Booting from Compact Flash?

[KA Kueh]

Dear all,

I have build a prototype system and copied the files to a CF card that was
formated with NTFS. The CF card is connected on the target PC via a IDE to
CF adaptor. What I get is a black screen with a blinking cursor on the top
left hand corner after post boot. What did I do wrong?. My question is :

1) How do I prepare the CF to be bootable with NTFS file system?.
2) Is there any specific brand of CF that I must buy to get the system to
boot
via the IDE to CF adaptor?

Thanks.

Regards,
Kueh.

 

[Sean Liming \(MVP\)]

CF cards are IDed as removable so if you format under Windows XP Pro via a
USB to CF adapter, you should use UFDPREP.EXE. UFDPREP comes with FP2007.
The utility can be used to format with NTFS.
If you are using Windows Vista, than the file ntldr needs to be renamed
bootmgr in the XPe image.

As far as CF cards, there are some recomendations here:
http://www.seanliming.com/flashhelp.html

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit

 

[KA Kueh]

Hi,

I need some clarification. I was always under the impression that preparing
the media for CF booting via IDE to CF adaptor has a different approach vs
booting via USB. Also isn't UDFPREP used for preparing USB thumb drive and
not for CF. Need to clear this up. Thanks.

Regards,
Kueh.

 

[Julian Mesa]

If you are not going to use ntfs enhancements I recomend you fat32 (less
intensive use of writes), but after fortmat go to sector 0 and change
offset 0x40 with value 0x80 then you have converted your removable cf to
fixed in ntldr not in windows, now you can boot witouth problems.

Sorry my english, I'm spanish.

Ralph A. Schmid, dk5ras escribió:

 

[Mark K Vallevand]

How did you format the CF? Did you make sure its a non-removable CF? Did
you mark it as bootable?

I have an IDE-CF adapter in my build machine. I use non-removable CFs or
use removables CFs that have a filter driver marking them as non-removable.
I partition the CF and mark the first partition as bootable. Then I copy
the files from my post-FBA hard disk to the first partition. Now I have a
golden XPe CF which is imaged and passed to the next team for application
installation and fbreseal.

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand (e-mail address removed)

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin


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[KA Kueh]

Dear all,

Thanks for the many suggestions. I am looking a the best and easiest way to
prepare a CF card. What I am looking for is to be able to do the whole
process via Windows XP. I know I am asking for might be too much but please
do point me to a step by step method. Thank you.

Regards,
Kueh.

 

[ayumiayaki]

Dear all,

Thanks for the many suggestions.  I am looking a the best and easiest way to
prepare a CF card.  What I am looking for is to be able to do the whole
process via Windows XP.  I know I am asking for might be too much but please
do point me to a step by step method.  Thank you.

Regards,
Kueh.

Dear all,

Thanks for the many suggestions. I am looking a the best and easiest wayto
prepare a CF card. What I am looking for is to be able to do the whole
process via Windows XP. I know I am asking for might be too much but please
do point me to a step by step method. Thank you.

Regards,
Kueh.

Hello,

Im doing the whole process via windows XP.

I've got USB CF card adapter visible as a drive K:

Thats my how to:

1. If you do not already have the Microsoft UFDPrep tool on your
computer then download it to: c:\Program Files\Windows Embedded
\Utilities.
2. Download the FormatCF.bat file to c:\windows\system32
3. Connect the Compact Flash Reader to your computer's USB port
using a Mini USB cable.
4. Open "My Computer" on your desktop or start menu and wait for
the window to load.
5. Insert the Compact Flash Card and make note of the drive letter
that appears with the compact flash card in it. (for this example, my
drive letter is "e:", yours may be different so be extra careful you
make sure you know which drive letter it is).
6. After making a note of the drive letter, close the "My Computer"
window and open a Command Prompt.
7. At the command prompt you should then run the following sequence
of commands:

example: formatcf k:

k: its your letter of cf card drive


You can download formatcf.bat from here: http://zzk.org.pl/ag/xpe/forum/uploads/formatcf.bat


Im not using IDE CF card adapter becasue you have to shutdown your pc
to put new card. Im using IDE CF card adapter on my target devices.

Never had problems with that formating, always work fine

 

[Sean Liming \(MVP\)]

If you use a USB to CF adapter, you can use UFDPREP.EXE to prepare a CF
card. UFDPREP.EXE only see the USB devices as a flash and doesn't know it is
a CF card in the end. Just a little trick using this tool. Save time having
to boot to DOS and use FDISK, FORMAT, and BOOTPREP.

--
Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit