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8790 cannot boot using External USB CD-RW Drive?

post #1 of 5
7/6/04 at 6:06pm
Thread Starter 
Just trying to elimiate some problems I'm having, is it true that some laptops or should I say is it true the Sager 8790 cannot boot from an External USB CD-RW Drive i.e. to MSDOS (using a MSDOS CD boot disk)?
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post #2 of 5
7/6/04 at 6:11pm
Why are you using an external rather than the internal? MSDOS doesn't recognize USB. Are you really trying to boot into MSDOS or it it WINDOS?
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post #3 of 5
7/6/04 at 7:57pm
Thread Starter 

Okay, here goes...

G-Omagh,

In previous 'Threads' I've asked a few questions that you can look up but to put you in the picture, I have a Sager 8790 with pretty much the top specs this laptop can have. I have Windows XP Pro installed and use PowerQuest Drive Image 2002 (version 6)--(the software is not actually installed I am using the emergency CD boot disks and that is okay). The problem I have is that when Drive Image reboots the laptop, it hangs/freezes the laptop after the splash screen. According to Symantec Technical Support (web support) this may be due to Drive Image not being able to handle the graphical user interface (GUI) at DOS level--another possibility, speaking to a live Tech. support guy at Symantec, he said it is because Drive Image sees the CD ROM as a fixed disk and looks for a boot record on the CD ROM Drive, can't find one so ends up in a never ending loop hence the laptop freezes and the only option is to press the power on/off button. I thought of physically removing the CD ROM to see if that makes any difference but another problem I've come up against is that not all laptops (trust the 8790 to be one dam it!) can boot from an External USB CD-RW Drive which is strange, because I have booted to MSDOS using an External USB 3.5" Floppy Drive. And to confuse matters PowerQuest Partition Magic 8.01 when run from DOS can see the Hard Drive okay so it seems Drive Image sees the CD ROM as a fixed disk yet Partition Magic (probably sees it too) moves on to look further and picks up the Hard Drive boot record okay. If I physically remove the internal CD ROM (hopeing that Drive Image will see the Hard Drive as no IDE Master 0 or 1 is installed) I will need to boot from an External CD-RW. I also want my images created by Drive Image stored on CDR's so will need the use of an External CD-RW but if an External USB CR-RW Drive are not seen by the BIOS at bootup I guess that's it!
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post #4 of 5
7/6/04 at 9:05pm
A couple of questions now that I see what you are doing and maybe a couple of things for you to try.

Questions first. Do you have multiple drives and is RAID enabled? When "Cutting" the backups (if you did), were these cut to the USB Drive? Did you try this, but first disable USB 29 (See Page 5-10) of the 8790 Manual and enable the Legacy USB Support in the BIOS Advanced Menu? When you disable USB Device 29, the only USB port (either external or internal) enabled wil be the one on the Lower Rear of the 8790. You will need to use that port.

I as going to try with my external stups; however, am in the middle of creating some VCR's to DVD's for a client and they are due tonight.

Now a couple of things to try. First, let's get Drive Image out of the picture. See if you can get a CD ISO of MemTest86, burn that image to a CD (Using the original machines CD-R burner) and then try to boot off it after disabling the other USB ports.

Forgot to mention the first device in the "list" of bootable devices should be the "External Devices".


I did a very brief "snoop" and found the following: http://www.dealtime.com/xPR-Powerque...on_PC_DM60ENK1

Indicates that this version of the software does not support USB. Look at supersnapps comments as they appear to be the most relevant - read all is suggested.
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post #5 of 5
7/6/04 at 11:25pm
OK, I tried it and have found that the only USB device that is supported by the 8790's Bios is a Floppy.

Sorry, but you are not going to be able to boot a CD-ROM attached via USB or FieWire.

I did not try a HDD; however, believe that may work - No ATAPI drivers would be required.

Edit: Try reading through these articles, etc...: http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse...S/Drivers/USB/
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