USB CD/DVD support for MS-DOS

I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked (until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine, but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the 300MB of win98SE
instead.

On 5/15/2010 17:32, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked (until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

No, that won't work. That's not what "Net use" does, and even if it did
"Net [command]" is an NT shell command. It can't be invoked from DOS or
Win9x.

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine, but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of win98SE
instead.

Doesn't the SSD have a SATA interface? That may be the source of your
"Disk I/O error".

If it is SATA, check if the BIOS allows you set the controller to
"legacy" mode.

For DOS USB support, there is good information here-
http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm

As an alternative, you might be better off installing one of the various
Linux distros. You can probably find something decent within your SSD
size constraints that also supports USB and SATA. I'm not familiar with
the eee pc, but I doubt you'll find 9x drivers written for whatever
devices are included with the machine.

On 5/15/2010 17:32, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked (until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

No, that won't work. That's not what "Net use" does, and even if it did
"Net [command]" is an NT shell command. It can't be invoked from DOS or
Win9x.

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine, but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of win98SE
instead.

Doesn't the SSD have a SATA interface? That may be the source of your
"Disk I/O error".

If it is SATA, check if the BIOS allows you set the controller to
"legacy" mode.

For DOS USB support, there is good information here-
http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm

As an alternative, you might be better off installing one of the various
Linux distros. You can probably find something decent within your SSD
size constraints that also supports USB and SATA. I'm not familiar with
the eee pc, but I doubt you'll find 9x drivers written for whatever
devices are included with the machine.

On 05/15/2010 04:32 PM, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked (until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine, but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of win98SE
instead.


If your bios supports booting from USB
take that option
then just boot from your win98 cd

that assumes it's bootable


the ones I have are but I do not know if all win98 cd;s are bootable

On 05/15/2010 04:32 PM, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked (until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine, but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of win98SE
instead.


If your bios supports booting from USB
take that option
then just boot from your win98 cd

that assumes it's bootable


the ones I have are but I do not know if all win98 cd;s are bootable

"philo" wrote in message
...
On 05/15/2010 04:32 PM, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no
internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have
tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked
(until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for
USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same
for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine,
but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of
win98SE
instead.


If your bios supports booting from USB
take that option
then just boot from your win98 cd

that assumes it's bootable


the ones I have are but I do not know if all win98 cd;s are bootable

"Retail" Win98 discs are not bootable.
The OEM discs generally were bootable, but I'm not sure an OEM copy
would be a good choice.

Win98 is probably not a good choice altogether, not the least of the
reasons being there won't be drivers available for this hardware.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009
A+
http://dts-l.net/

"philo" wrote in message
...
On 05/15/2010 04:32 PM, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no
internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have
tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked
(until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for
USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same
for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine,
but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of
win98SE
instead.


If your bios supports booting from USB
take that option
then just boot from your win98 cd

that assumes it's bootable


the ones I have are but I do not know if all win98 cd;s are bootable

"Retail" Win98 discs are not bootable.
The OEM discs generally were bootable, but I'm not sure an OEM copy
would be a good choice.

Win98 is probably not a good choice altogether, not the least of the
reasons being there won't be drivers available for this hardware.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009
A+
http://dts-l.net/

"Bill Blanton" wrote in message
...
On 5/15/2010 17:32, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no
internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have
tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked
(until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for
USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same
for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

No, that won't work. That's not what "Net use" does, and even if it
did "Net [command]" is an NT shell command. It can't be invoked from
DOS or Win9x.

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine,
but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of
win98SE
instead.

Doesn't the SSD have a SATA interface? That may be the source of your
"Disk I/O error".

If it is SATA, check if the BIOS allows you set the controller to
"legacy" mode.

For DOS USB support, there is good information here-
http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm

As an alternative, you might be better off installing one of the
various Linux distros. You can probably find something decent within
your SSD size constraints that also supports USB and SATA. I'm not
familiar with the eee pc, but I doubt you'll find 9x drivers written
for whatever devices are included with the machine.

This is my preferred tool for formatting and making a bootable a USB
flash stick -
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - v2.1.8
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

A large enough stick can hold all the installation files for an
OS....there are tutorials online for installing Windows 7 from a USB
flash drive, that can be modified for installing other operating
systems:

http://www.bwana.org/2009/01/11/how-...without-vista/

http://gizmodo.com/5257386/how-to-in...st-any-netbook

The best OS for this unit is the Ubuntu Netbook Edition, although I
think that may be the OS that was on it originally....the OP may have
removed it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Netbook_Edition

http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story...6-003-35-OS-UB

I agree, most likely there will NOT be drivers available for Win98 using
this hardware.

--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009
A+
http://dts-l.net/

"Bill Blanton" wrote in message
...
On 5/15/2010 17:32, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no
internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have
tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked
(until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for
USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same
for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

No, that won't work. That's not what "Net use" does, and even if it
did "Net [command]" is an NT shell command. It can't be invoked from
DOS or Win9x.

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine,
but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of
win98SE
instead.

Doesn't the SSD have a SATA interface? That may be the source of your
"Disk I/O error".

If it is SATA, check if the BIOS allows you set the controller to
"legacy" mode.

For DOS USB support, there is good information here-
http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm

As an alternative, you might be better off installing one of the
various Linux distros. You can probably find something decent within
your SSD size constraints that also supports USB and SATA. I'm not
familiar with the eee pc, but I doubt you'll find 9x drivers written
for whatever devices are included with the machine.

This is my preferred tool for formatting and making a bootable a USB
flash stick -
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - v2.1.8
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

A large enough stick can hold all the installation files for an
OS....there are tutorials online for installing Windows 7 from a USB
flash drive, that can be modified for installing other operating
systems:

http://www.bwana.org/2009/01/11/how-...without-vista/

http://gizmodo.com/5257386/how-to-in...st-any-netbook

The best OS for this unit is the Ubuntu Netbook Edition, although I
think that may be the OS that was on it originally....the OP may have
removed it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Netbook_Edition

http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story...6-003-35-OS-UB

I agree, most likely there will NOT be drivers available for Win98 using
this hardware.

--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009
A+
http://dts-l.net/

On 05/16/2010 08:04 AM, glee wrote:
"philo" wrote in message
...
On 05/15/2010 04:32 PM, Alphanumeric wrote:
I am trying to install my old win98SE on my eeepc 4G which has no
internal
CD/DVD drive but DOS will not recognise my USB DVD drive. I have tried
copying the CD files onto an SDHC card and installing, which worked
(until I
restarted) when I was met with "Disk I/O error". I have read that for
USB
printers on XP "NET USE LPT1" is supposed to work. Is this the same
for USB
CD/DVD drives? (net use cdrom!?)

I have already used XP on this computer previously, which works fine,
but it
takes up most of my 4GB SSD space, so i'm going with the300MB of
win98SE
instead.


If your bios supports booting from USB
take that option
then just boot from your win98 cd

that assumes it's bootable


the ones I have are but I do not know if all win98 cd;s are bootable

"Retail" Win98 discs are not bootable.
The OEM discs generally were bootable, but I'm not sure an OEM copy
would be a good choice.

Win98 is probably not a good choice altogether, not the least of the
reasons being there won't be drivers available for this hardware.



yes

you are right...there would not be win98 drivers
so the OP would have a very limited Win98 installation

I'd probably just stay with XP
and put any data onto an external drive
or just plain bite the bullet and get a larger drive

I've seen 32gig drives for about 100 USD