Formatting difficulties

[Cathy01020]

Hi, I have come across a compact flash which seems unable to boot XPe.
The SanDisk Extreme IV gives me "disk error" upon boot.

I have tried the following commands, as well as many variations..
these have worked for me with every other compact flash I have tested.
I am able to boot via USB using the USB 2.0 boot component. I have
also set the compact flash to fixed disk mode as well as the original
removable, neither with any success.

1. fdisk /mbr
fdisk (create, set active)
reboot
format D: /S
copy bootprep.exe D:
reboot, physically remove C:
bootprep /dC

2. XP CD (all of these many times!)
format C: with NTFS, quick
format C: with FAT, quick
format C: with NTFS
format C: with FAT

3. diskpart

4. the above fdisk method, then convert D: /FS:NTFS

I tried the previously mentioned method of copying over only boot.ini
and ntldr onto the compact flash. This gives me the same error. When I
remove ntldr, I get "ntldr is missing".

This leads me to come to the conclusion that this card either cannot
boot XPe, or I have a bad card. The problem is, the card can be
accessed on any of the OS without error. Has anybody else tried this
card? I am willing to try anything at this point..

 

[KM]

Cathy,

Have you tried the MbrFix tool I have mentioned in this newsgroup quite a few times?
You can download it from here: http://www.sysint.no/Nedlasting/MbrFix.htm.

You post is somewhat confusing though becuase "disk error" usually comes before it gets to the ntldr phase. You however mentioned
that if you remove ntldr it gives you another error such as "ntldr is mising".
Just in case, please set non-zero timeout in the boot.ini to see if at least you get to the ntldr menu. If you do, the MBR is
obviously not your problem.

 

[Cathy01020]

Thank you for your assistance with this, KM.

I have tried the mbrfix tool previously, but I still receive the same
error message.

I know what you mean. That is one of the reasons why I suspect this
card has some issues. When I first started using the SanDisk CF cards,
I didn't know to bootprep on FAT32 images, and I received this error
on some instances. Back then I ended up setting the CF to fixed disk,
and directly formatted NTFS through the CD. Now both the fdisk method
and the NTFS on target machine method have been used quite a bit with
consistent success, but just never with this card..

When I tested with only ntldr and boot.ini, I made sure to set the
time long enough for me to see if the screen comes up. I also tried
switching compact flash adapters, IDE 40/80 ribbon cables, and even
target machines.

I should also note that a regular XP SP2 CD couldn't install either.

 

[KM]

I should also note that a regular XP SP2 CD couldn't install either.


Ah, this is important piece of info and I was actually thinking to ask you this but forgot while was typing previous reply

Anyway, sounds like you have already tried pretty much all tools we typically use here. There are some other great 3rd party tools
for partitioning and formatting (I personally like Paragon Partition Manager) but quite frankly I have a serious doubt those can
help you to fix the issue with that card.

If you are willing to spend more [much more] time on this , you may want to get your hands on bytes and bits of the MBR and boot
sector records. You can verify if those reflect what's intended for that software. You use a Hex Editor for that or a Disk sector
edition tool. There are are plenty of such software tools available on the Web. However, It is typically time consuming approach
unless you've done that many times before.

I'd actually swap the card with another card of the same brand or different brand, if acceptable. If it works there on the same
hardware, it is likely your Sandisk Extreme IV card is damaged or broken. If it doesn't work for the same brand but another card, it
may be a problem of the firmware of the card.

Btw, if I couldn't get DOS running on the card (the fdisk approach you mentioned previously) I'd throw out the card right away.

 

[Cathy01020]

Thank you for your help with this.

That MBR approach sounds like a viable option. Somewhere along the
line while I was attempting to get this card to work, I tried a low
level zerofill utility. I think I remember seeing some documentation
for the hex editing on this forum. I will search for it.

Either way, you are correct. If it is this much trouble, it has to be
the card.. I really hope SanDisk did not modify this one to prevent us
from booting XPe with it, using up all the write cycles. I think it is
the most expensive one, after all.

 

[jimt]

For what it is worth, I remember seeing this in the "Windows XP Embedded
Service Pack 1 Resource Guide":
"It is possible for the wrong drive geometry to be reported to Windows,
so it's better to use the manufacturer's utility instead of FDISK."

Just a guess...