[Trlog] bootable USB "thumb drive" for XP

[kd4d at comcast.net]

Hi Dick:

Most of the USB sticks come pre-formatted.  My two were FAT16.

You can just plug them in, boot DOS, and do a "SYS C:"
or whatever to get DOS loaded.  Just make sure you
"SYS" the correct drive letter.

This is an interesting trick to get the "SYS C:" done from
Windows XP.  This must install the corresponding files from
XP...can we get all the utilities we need (like smartdrv, emm386,
and such) working on that version of DOS?

I just used a DOS boot floppy to format mine...

73,

Mark


> XP is making it tougher to get enough laptops together to run a decent Field
> Day network using TR. I have found a solution that does not involve
> partitioning:
> go to http://www.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html
> search for   softpaq sp27213.exe  and download it.
> 
> This app partitions and formats a USB drive as a boot and loads DOS from
> your computer, very much like making a bootable floppy with the old SYS A:
> command. It comes with fairly straightforward directions. First, I re-booted
> the XP and went into the BIOS and changed the order in which it selects boot
> drives-  USB first, then the CD, then the HDD.
> 
> The installed program is called HPUSBFW, a 450k Windoze app. Running it will
> reformat the USB "thumb drive" for FAT16, and make it bootable. I'm working
> on a brand new HP 3.6GHz XP workstation I just bought for the office. Now
> with the USB drive formatted, you go again to HPUSBFW and it will ask where
> you want to load DOS from. I said C:\boot (that's where I had found
> command.com and the hidden .sys files on my workstation).
> 
> Restarting the XP machine again with the thumb drive in the USB slot
> resulted in an almost immediate boot and a C: prompt!
> 
> I rebooted the machine again without the USB drive and then loaded TR into
> it at \log and put an appropriate autoexec.bat in the root so it can find
> TR. If you use Himem or Smartdrive with TR, you need to load those .sys
> files along with command.com, but with more than 127M of really fast disk
> space on the USB drive, that's unlikely.
> 
> I took the thumb drive over to WA7AJ's house and stuck it into the USB port
> on his XP laptop. We hooked up a null modem cable from it to my W98 laptop
> and had an instant TR network. This was something we COULD NOT do at FD with
> his computer. I don't have an XP machine at home so I can't check out LPT
> keying or talking to my radio on COM1, but I think it's there. Worth a try.
> 
> This 128MB USB drive came from Costco about a year ago for $39, prices have
> dropped since. You could use other kinds of solid memory but they have to
> appear as boot drive choices in your BIOS !!!
> 
> YMMV. I am no computer guru but this was pretty simple.
> 
> 
> Dick Frey    k4xu
> 
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