Member Avatar for novice

:confused: I OWN A CTX EZBOOK 800 SERIES LAPTOP WITH AN AMD-K6 333MHZ PROCESSER, 160MB RAM, 4 GB FUJITSU MHC2040AT HARD DRIVE, EXTERNAL PCMCIA 8GB IBM TRAVELSTAR E HARD DRIVE, 1.44 FLOPPY DISK DRIVE, 56K MODEM, AND A Q-LITY 4X4X6 CDRW (MODEL: ECW-043).

PROBLEM:

A FEW DAYS AGO, I DELETED MY WINDOWS 98 OS BY REFORMATTING THE FUJITSU HARD DRIVE BECAUSE I WANTED TO REINSTALL WINDOWS. SINCE I HAVE A USB CDRW DRIVE AND FLOPPY DRIVE, I TRIED BOOTING WINDOWS 98, 98SE, XP HOME, AND XP PRO USING THE WINDOWS FLOPPY BOOT DISKS, AND USED THE WINDOWS INSTALLATION CDS WITH MY USB CDRW DRIVE. HOWEVER, I'VE BEEN VERY UNSUCCESSFUL WITH INSTALLING ANY OF THE OS'.

DOS WILL NOT EVEN RECOGNIZE MY HARD DRIVE OR CDRW DRIVE. THE ONLY COMMAND PROMPTS I CAN ACCESS IS THE A:> AND B:>, NO C:>, D:>, ETC. I SEARCHED EVERYWHERE ON THE NET FOR ONLINE SUPPORT THAT WILL HELP FIX MY PC PROBLEM. I FOUND A FEW GOOD TIPS FROM FORUMS AT ON USING USB 4 DOS DRIVERS TO INSTALL WINDOWS; I MADE SEVERAL BOOT DISKS FROM AND . I TRIED USING ALL USB DRIVERS I COULD DOWNLOAD (DUSE 4.4 & 4.9, MOTTO HAIRU, DATOPTIC'S DAT.EXE USB BOOT, PANASONICS KXLRW21A.EXE, ETC...). HOWEVER, STILL NO LUCK. MAYBE I'M ENTERING THE INCORRECT COMMANDS IN MY CONFIG.SYS AND AUTOEXEC.BAT. ???????? I'M ENTERING THEM EXACTLY HOW I SAW ON THESE WEBSITES.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT APPEARS ON THE SCREEN WHEN I USE A USB DOS CD-ROM BOOT DISK I MADE FROM

Starting Windows 98...
A:>duseldr a:\duse.exe

DUSE VERSION 4.4 Build 110 Release (General)
DOS USB Stack Driver with USB Storage Extentions
Copyright Cypress Semiconductor, 2000-2002

OHCI USB Controller initialized (BASE 0xd1000, IRQ 10)

USB CD-ROM Support enabled
CD-ROM: 'Q-Lity CD-R/RW ECW-043'

UCB Drive support enabled
Drive C: <Not Installed>

Insert diskette for drive B: (what diskette???) and press any key when ready

(action when I press enter key)
Insert diskette for drive A: (again what diskette???) and press any key when ready

(action when I press enter key again)
A:>MSCDEX /D:USBCDROM /S /M:15 /V
MSCDEX Version 2.25
Copyright Microsoft Corp. 1986-1995. All right reserved
Drive D: = Driver USBCDROM unit 0
449392 bytes free memory
0 bytes expanded memory
13388 bytes CODE
2112 bytes static DATA
31212 bytes dynamic DATA
46976 bytes used

A:>_

AND THAT'S IT

I EVEN TRIED RESETTING MY BIOS/CMOS SETTINGS TO ITS ORIGINAL SETTINGS WITH USB SUPPORT ENABLED, BUT NO CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE. MY PRIMARY MASTER HD STILL READS AUTO, AND WHEN MY COMPUTER BOOTS, MY BIOS READS MY HARD DRIVE AS FIXED DISK 0: FUJITSU MHC2040AT (WINDOWS XP CANT EVEN FIX IT).

AS YOU CAN SEE, I AM IN NEED OF MAJOR PC HARDWARE HELP. I AM VERY, VERY NOVICE AT USING DOS, SO IF YOU HELP ME, WE WILL HAVE TO START EXACTLY FROM THE TOP. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ALL OF YOUR REPLIES. :)

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

Generated

Quick diagnosis and practical plan (short): the BIOS can see your Fujitsu drive but DOS will only show C: when the hard disk has a primary DOS partition that is formatted with a DOS/FAT filesystem and is marked active. If a partition is missing, inactive, or formatted NTFS, a DOS floppy boot will only give A: and B:. Use FDISK (or DiskPart from a modern machine) to create/mark a primary active partition and format it so DOS can mount it. (pcjs.org)

If the USB CD shows up under your DOS USB stack (MSCDEX reported a CD-ROM device), the simplest, most reliable route is to copy the Windows installer files from the CD to a FAT partition on the hard drive and start setup from that local folder (the installer in the i386 folder). Copying avoids trying to run a big installer across an unstable USB stack and is a supported install-from-disk method for XP. Example copy command you can run from the DOS prompt after the CD is visible: 

xcopy D:\i386 C:\i386 /s

After the copy, run the installer program found in C:\i386 to begin the text-mode phase. (flylib.com)

Why people hit hangs or “no C:” with DOS USB drivers: DOS USB stacks (DUSE/USBASPI and friends) are third‑party, controller‑specific and imperfect — some only present CD-ROMs read‑only, some don’t support every controller, and MSCDEX plus all those drivers consume precious conventional memory. If setup aborts, strip CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT to the minimum, load drivers high/into UMBs where possible, and use a disk cache (SMARTDRV) before copying. That often fixes freezes and huge copy times. (msfn.org)

