Q: Does ABIT IC7 series boards support booting up the system from USB devices? (IC7 / IC7-G )
A: ABIT IC7 series boards could boot up the system from USB FDD, USB ZIP, USB CDROM, and USB HDD. The settings could be found in "Advanced BIOS Features" page. To boot system up from an USB pen drive or external USB HDD enclosure is a little tricky. Firstly the USB pen drive (or external USB HDD) should be "bootable" and that's the most difficult thing. We list the procedure step by step below.

  1. Prepare a Windows 98SE system with USB driver for USB host installed correctly; for example, an ABIT BE7 system with Intel INF driver, OWC USB 2.0 driver installed.
  2. Install the device driver accompanied with USB pen drive (or external USB HDD); and then there will be a drive letter popping up in Explorer. We assume it is E drive.
  3. Open a DOS prompt box and type the command "SYS E:" without quotation marks. "E:" stands for the drive letter of the pen drive (or external USB HDD).

When above processes done, the pen drive (or external USB HDD) will be able to boot up Windows 98SE in DOS mode. So far we hadn't heard of any way to transfer a Windows ME, 2000, or XP system into a pen drive (or external USB HDD) and make it bootable.