Format CF to NTFS with bootdisk.

[Guest]

I've read a lot of threads concerning problems with booting XPe on CF (NTFS).
I have the same problem.
I have made sure that the CF is primary and active and all that and if I use
FAT it works just fine.

1. NTFS if bootable by default.
2. ntldr MUST NOT BE COMPRESSED.
3. You need to use non-removable CF device.
4. You MUST format CF on taget device so that valid BIOS
geometry is picked up.
5. CF Must be present during the BIOS boot sequence, if
not Win PE will not see valid int 13 geometry.
6. Mark first partition as active.
7. Don't use DOS if you need NTFS.

My problem is that I can have either a CF or a HDD and CD connected to my
target machine. I cannot have both HDD and/or CD and CF connected at the same
time due to the connectors on my target machine. My only option (as I see
it), in order to format the CF on the target machine, is to use a floppy.

My question is if there is some way to format my CF to NTFS using a bootdisk?

Is there any special version of fdisk that must be used in order to use
fdisk /mbr on NTFS disks?

/Thor

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Thor,

Can you have CF and CD connected at the same time?
First XPe CD is bootable and you can use diskpart, and format from WinPE that is on it.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Guest]

Unfortunatly not. I assume that this would solve the problem.
I'n trying PartionMagic 5.0 for DOS right now. According to another forum
that might work.

/Thor

 

[JC]

You won't like the answer, but if you get Partition Magic 8.0 (it's now
Symantec's product) I believe there is a util there you can do on your
development system, to setup your CF NTFS... big pain, but if you don't have
bootable CD on the device, you will have to do it somewhere else. (PM 5.0
does not know how to do this, I think)

HTH,

 

[Guest]

The struggle continues
Well it seems like PM5.0 may be used to format it with NTFS. However when I
place my image on the CF and try to boot it, nothing happens. Not even an
error message.
Does anyone know if the CF must be formatted with format /s? I don't know if
I can set any switches to the format command in PM.
I'll look at PM8.0 version.
Thanks

/Thor

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi,

Can't you use USB boot to prepare CF?
Or do you have an option to move CF to different computer and prepare it there?
Using tools like old diskedit you can prepare MBR PBR manually to work with any LCHS.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Guest]

Another drawback, the current bios does not support booting from USB. But I
will try diskedit.
How about preparing the CF on another machine regarding:
"You MUST format CF on taget device so that valid BIOS geometry is picked up."

Thanks

/Thor

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Thorq,

How about preparing the CF on another machine regarding:
"You MUST format CF on taget device so that valid BIOS geometry is picked up."

Right. Partition CF from DOS on target device with fdisk, and format it with format /S. You will have correct geometry.
Move it to development machine and now you have two choices.
1. Convert it to NTFS.
2. Backup PBR CHS values (two bytes). Reformat partition with NTFS. Put back valid geometry info to PBR.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_ilxl.asp
You are interested in values:
Sectors Per Track
Number of Heads

Regards,
Slobodan
PS:
You can use extra switches in format command in XP to set above two values.

 

[Desi]

I am struggling with the same issue here. I have successfully done this
in the past, but I just spent a 14-hour day trying to get FBA to run on
the target.

I can boot to a USB CDROM (WinPE) and create a single, primary
partition on the CF. I mark it as active, format it to NTFS, and copy
the files to the CF. I then uncompress the ntldr, NTDETECT, and
boot.ini files.

When I try to boot, I get no information after the BIOS printout and
memory test, just a flashing cursor.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Desi,

Delete ntldr. You should get error saying that it is not present. In case that you do not.
Remove active partition flag from first partition. You should get message from MBR. In case that there is no message and you have
same behavior. Please zero-out MBR. And try doing procedure from scratch.

FYI: CF should be connected to computer while BIOS and WinPE boot.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

Just a quick suggestion that may save you some time..

Instead of Partition Magic, you may want to try Paragon Partition Manager. This is very great tool to manage partition under Windows
and DOS.
I have not had any problems with it so far.

It also includes the disk sector editing capabilities that are really easy to use.

 

[Guest]

Hello
I finally got it to work. This is what I did
1) Formatted with bootdisk to FAT on my target machine with format c: (have
not tried /s)
2) bootprep /dC on target machine.
3) Put the image on the CF with my development machine.
4) Boot the Target machine with the CF and let FBA run. (Don't know if this
i necessary)
5) convert /FS:NTFS of the CF with my development machine. Might work on the
target machine as well.
6) Now the CF will boot on my target machine with NTFS.

FINALLY

Thanks everybody who have helped my with this issue.

/Thor