Re: Off topic: flash drives and DOS diehards

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Patricia M Godfrey wrote:

> Speaking of Flash drives, I thought some here might be amused to know that
> the one I got myself (and another for a friend) is perfectly visible to
> DOS: gives me a directory, XCOPIES, XyWrite sees it

Well, that's interesting, Patricia. The one I got is the SanDisk Cruzer Mini
(512 Mb) -- about $45. at Costco. (Do they have Costco back East ?) I
thought the *first* big problem there would be a suitable USB-2 driver for
DOS . . . though I gather they exist. I've never had occasion to try to
access a USB device under real DOS myself, but it would be nice to know that
it's possible.

> --but Windows My Computer resolutely insists it doesn't exist. It's there
> in Control Panel, so the problem is probably in drive-letter assignments

Uhm, maybe more a W95 or W98 thing. One of the few good things I have to say
about Win, say from W2K on, is that their implementation of USB is
transparent, reliable, and nearly goof proof.

> cannot imagine a system with letters C through I in use

Not for use in DOS, but I routinely have drive assignments out to U, for W2K
and eCS.

> nor that unusual drives are often classed as SCSI.

Possibly because some of them actually are. For example, the old Par. Port
Zip drive has a SCSI interface under the covers, but it converts such that it
looks like a Parallel interface to the computer.


Jordan