Re: how to access a mass storage device before OS loads

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

If you tell us exactly what it is that you're trying to accomplish there may be other solutions to your problem.

If what you want is load a big kernel from USB stick because you don't have enough flash or ..., then the following solution is a possibility:

2 stage load: 1st stage loads a tiny kernel (< 1MB) from *flash* (or whatever "easy-to-access-from-bootloader" storage) with just USB support, that kernel starts a program that loads the big kernel from USB stick in RAM and jumps to this kernelimage in RAM. If it's just a file you need to read this could be your solution as well...

Let us know what you are trying to accomplish here.

Good luck,

Michel Verhagen, eMVP
Check out my blog: http://GuruCE.com/blog

GuruCE
http://GuruCE.com
Consultancy, training and development services.


Dean Ramsier wrote:
Everything the others said is correct. But just to make sure we're clear, you do understand that the bootloader does *not* normally provide any support whatever for USB right? The bootloader does *not* load the proper USB drivers, or any other driver. The job of the bootloader is to load the OS image from whereever it may reside. That usually isn't on a USB stick because it is too difficult to access.

The feature you're asking for is commonly asked for, rarely delivered because it is highly complex.

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