External floppy/CD-ROM drives

[JayE]

Hi,

Can external USB floppy drives work under DOS? Can they be used to create and run boot disks?

Can external USB CD-ROM drives work under DOS? To load Windows?

I ask because my colleague says that USB devices are only recognised under Windows and cannot be seen by the PC without it. I am hoping this is not true, because it would make it impossible to rely on such an external device instead of an internal one. It would also be a concern if the internal drive(s) fail (as one of my colleagues one did) and an external one was tried to get the system up and running again.

I await your reply. Thank you in anticipation.

Regards,
Jay/UK

 

[TyrantSSV]

USB it is intended for connection of periphery to a computer and is the external interface. FDD and CD-ROM drives are usually internal devices and have interfaces for flexible disks and IDE accordingly. I did not see external USB FDD and CD ROM.
USB support is built in system since Windows 95 OSR2, but in an imperfect kind. Since Windows 98, USB support is advanced. DOS has no support USB, and I did not see any driver of the USB-device for DOS.

 

[JayE]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

External CD-ROMs and external floppy drives seem to be widely available, more expensive than internal ones of course.

Regards,
Jay/UK

 

[cdogg]

As far as I know, you should be able to use USB devices as boot devices if your BIOS supports it. DOS will not support a USB device, but if set in your BIOS, you should be able to select them as bootup devices (not needing DOS at all). ~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[JayE]

Hi,

Very interesting.

Will check out with the devices I am looking at.

Regards,
Jay/UK