If Windows XP later “doesn’t detect” the external CDRW, confirm in Device Manager for unknown devices or resource errors, and check Disk Management (a drive can appear without a letter). Try different USB ports, a powered hub, or test the CDRW on another PC to rule out the drive or cable. Update/uninstall/reinstall drivers or adjust BIOS USB/legacy settings if needed. If nothing works, move the drive (or HDD) to another machine to prepare the install there and then return it. (support.microsoft.com)

Notes tied to the thread: was right to point toward installing from the i386 folder; ’s advice about using full DOS floppies is the right mindset (you need the right partition and minimal drivers); and ’ later hangs are typical of controller/driver mismatches — try copying the installer to the internal disk as described above before spending time on multiple DOS driver variants.

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Member Avatar for BountyX

i understand your fustration, but please don't shout ;)

i would reccomend getting your hands on 6 floppies with the dos OS on it and hope that will fix the failed detection with the hardrive, from there your back to tinker town.

Member Avatar for novice

Hi BountyX,

Sorry for shouting. Just had to let the frustration out one way or another :D! Anyways, I was able to recover my hard drive on a FAT32 file system using FDISK. However, I continue to have problems getting Windows to detect my USB CDRW drive. Windows XP won't even detect it now. All advice is very much appreciated. :cheesy:

Member Avatar for chanto!

1. Use the Windows 98 boot disk and boot to command prompt
2. fdisk the hard drive and create a primary partition, reboot
3. Boot up with the same Windows 98 floppy and go to command prompt
4. format c:
5. Insert your XP/98 cd in the cdrom drive, reboot with your "USB DOS CD-ROM BOOT DISK"
6. C: is your hard drive, and your CDROM drive most likely will be mapped as D:
7. C:
8. D:\i386\winnt.exe to start the xp install. D:\setup.exe for 98, I think.

If you don't want to see the "Insert diskette for drive..." message, then go edit autoexec.bat on your USB DOS CD-ROM BOOT DISK
Between the lines
duseldr a:\duse.exe and MSCDEX /D:USBCDROM /S /M:15 /V
there is a B: line to change drive, REM it out.

Member Avatar for meiti

I have the similar case, but still don't know how to solve it.
So I hope you won't mind me posted it here.

I want to use USB external casing with 40 GB Fujitsu notebook harddisk in it.

I tried several boot disks I made from
http://www.bootdisk.com , etc.
And all usb driver I could download
(DUSE 4.4 & 4.9, MOTTO HAIRU, etc..).

But still no luck.

One type of bootdisk I made was :

config.sys :
dos = high, umb
device=himem.sys
devicehigh=USBASPI1.SYS /v /w /e
devicehigh=DI1000DD.SYS
device=a:\duse.exe
files=100
buffers=60,0

autoexec.bat :
set clipper=f50


When I booted, then displayed :

……………….
……………….
Available ID = 0
ID 0 = HD .. FUJITSU MHV2040AH
#1 : PRI DOS (FAT32) 20975MB drive = C:
#2 : Logical 19034MB drive = D:

DUSE verson 4.4 Build 110 Release (General)
DOS USB Stack Diver with USB Storage Extensions
Copyright Cypress Semiconductor, 2000-2002

EHCI USB Controller initialized (BASE 0xd0000, IRQ 11)
UHCI USB Controller initialized (I/O 0x600, IRQ 10)
UHCI USB Controller initialized (I/O 0x640, IRQ 10)
UHCI USB Controller initialized (I/O 0x680, IRQ 5)

USB CD-ROM support enabled
CD-ROM : <not installed>

USB Drive support enabled
Drive E : <not installed>

- kursor blinking

Then nothing happened when I press any key on keyboard.
It hanged there.


What’s wrong ?
I’ll really appreciate your help.

Best regards,

Meiti

Member Avatar for rubiks

I have a DOS computer with an old parallel printer which broke.
I went to plug in another similar printer but it only had a USB port.
I was wondering if there exists a cable that can go from a 25-pin parallel port in the back of my DOS computer to my USB - b port on the printer.

Meanwhile I have been trying to activate the USB port using this webpage:
http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm

So far there is no recognition. When I tried I got the same error messages above, or my computer just booted with no changes.

Any help?

- Dan

Member Avatar for caperjack

I have a DOS computer with an old parallel printer which broke.
I went to plug in another similar printer but it only had a USB port.
I was wondering if there exists a cable that can go from a 25-pin parallel port in the back of my DOS computer to my USB - b port on the printer.

Meanwhile I have been trying to activate the USB port using this webpage:
http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm

So far there is no recognition. When I tried I got the same error messages above, or my computer just booted with no changes.

Any help?

- Dan

yes there is an adapter from parallel to USB,,computer store like ,the source/radio shack ,future shop ,most will have one or be able to get you one.
http://www.byterunner.com/byterunner/category=USB+to+Parallel+Adapters

Member Avatar for rubiks

I called Radio Shack. They make a wire that connects usb to parallel printer. I need a wire that connects parallel 25-pin to usb (b-side). They do not sell that.

I found some USB drivers for DOS computers but have not gotten them to work yet, or to recognize the printer in the USB port. I went to this webpage:
http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm

What do I do now?

My computer is DOS only. I cannot use any windows items on it.

Member Avatar for caperjack

over my head sorry ! don't know much dos.

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