> Just wanted to add to the above by saying it would be awesome if a
> semi-full USB stack would exist. Basicly: recognise USB equipment
> whenever not booting from it.

The problem generally preventing drivers from doing that is that, first,
taking over the controllers disables any BIOS compatibility handlers, and
second, you can't even reliable find out which devices are/were handled by
these BIOS USB handlers because no BIOS interfaces for that are
known/exist.

> I'd wish C: wouldn't be assigned to USB drives anyway, but guess DOS is
> depending on BIOS USB harddisk emulation anyway so we're out of luck.

It's trivial to change DOS drive assignments in software (and there's
already utilities available to do just that), and even Int13 unit numbers
can be adjusted or exchanged by installing a resident handler.

Rambling ahead.

So a program could be written which would determine what drive DOS was
booted from, and which would then make that drive disappear (or move it
elsewhere). Afterwards, it could move all following drives "down" to fill
the gap. For example, if it detected DOS was booted from drive C, it could
move that drive elsewhere and then move drive D (if it exists) to drive C,
E to D, and so on. Similarly, if DOS was booted from drive A, then it
could move the drive currently accessed as B to A. A similar method could
be utilized to change the Int13 disk unit assignment.

This program could then be utilized in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT of a
file system booted off a USB drive or as image from a CD, to correct the
drive letter and disk unit assignments.

In the case the USB drive or whatever wasn't booted from (but still is
made to appear as unit 80h / drive C because of how the BIOS handles it)
then the program would need to detect such drives somehow, or be
instructed by the user on which drives to move.

Regards,
Christian

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