[Trlog] bootable USB "thumb drive" for XP

[kd4d at comcast.net]

Hi Dick:

What you're doing will work just fine.  What do you need for
checking your homework?

Making the drive bootable requires being able to do a
"FORMAT/SYS" or a "SYS" command from DOS or some
sort of hack like the HP USB disk program.  EMM386
is still necessary...that doesn't affect speed but use
of the lower 640KBytes of memory.  For large logs, we
need that as empty as possible.  I've got USB sticks
booting DOS with this stuff.

I've had some speed problems playing with this.  Are
you using a USB 2.0 port and USB 2.0-compatible
memory stick?  That may be my problem...I'm using
a USB 1.1 port and that is slower.  Have you tried
importing a large log and playing with it?

Partitioning the drives isn't particularly hard or dangerous,
but this is a great option if the speed is okay for logs with
several thousand QSO's.

Let me know exactly what you need for checking your
homework and let's get that done!  :-)

73,

Mark, KD4D


> Hi Paul,
> That's what I've been trying to sell - having a USB that IS the
> drive that boots to DOS. No HDD partitioning needed, all the files
> you need are on the USB. I even back up to the USB drive.
> TR thinks it is the C: so everything gets put there.I have also 
> noticed that because the drive is so fast, I don't need EMM386, 
> SMARTDRV, or anything to make TR function smoothly.
> The HDD in the XP machine never even wakes up. No moving
> parts, so to speak.
> I have the thumb drive set up like a normal C: with TR located
> in \Log directory and all the contests beneath it. It works great for 
> CW. Now I gotta see how to wake up the sound board so I can
> do SBDVP.....
> So far I've been lucky, but I am in over my head computer-wise.
> I gave a pretty good description of what is needed in my first post. 
> There are some formatting things that go on when a disk
> or drive is made bootable, beyond adding the "sys files" to the 
> root. I'm on shaky ground here. If this is really the "Magic Bullet"
> for dealing with the XP killing off DOS menace, someone with 
> more computer horsepower needs to check my homework.
> 
> Dick - K4XU
> 
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: PaulKB8N at aol.com 
>   To: trlog at contesting.com 
>   Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2004 6:17 PM
>   Subject: Re: [Trlog] bootable USB "thumb drive" for XP
> 
> 
>   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)
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