Make a USB CD Drive bootable

Question

Inspiron 3500 Pentium 2 Is it possible to make a USB CD Drive bootable? If so, how? Message Edited by Sygnus X1 on 12-01-2004 06:36 PM

bacillus · Answer

Sorry that's not possible as the BIOS does not support booting from USB devices.

Sygnus X1 · Answer

Thought so :smileyhappy: Would be cool a innovation though.

bacillus · Answer

the newer Dell laptops have BIOSes which supports booting from USB devices.

GreyMack · Answer

If you really need to boot to a USB CD, there might be a way to boot to DOS first and then load USB drivers, followed by loading and running the CD software. Sounds complex, but I believe DOS can be used to access USB, Firewire or a network with the proper drivers.

GM

RichardLusignan · Answer

The idea about the DOS USB driver is indeed your best option.

I've used this DOS Usb Driver a couple of times to boot from an external Maxtor HDD. It boots from several different computers, althought I was unable to make it work for the latest Inspiron 5150 and up.

Here's the link: http://www.pocketec.net/downloads/duse_4_2.zip

Best regards,

Rick

Sygnus X1 · Answer

sounds good, but how would i do this if i was booting from a floppy, because i have no OS installed on the computer

GreyMack · Answer

DOS, booted from the floppy, is your initial operating system. A USB driver written for DOS and a CD driver written for DOS would need to be included on the floppy. A DOS boot floppy usually includes a driver to access the CD drive, and USB drivers are available as Rick pointed out. A command from DOS would be used to access the USB port, access the CD drive, and launch the bootable CD.   DOS programming skills would be beneficial, although you might find a program already written to perform exactly what you need. Lots of good info here.   http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=DOS+Boot+Floppy+USB+CD   GM

Storage, Drives & Media

Make a USB CD Drive bootable

Was this post helpful?