Booting from USB Floppies OR CD Writing issues.....

[Guest]

Hello there, here's my situation....

I run an IBM ThinkPad T21 with XP SP2 and for some reason, the Combo
DVD/CD-RW drive does not let me actually write to CDs from XP, or from any
other program I've tried. The conclusion I've come to so far (on my own) is
that the firmware of the DVD/CD-RW needs to be updated. However, it can only
be updated with the use of a floppy drive and a reboot. Now since my
particular model has 1 swappable bay, I can only ever have the Combo drive OR
the Floppy drive directly connected to my laptop.... And so I thought a USB
floppy drive would be the answer.... Well it would be if I could get XP to
boot from the darn thing.

I realize this may also be a BIOS issue, I've tried moving my Removable
Devices to the top of the booting order, but XP (or my BIOS) seems not to
recognize the external floppy in this manner. I am at a loss right now with
little to no time to troubleshoot this any further. If nobody can help me
here, I'll try to do what I can with the BIOS maker, but this seemed like an
easier first step.

If anybody has had similar problems or circumstances and has figured out the
solution, please post! I'd like to start having cheap backup capability on
the road as soon as possible.

Thanking in advance.....

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Hello there, here's my situation....

I run an IBM ThinkPad T21 with XP SP2 and for some reason, the Combo
DVD/CD-RW drive does not let me actually write to CDs from XP, or
from any other program I've tried. The conclusion I've come to so far
(on my own) is that the firmware of the DVD/CD-RW needs to be
updated. However, it can only be updated with the use of a floppy
drive and a reboot. Now since my particular model has 1 swappable
bay, I can only ever have the Combo drive OR the Floppy drive
directly connected to my laptop.... And so I thought a USB floppy
drive would be the answer.... Well it would be if I could get XP to
boot from the darn thing.

I realize this may also be a BIOS issue, I've tried moving my
Removable Devices to the top of the booting order, but XP (or my
BIOS) seems not to recognize the external floppy in this manner. I am
at a loss right now with little to no time to troubleshoot this any
further. If nobody can help me here, I'll try to do what I can with
the BIOS maker, but this seemed like an easier first step.

It has nothing to do with Windows XP - you are trying to boot from something
BEFORE any OS has loaded.

If anybody has had similar problems or circumstances and has figured
out the solution, please post! I'd like to start having cheap backup
capability on the road as soon as possible.

Just have a friend make a CD from the bootable floppy diskette you make on
your new USB floppy disk drive. Boot from that CD.

 

[Li'l Roberto]

Hello there, here's my situation....

I run an IBM ThinkPad T21 with XP SP2 and for some reason, the Combo
DVD/CD-RW drive does not let me actually write to CDs from XP, or from any
other program I've tried. The conclusion I've come to so far (on my own)
is
that the firmware of the DVD/CD-RW needs to be updated. However, it can
only
be updated with the use of a floppy drive and a reboot. Now since my
particular model has 1 swappable bay, I can only ever have the Combo drive
OR
the Floppy drive directly connected to my laptop.... And so I thought a
USB
floppy drive would be the answer.... Well it would be if I could get XP to
boot from the darn thing.

I realize this may also be a BIOS issue, I've tried moving my Removable
Devices to the top of the booting order, but XP (or my BIOS) seems not to
recognize the external floppy in this manner. I am at a loss right now
with
little to no time to troubleshoot this any further. If nobody can help me
here, I'll try to do what I can with the BIOS maker, but this seemed like
an
easier first step.

If anybody has had similar problems or circumstances and has figured out
the
solution, please post! I'd like to start having cheap backup capability on
the road as soon as possible.

Thanking in advance.....

A USB pen drive may be your answer, take a look here
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=28700158

rgds
Li'l Roberto

 

[NeoMinds]

In the BIOS there is an option to enable usb for other operating
systems than Windows. You should enable it and reboot with a windows
start up disk that you can make with the format funcion in your xp.
Just copy the bios files to the floppy and reboot it...

NeoMinds
www.neominds.com.mx

 

[Yves Leclerc]

May be known as "legacy USB support"?

 

[D.Currie]

Hello there, here's my situation....

I run an IBM ThinkPad T21 with XP SP2 and for some reason, the Combo
DVD/CD-RW drive does not let me actually write to CDs from XP, or from any
other program I've tried. The conclusion I've come to so far (on my own)
is
that the firmware of the DVD/CD-RW needs to be updated. However, it can
only
be updated with the use of a floppy drive and a reboot. Now since my
particular model has 1 swappable bay, I can only ever have the Combo drive
OR
the Floppy drive directly connected to my laptop.... And so I thought a
USB
floppy drive would be the answer.... Well it would be if I could get XP to
boot from the darn thing.

