[Trlog] bootable USB "thumb drive" for XP

[PaulKB8N at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/12/2004 9:45:45 PM Central Standard Time,  
k4xu at bendcable.com writes:

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,
 
Great work!  By having a bootable memory stick, you basically have a  virtual 
DOS computer that you can transport in your pocket and use on any XP  
machine.  The advent of USB external hard drives has necessitated a bios  that will 
boot from USB, it even is available on some later Win98 machjines, I  believe.
 
All the major players, including Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA all  have 
the 128mb sticks for $19.95 after rebate this week.  Notably, CompUSA  has 
the 256mb for $29.95 after rebate.
 
I'm assuming you are writing the Log.dat, reset.bin and bandmap files  
directly to the stick.  Do you back up to a floppy, or can that go to the c  drive?  
BTW, I successfully tested two sticks running as seperate drives on  a 
multiport USB adapter, so you could back up files from one to the other.
 
If possible, could you write this up in detail and even share your  files?  
It would seem that you could zip these files, and they could be  downloaded 
directly to a stick off the internet.  I think this is a  breakthrough that could 
keep the old DOS programs alive (and even enhanced due  to the speed of the 
stick drives) for many years to come.
 
Again, thanks for the good work!
 
Paul, K5AF
 
Paul  Schaffenberger
210-493-6265
210-213-5914(M)