Harddrive connected via parallel port?

[mkall]

I have an external box designed to insert a CDRom drive that connects to the PC via the parallel port. Can I put an IDE harddrive in it instead and connect to the PC via the parallel port? I also have to access it via DOS so I figure that I will need DOS drivers to do this, so where could I get them if I can do this? Or can anyone tell me how I can get an IDE harddrive to connect to the PC via the parallel port using only DOS as the operating system?

By the way, does anyone know of a good DOS reference/help/drivers website?

Thanks.

[Fatal_Exception]

That used to be done fairly commonly, but the external boxes usually had controller cards in them. Let me try to discourage you from pursuing this further because the parallel port is so slow your arteries will harden during transfers. If you are determined to use that box, put a scsi card in your machine and replace the parallel port connector with a scsi connector. It will be several orders of magnitude faster and should cost about the same if not less. (The CD currently in the case is a scsi device isn't it?)