[Trlog] bootable USB "thumb drive" for XP

[kd4d at comcast.net]

Hi Dick:

Regular COM ports and LPT ports will work just fine (the
built-in ones).  The ByteRunner PCI cards with their
DOS drivers will work fine.  USB adapters for COM and
LPT ports won't AFAIK (As Far As I Know).  Anyone
found these with working DOS drivers anywhere?

You are just running DOS, and DOS doesn't know about
the USB stick...as you pointed out, it just thinks it's running
from C:.

73,

Mark, KD4D


>  
>  
> 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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