Todd

Welcome to Radified!

The most common problem that we see here are questions about USB use by Ghost in DOS--all kinds of compatibility issues, etc.

But your problem is somewhat different--you're attempting to use your USB controller for both loading your boot files from a USB floppy disk drive,...and loading USB drivers to access external USB HDDs.  The problem that occurs is that the USB controller that is initially being supported by your BIOS to allow for booting the floppy disk gets taken over by the USB controller driver that is being loaded from that floppy disk--as soon as that happens, you loose access to the floppy disk drive--which means you can not complete reading the rest of the boot files and loading the rest of the DOS program files.

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This is where your command line in the *config.sys* has just loaded the DOS USB driver that mounts your external USB HDD so DOS can see that drive--and you are getting a *successful* installation message.  So right here, the USB HDD drive has just taken over your USB controller to communicate with the external HDD--and you have now lost access to the USB floppy drive!  That's why:

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But, there's a possible *easy* fix for this!  I don't have a USB Floppy drive setup, so I haven't personally actually tested this--but, as long as your external USB drive is recognized by the DOS USB drivers successfully (there's one more step that has to succeed!--a DOS drive letter has to be successfully assigned to your external USB drive--that hasn't had a chance to occur yet because of your stalled boot)--it should work fine!

I will outline what needs to be done when using the PC-DOS boot files because they all fit on a single floppy drive.  If you attempt to use MS-DOS boot files in the Boot Wizard, it will become a two floppy boot disk set and that will not work with this solution:

First you need to download another DOS driver--The Panasonic USB DOS RAM Floppy Driver--RAMFD.SYS.  When this driver loads during boot, it will copy the files from the floppy disk into a *virtual floppy* drive created in RAM--it's similar to what happens when you use a bootable optical disc.  The system is *redirected* to that virtual drive which will still have the drive letter of A:\, and continue to use the same boot files to complete the boot process--but it is no longer depending on accessing the floppy disk in the USB floppy drive.

So, you simply download the file, and place a copy onto the floppy boot disk that you already created using the Ghost Boot Wizard with the USB DOS files.

So the file list should look like this on the PC-DOS boot disk:

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The *mouse.com* driver used by the Ghost Boot Wizard has a requirement to create an *.ini* file in the directory from which it loads.  Normally, if you boot from the floppy disk in the floppy drive, the first time the mouse driver loads, it creates and writes a copy of that *.ini* file to the floppy disk.  But, because the *virtual floppy drive* that we are going to load is a read-only virtual drive, you will get a *fatal* boot error saying you can not access the A:\ drive in order to save that file to the A:\ disk!

On the other hand, if you have already run the disk in a floppy drive and successfully booted to DOS with the mouse driver, then that *mouse.ini* file will already exist on the floppy disk!

But, if you have not been able to boot from that floppy disk, then we can simply create that file and add it so no boot error will occur.  Open Notepad, and then copy and paste the following onto the blank document page that is present:

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Then select the menu item *File*, the select *Save as...*.  In the next dialog box make sure the *Save in:* is the A\: floppy drive with your boot floppy disk in it, and the *File name:* is *mouse.ini*, and file type is a *.txt* type document--press the save button.

Now, there's one last step--you need to add a command line to the *config.sys* file.  Still using Notepad, use the *File*, then *Open...*--navigate to the *config.sys* file on the floppy drive--you will need to change the *Files of type:* to *All files* to see it.  Open it.  Then copy and paste the highlighted text below into your *config.sys* file in the same location noted below:

PC-DOS *config.sys* file:

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Then select *File*, *Save*.  It will over-write the existing *config.sys* file on the floppy disk with the new one.

Now test boot.

Questions?  Report back if this worked for you!

Todd

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Using a bootable optical disc also by-passes using the USB controller to load the DOS boot programs during boot--bootable optical discs create a *virtual floppy drive* (similar to what I mentioned above for the *ramfd.sys* program)--and doesn't depend on the USB controller at all!

But,  you said this:

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So, I didn't offer the other solution of using a bootable optical disc!

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No, all the files are probably there on the floppy--it's when you load and run the DOS USB driver program that takes over the USB controller to access the HDDs that's creating the problem.  The USB floppy drive is not included in the ability of the DOS USB driver to access the floppy drive--so you loose your connection to the floppy drive--and it can not continue to read and execute the boot files after loading that DOS USB driver.

Are you interested in experimenting?!  I'd be interested if the use of that *ramfd.sys* on a floppy disk and using an external USB floppy drive in fact does solve the issue you were having--so if you can spare the time, I think the feedback would be of interest to the entire forum!