[inature]

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