[Coco] Bootable PCI USB Card? (On-Topic, really!)

[L. Curtis Boyle]

    I think I had seen one (that was what I was trying to find), but I  
can't remember where. It was within the last 2 weeks, too...


On Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:09:01 -0600, Rod Barnhart <rod.barnhart at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> Unfortunately, those only support CF. I'm not aware of any that supports  
> USB
> and plugs into an IDE cable.
>
> Rod
>
>
> On 6/8/06, L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, 08 Jun 2006 09:46:58 -0600, Roger Merchberger
>> <zmerch-coco at 30below.com> wrote:
>>
>> I know that there is a hardware card that plugs into the IDE cable that
>> will allow you to boot from USB cards (either The Register or The  
>> Inquirer
>> websites just had a review of it). You just plug the hardware into the
>> cable (like a normal hard drive or CD/DVD), and the stick into the
>> hardware. It translates everything on the hardware, so to the computer
>> (and BIOS), it just looks like a normal hard drive, so you can boot with
>> it even on really old machines that don't have USB, never mind USB boot
>> support in the BIOS.
>>     An example I found on the web after a quick peek is here:
>> http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/adidecf.asp
>>     and they are only about $27.00.
>>
>> > OK, this is ontopic. Really, it is!
>> >
>> > There are a few things that I'm having "issues" with in Win2K and  
>> MESS,
>> > so I thought "Instead of diddling with floppies & partitions &  
>> whatnot,
>> > why not set up a bootable USB Key with a dos-only Win98?" so I can run
>> > dos apps to tranfer disks & whatnot (and the JV emulator, which I  
>> bought
>> > many years ago). So I did. I found enough webpages that got me  
>> working,
>> > and now my 2G Sandisk Cruzer Micro is FAT32 formatted, and will boot
>> > from (so far, 3 machines tested) most any machine that can boot from a
>> > USB key.
>> >
>> > Unforch, the 2 machines I wanted to boot this critter from most,  
>> *won't*
>> > boot from a USB key. :-((
>> >
>> > My lappytop I've pretty much given up hope for - they don't publish  
>> BIOS
>> > upgrades for it - it's a support issue for them & you have to ship it
>> > back to them to update the BIOS. I'd have to boot from CD or floppy  
>> with
>> > a kernel that knows how to boot the rest of the way from USB, which
>> > rather defeats the point; but the internal floppy on the critter is
>> > actually USB, so that kinda limited the utility of having a Win98/DOS
>> > booter anyway, so not that big of a loss. Tack on no on-board serial  
>> or
>> > parallel, and that clinches the fact it's pretty much a Winders/Linux
>> > box. No biggie, really.
>> >
>> > My main desktop machine[1] at home, however, was my main hope, but it
>> > doesn't support booting from USB either. It, however, has PCI slots
>> > (Lots of 'em!) and I could add (another) USB card to it if necessary,
>> > *if* that USB card had a BIOS that told the box how to boot from a USB
>> > key plugged into it.
>> >
>> > Does anyone know if such a critter (USB PCI card with it's own  
>> bootable
>> > BIOS) actually exist?
>> >
>> > Yes, a lot of wasted electrons for what some might see as a simple
>> > point, but better too much info than not enough... ;-)
>> >
>> > Thanks!
>> > Roger "Merch" Merchberger
>> >
>> > [1] Tyan 2462 Mobo w/Dual Athlon MP 2600+ CPUs, 6 or 7 PCI slots (most
>> > 64-bit) and can take up to 3.5G RAM. Not bad for a 4-year-old system -
>> > but the USB spec for booting & whatnot didn't exist (or wasn't
>> > solidifed) back when that sucker was built. It was the very first  
>> Athlon
>> > MP motherboard commercially made; and at almost $500, was destined for
>> > serverdom. I had other plans... ;-)
>> >
>> > --
>> > Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | "Bugs of a feather flock together."
>> > sysadmin, Iceberg Computers |           Russell Nelson
>> > zmerch at 30below.com          |
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> L. Curtis Boyle
>>
>> --
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
>
>
>



-- 
L. Curtis Boyle