CF Disk - partitioning and formatting

[Franz Leu]

Hello

I am looking for a reason for the following effect which I don't understand:

When I partition/format(NTFS) a CF Disk attached to the secondary IDE
port of my normal XP SP3 PC, and then copy the XPe image to it, it will
not boot. It throws me a reading error right at the beginning of the
boot. Seems like it can't even access the filesystem correctly.

When I partition/format(NTFS) a CF Disk attached to the secondary IDE
port of an embedded system bootet to XPe, and then copy the XPe image to
it, it will perfectly boot.

The only difference is the partioning/formatting.
Could somebody please explain me this?
What do I have to change to be able partition/format the CF disks with
my normal PC?

Thanks a lot
Franz

 

[DPM]

Windows will only permit one active (bootable) partition at a time. It's
probably C: on your normal PC, so your CF partition can't be active
simultaneously. You could try using "diskpart" to explicitly set the CF
partition active, but I don't think it will work.

Try the partition/copy on your normal PC, move the CF to your target, then
boot WinPE on your target and use "diskpart" to mark it active.

dpm

 

[Franz Leu]

Am 06.01.2010 14:54, schrieb DPM:

Windows will only permit one active (bootable) partition at a time. It's
probably C: on your normal PC, so your CF partition can't be active
simultaneously. You could try using "diskpart" to explicitly set the CF
partition active, but I don't think it will work.

Try the partition/copy on your normal PC, move the CF to your target, then
boot WinPE on your target and use "diskpart" to mark it active.

dpm

Thanks for the info. However, some things look differently: The
partition that windows is currently booted from is listed as 'System'.
Now, windows allows to mark one other partition as active. This is
exactly the same in XP and in XPe (of course, since its the same code base).
- booted windows is csystem) (in XP as in XPe, from primary IDE)
- part. 1 from CF is dactive) (in XP as in XPe, from secondary IDE)
- part. 2 from CF is e: (in XP as in XPe, from secondary IDE)

now booting from CF as single drive resulting in cactive) and d: does
only work if the aboves partitioning has been created from booted XPe

I just dont see the difference ?!?
Franz

 

[DPM]

Am 06.01.2010 14:54, schrieb DPM:

Thanks for the info. However, some things look differently: The partition
that windows is currently booted from is listed as 'System'. Now, windows
allows to mark one other partition as active. This is exactly the same in
XP and in XPe (of course, since its the same code base).
- booted windows is csystem) (in XP as in XPe, from primary IDE)
- part. 1 from CF is dactive) (in XP as in XPe, from secondary IDE)
- part. 2 from CF is e: (in XP as in XPe, from secondary IDE)

now booting from CF as single drive resulting in cactive) and d: does
only work if the aboves partitioning has been created from booted XPe

I just dont see the difference ?!?
Franz

Take a look at this: http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm. Notice the
section "Why do I need this utility?". If the situation he describes is
similar to yours, then it's possible in the XP case no MBR code is written
to your CF.

Worth a try.

dpm

 

[Franz Leu]

Am 06.01.2010 19:41, schrieb DPM:

Take a look at this: http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm. Notice the
section "Why do I need this utility?". If the situation he describes is
similar to yours, then it's possible in the XP case no MBR code is written
to your CF.

Worth a try.

dpm

Thanks. Unfortunately, that was not it. I downloaded and tried his and
some other tool from the web. Repairing the MBR did not help it. Reading
out the infos listed everything as correct. In the error situation I get
a message about an 'error while reading from the drive', 'reboot with
Ctrl+Alt+Del' (translated from German)
What is returning this error? It's not NTLDR, because the ntldr on this
system is an English one. It must be something that came in with
partitioning and formating on the German Win XP.
... still have no clue where the problem is ...
Franz

 

[Sean Liming \(MVP\)]

XP/XPe can only see 1 partition on a removable device. This is by design. If
the CF card is marked as fixed this issue is not a problem. A long time ago,
I would use DOS and the bootprep utility to prepare the CF card on the
target system.

Now, I place the CF card in a USB to CF adapter. I can either use the
ufdprep.exe utility under Windows XP or I just format the CF card under
Windows Vista/7. Of course, udner Windows vista/7 ntldr must be renamed to
bootmgr.

--
Regards,

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

 

[Franz Leu]

Am 07.01.2010 19:25, schrieb Sean Liming (MVP):

XP/XPe can only see 1 partition on a removable device. This is by
design. If the CF card is marked as fixed this issue is not a problem. A
long time ago, I would use DOS and the bootprep utility to prepare the
CF card on the target system.

Now, I place the CF card in a USB to CF adapter. I can either use the
ufdprep.exe utility under Windows XP or I just format the CF card under
Windows Vista/7. Of course, udner Windows vista/7 ntldr must be renamed
to bootmgr.

Sean,

My CF's are fixed drives. I tried your way using ufdprep.exe and this
basically works - never believed anything else . However, I have 2
partitions on my targer a c: and a d: and I am not aware of any other
way to create this except for using a IDE-CF adapter and generating it.
Thats where the adventure starts. It seems to work out properly only if
this is run from a XPe system.
Any suggestion are very welcome and highly appreciated.
Would any solution using ghost be a good way?

Thanks
Franz

 

[Henning]

Am 07.01.2010 19:25, schrieb Sean Liming (MVP):
Sean,

My CF's are fixed drives. I tried your way using ufdprep.exe and this
basically works - never believed anything else . However, I have 2
partitions on my targer a c: and a d: and I am not aware of any other way
to create this except for using a IDE-CF adapter and generating it. Thats
where the adventure starts. It seems to work out properly only if this is
run from a XPe system.
Any suggestion are very welcome and highly appreciated.
Would any solution using ghost be a good way?

Thanks
Franz

You could try UBCD4win on a bootable card/usb-stick. It runs all in ram.
You can set it up to have XP diskmanager to create and format partitions on
the HD.

/Henning

 

[zoran]

hello...
I have problem with SanDisk 64MB compact flash (industrial grade)...
It`s split in 4 partition ( first 3 part. are FAT 12 and forth part. is FAT 16).
the first partition (FAT 12 ) is ACTIVE ONE, and that is only partition that I can
see in any file manager, but data that are important and need to be changed are in forth
part. (FAT 16). This data I can see with PARTITION MANAGER, but I can not change it.
how I can change data on forth partition, or how I can make it ACTIVE.....
I have same card(good one) on other (twin) machine which is in use,so if I can CLONE or COPY one card to another (software and partitions) it will solve my problem,otherwise I must program it step by step.......can somebody help me with this.....
thanks Zoran