Does USB work under DOS?

[chapmc]

I have USB on my PC but I have never used it. I thinking about getting a USB CD-RW drive. Does USB work under DOS? For example,can I boot into DOS (Win 98) with an empty HD and install Windows from a CD on the USB connection? Also a USB mouse needs to work under DOS as well as Windows. It should be obvious that this can be done but I am skepical of Windows and what it supports. Do you load a driver like for a CD-ROM drive?
Thanks for your help.

[Brangwen]

chapmc:

Very cool question: I don't know! I do know that I can set boot sequence in BIOS with CDROM as first boot device. Presumably, if one had the USB on-board "enabled" in BIOS then USB devices SHOULD work in DOS. Hmm... Of course, I've seen the USB bus controllers (e.g., one for my USB Zip Drive) in the Windoze directory. Perhaps if one loaded said drivers like ATAPI CDROM drivers are loaded on a boot disk, or copy them to DOS partition (xcopy *.* c: ), USB devices would work under DOS. Would have to try, and good question. But I don't know.

Brangwen http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif


USB:

"Short for Universal Serial Bus, a new external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps (12 million bits per second). A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 peripheral devices, such as mice, modems, and keyboards. USB also supports Plug-and-Play installation and hot plugging.

Starting in 1996, a few computer manufacturers started including USB support in their new machines. It wasn't until the release of the best-selling iMac in 1998 that USB became widespread. It is expected to completely replace serial and parallel ports."


See related topics:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/USB.html



[This message has been edited by Brangwen (edited 05-10-2001).]

[Brangwen]

chapmc:

I was so intrigued by your question, I can (with a bit of certainty) write that one can boot from a USB (e.g., CDROM, ZIP, etc.) device, but I do not know for certain if one can load such a device under DOS.

Good luck.

Brangwen http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[chapmc]

This might be asking a lot, but can you try to boot from a floppy and then access a usb device from the dos prompt? This is assuming you have one to try it with. I don't believe my windows 98 CD is bootable but can't say for sure.

Thanks for your interest. Perhaps I am worrying about something that I would never need to do.

Chap

[ragtop]

As far as I know, all WIN98 CD's are bootable.

[chapmc]

I tried booting from my Win98 CD and it would have except it doesn't have the correct driver for my CD drive. My mb doesn't have an option to boot from usb. I assume when you tell mb to boot from cdrom it looks for an IDE cdrom.

But back to my original question, if I boot from a floppy can I access a CD-RW drive that is on a usb port from DOS?

[bdunn]

There is limited USB support in DOS. I use a USB keyboard and it works but the printer doesn't

[madfish]

ragtop, I thought just 989se and up was bootable, hmmm I'll have to check this out after dinner. I never tryed just the plain 98 to boot from, my 98se boots up from the cd.

[SiteCharts.com]

Only OEM Win9x CDs are bootable all others definitely are not (or the other way around).

[RenaissanceMan]

Chapmc, This IS a very good topic, and thanks for starting it. The only input I have to offer is some interesting experience.
I have been using a Razor USB mouse for quite some time, and wouldn't trade it for any other mouse. A while back, I had to boot windows98 into safe mode and discovered that I did NOT have a mouse. So, although I am aware that safe mode is the operating environment loaded with the minimum amount of drivers for a person to do any "fixes" it leads me to believe that a USB device must be enabled via a specific driver.... "Driver" = that which connects the peripheral device to the operating system.
I still do believe we need more clarification here.

[Imperion1]

The 98SE from Microsoft isn't bootable. Have to install 98 then upgrade to 98SE.

Slows down my install time by 30 min.

[chapmc]

My original question was if I booted from a win98 floppy boot disk could I access a usb cd-rw drive from the dos prompt. I think the answer is "probably not". I don't think I want a usb cd-rw drive as the only cd drive. I don't have one to try this obviously. Perhaps with the correct drivers and floppy boot disk modifications it would work.

Regarding booting from win98 disk, my system would do that I think except that it does not contain the correct drivers for my Cd drive. I don't think I could boot from a usb CD because my mb doesn't have usb as an option.

I am enjoying all this discussion. Thanks.

Chap