Hi, as we recently had some mails about which BIOS can do what with USB drives, I updated the FAQ a bit - somebody on DeskWork forum posted the URL of a Chip (German PC magazine) article about USB booting. Somewhat old (came along with a 10/2003 USB stick test) but still useful. Check the FAQ:
http://fd-doc.sourceforge.net/faq/cgi-bin/viewfaq.cgi?faq=incoming/316 Some interesting points: - USB mp3 players are often too slow to be detected as boot medium - some USB flash storage brands seem to be too slow to be bootable, too, but I do not know if this is still the case in 2005 - Phoenix and AMI BIOS can use USB storage for int 13 devices even if you do not boot from it. With AMI, you can select: Floppy, Forced FDD (first partition on the USB stick is made visible as A:, even adjusts FAT boot sector values to look as right as a FAT16 A: can look...), harddisk (will be drive 0x80), and even virtual CD-ROM. AWARD BIOS, however, only supports Forced FDD mode and only if you BOOT from USB. - USB 1.1 can do max 1.5 MBy/s, if you subtract the overhead you will end up at 0.9 MBy/s. Even on modern PCs, only SOME of the ports have USB 2.0 support. USB flash memory sticks did at most 8 MBy/s read and 5 MBy/s write in 2003, even though USB 2.0 can be a lot faster. The Chip article: http://www.chip.de/artikel/c_artikelunterseite_10881242.html Enjoy, and let me know if some of this information is outdated by now (e.g. sticks of the "bad" brands are now able to boot, or "bad" BIOS brands are now able to do more things with USB...). Eric (This is related to the "Installing FreeDOS on E:" thread: > >This is done automatically by the BIOS on at least two of my new > >computers. The USB stick gets a drive letter. One of the > >computers will only boot from it if it is a real floppy drive, the > >other offers the option to boot from USB Mass Storage. DOS > >doesn't know that it isn't a second hard drive. When it boots, > >DOS sees the USB stick as C:. No DOS USB drivers are required. > Sounds like bad news. Few available BIOSes seem to provide such a > support for USB, at least that I know of.... > Aitor ...) ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IntelliVIEW -- Interactive Reporting Tool for open source databases. Create drag-&-drop reports. Save time by over 75%! Publish reports on the web. Export to DOC, XLS, RTF, etc. Download a FREE copy at http://www.intelliview.com/go/osdn_nl _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
