Chicken/Egg USB Issue
Dear Fred....I have a computer running 98SE that will only load in safe mode and has vertical lines on the screen. I think the system is shot and would like to copy my many files to CD's on my external USB Iomega CD-RW and transfer them to my other computer. The problem is that from safe mode I can't access the CD-RW. What is the solution? Thanks, Neil H. Christia
Ouch! That's a classic chicken/egg conundrum, Chris: You need the OS to be running to access the USB devices; so backups made to or from an external USB device may not be of much use when you need it most--- when the OS isn't working.
The exact solution to your problem will depend on your exact setup, but I can hopefully point you in some directions that may get you what you need:
Check your system BIOS to see if it supports "boot from USB." The older your hardware, the less likely you are to find this, but it's still worth a look: http://www.google.com/search?q=enter+bios If the option is there, you can try enabling it and then booting from the external USB drive. The fact that it's a USB CD complicates matters; if the "boot from USB" option is there but won't work with your CD, you might consider getting a cheap USB flash drive. For $10 or $20 you can get a small unit that will hold an OS such as Puppy Linux ( http://www.puppyos.com/ ), and boot from that. Once running, Puppy will let you use your CD drive, copy files, make backups, etc.
Slightly more complex, but perhaps more familiar, you also can get DOS or Win98 working on a bootable flash drive, and use the tools there to save your main files: See http://tinyurl.com/lajz2 and http://tinyurl.com/lp5wj
But if you can't get the external devices working directly, you can use a normal DOS boot floppy with USB drivers for DOS. There's usually some trial and error involved in finding drivers that work with each unique hardware setup but here's a running start: http://www.google.com/search?q=usb+from+dos Once you have a working DOS boot disk with USB drivers, you then can use normal DOS copy tools to preserve your main files. If it turns out you also need DOS-level drivers for the CDR, they're available too: http://tinyurl.com/r8dca
There are less direct options, as well: A no-format reinstall of Win98, for example ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-01-11.htm#2 ); or a dual boot setup with Windows or Linux temporarily installed on the hard drive; etc.
There'll be a way to solve your problem, but it's not gonna be pretty or simple. I promise not to turn this into another backup lecture <g>, but this is one of the reasons why I don't recommend using external drives for backups; any backup that depends on a specific, working configuration of hardware and software leaves you vulnerable in those cases when one or many things are hosed. An "image" backup is far more universal, and can be created from or restored to almost any PC, anywhere, anytime. http://langa.com/backups/backups.htm
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