I realize this may also be a BIOS issue, I've tried moving my Removable
Devices to the top of the booting order, but XP (or my BIOS) seems not to
recognize the external floppy in this manner. I am at a loss right now
with
little to no time to troubleshoot this any further. If nobody can help me
here, I'll try to do what I can with the BIOS maker, but this seemed like
an
easier first step.

If anybody has had similar problems or circumstances and has figured out
the
solution, please post! I'd like to start having cheap backup capability on
the road as soon as possible.

Thanking in advance.....

Just our of curiosity how.why did you determine this is a firmware issue?
You may be going through this exercise for nothing.

 

[Guest]

Well, quite simply, I can think of no other reason for not being able to
write to CD. My computer was made for 98 and 2000 Pro, and I thought the
drive would need to be upgraded to work properly with XP - in point of fact,
the firmware is not up to date, so I thought I'd start there. I'm pretty sure
I have all the right services operational for it to work so the only other
conclusion I could come to was the Combo Drive itself needing a fix.

If it doesn't work when I eventually get this to work, I'll be back here
wondering why XP won't let me use my hardware to its full potential....

Thanks for everybody's input so far!

 

[Guest]

Some More specific information for you....

My BIOS is set with the Removable Devices at the top of the boot order. My
Hard drive is second, and the computer doesn't even try to find the floppy
first. XP's Boot takes right over. My floppy is not searched for until after
XP is loading and my wallpaper us on the screen.

The package that IBM provides is a diskette utility, So I can't boot from
the drive I want to update.

I don't think I have the option in my BIOS to enable booting USB from
another operating system....I'l have to triple-check that.

Tally Ho

 

[Paul Woodsford]

If the Thinkpad came with the combo DVD/CD-RW drive then it should wok with
it's OS,XPSP2.
Check that recording is switched on for the DVD/CD-RW drive.
Start-My Computer-R click the combo drive and select Properties.
On the Recording page select " Recording".
It may have to be switched on each time you replace the DVD/CD-RW drive with
the 31/2 floppy drive.

 

[Guest]

I don't really like repeating myself, but, in the interest of clarity, I will.

My computer was made for 98 and 2000, before XP was released. I did not buy
my computer from IBM, it is a hand-me-down, off a lease. The swappable drive
bay only holds 1 drive at a time - either the Combo drive or a floppy drive,
which I do not own. I must upgrade the firmware from an external USB floppy
because I cannot boot from the device I'm trying to upgrade, the upgrade
utility is a diskette (remember those?) utility from IBM, and it's physically
impossible for two solid objects to occupy the same space and time...go ahead
and try it.

I do agree that the OS should support it, and in point of fact, XP supports
every function on this drive EXCEPT recording. I have gone through every
exercise I can think of to get it to work (including enabling recording -
which was never disabled in the first place, it's always been enabled when I
try) and nothing is working. The firmware upgrade to the Combo drive is
really the only option I have left before I write a letter to Bill about how
Windows managed to let this piece of hardware fall through the cracks.

Putting my removable devices at the top of the BIOS boot list has no effect
as XP takes over pretty much the instant my booting process begins. Now, the
one piece of info that I have left out to this point is that my copy of XP is
an upgrade to 98, not a full version. I doubt this has anything to do with
the problem, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

Thanks for everyone's input so far, but I'm no closer to solving this than
when I started. Perhaps someone could recommend a different group or
community wher I could get help....

 

[Lem]

I upgraded the firmware on my IBM combo DVD/CD-RW drive (which has never been all
that reliable anyway) when I upgraded my Thinkpad from 98se to XP. Fortunately
for me, my A22 has both a built-in floppy drive and the multi-purpose drive bay.

Boot from USB is a BIOS feature. If you don't see anything like this in your
current BIOS, perhaps you could upgrade to the latest BIOS. See
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=BMOE-3VAM8Y#t

On the other hand, since you said that you could move your removeable devices to
the top of the list, it sounds like your BIOS already should support this.

If "XP takes over pretty much the instant my booting process begins" you are not
booting from the floppy but from your hard drive. There is no XP on the floppy.
See if step 2.g at
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-4YQHJY
offers any help.

Try Googling +"boot from USB" +XP Here, for example, is a lengthy thread that
might help, although it's mostly concerned with booting from a USB thumbdrive
(includes several comments on why you can't boot TO WinXP from a USB device; this
should not be your problem, because the IBM firmware flash diskette should not be
attempting to boot to XP, but rather to some DOS or Unix type of OS):
http://www.aaltonen.us/archive/2004/03/01/tip-boot-from-usb-key-addendum/

Otherwise, you might have to find a friend (or a local computer repair shop) with
an IBM laptop that has both a floppy drive and a drive bay.