My method for setting up CF card and cloning

[David D]

All,
I have appreciated everyone's help getting my OS to work on a CF card. Here
are some notes on the process I follow to get it done:
I use a 512MB or 256MB CF card from http://www.transcendusa.com/. I get them
shipped to me already set to non-removable. These CF cards are also rated
for a larger than normal write cycle life. They are also faster to write to
than your average CF card as well. Although I am still exploring more CF
choices, this is what I have working now. I am currently using an Embedded
board with a VIA 800Mhz or 400Mhz processor from Advantech. In Addition, I
am also using a PCM5820 embedded mother board also from advantech with a
300Mhz Geode (I don't use the sound feature though).

Setting up a CF card with XP Embedded

Requirements

A Target system with a 40 Pin IDE header and 1 HD Drive loaded with XP Pro
and a second drive set up with a Compact flash to IDE converter from
http://www.mesanet.com.

Main Drive set up with XP Pro should be fully installed with all the
appropriate drivers loaded.

You must have the ability to switch which drive the system boots to either
by changing the Master/Slave jumper on the HD and the IDE to CF converter
board, or by selecting the first boot drive in the Bios. If your PC you are
doing this is not the same as your Target PC or processor, then when you run
the FBA, you will just need to move the CF card to your target.

CF card set to non-removable media



I will also add that I am using the latest Hotfix EWF and that is working
fine.



a.. Build your OS in Target Designer
b.. Boot the system to the XP Pro drive and a Blank CF card in the CD to
IDE converter board.
c.. Right click My Computer and then select Manage
d.. Click Disk Management
e.. Delete the partition for the CF Drive (D: usually)
f.. Reboot (I have found that failure to reboot at this point sometimes
causes failures in the boot of XPe later on)
g.. Right click My Computer and then select Manage
h.. Click Disk Management
i.. Right Click CF Drive (D: usually) and select "New Partition"
j.. Select Primary Partition
k.. Select Next when disk size is shown Select Next (Assigning drive
letter)
l.. Format w/ NTFS, Default Allocation, Give your CF card a volume name
m.. Click Finish
n.. Wait until it shows Partion as "(Healthy)
o.. Right click and make partion Active
p.. Reboot
q.. Copy Xpe Pre FBA image onto CF card (Takes 5-15 minutes depending on
size, computer speed, and CF speed)
r.. Reboot using CF drive as boot drive (Jumpers or Bios). Or if your
Target is another PC or device, put the CF card into it now and boot.
s.. Let FBA run
t.. Add more apps or drivers

I am using the following Hardware to duplicate my images:
http://www.logicube.com/products/hd_duplication/echo.asp
I use this with 2 of the IDE to CF card adaptors from Mesa.
I set it to Mirror&Verify. The Smart Copy feature did not work for me.
When making copies, each CF card has to be same brand and size.
Once again, EWF works after cloning

My next thing is work on doing the reseal process before cloning and test
the ability to have each CF card have a new SID.

Good Luck All,
David

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

Hi David,

Nice, but too much restarts for my taste.

You can try my solution to this problem that is working for HDD, so it
should work for CF. But please let us know it is working for CF as well.

Create prep.txt file with following:
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary noerr
select partition 1
active
assign letter=Z noerr

Create preparedisk.bat with following:
@diskpart /s prep.txt
@format Z: /FS:NTFS /V:MyDisk



Make special care for command "select disk 1" since is will erase your disk
completely. Numbers start with 0, but consult
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=300415 for more info.

So preparation will be one step.
You run batch file, and wait for it to ask you to format partition (BTW: if
anyone know how to bypass this prompt in Windows XP format I will appreciate
it).

You can place in batch file some copy command (like xcopy) this will allow
you real one pass prepare and deploy.

If this works for you it will save you great deal of time.

Drawback to all of this is that we must use NTFS.


Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Johannes Stratmann]

I do it similar. Only for testing and FBA I run the Image from a HD
connected to the target system. For further deployment I copy the image to
the CF and I make a harddisk image with PowerQuest's DriveImage. If
DriveImage runs under W2k or XP the CF must be non-removable, NT 4 or Dos
don't care this (DriveImage runs also under NT or Dos).

But I hope also MS addresses this special subject 'XPe on CF' and simplifies
something (with easier preparation tools). You can see from the responses
here that CF is very important for many XPe engineers. Something very
difficult is that the LBA mode is different in the various BIOS versions and
the windows disk driver. I would need a tool where I can format and
partition a CF with cylinders/heads/sectors that match my target system.

 

[David D]

It would save a TON of grief and cost if we did not have to make the media
non-removable to do all this as well as use the EWF.
MS, please keep us in business so we can buy more XPe liscences!

If I could save $$$ on CF cards by not being restricted to using
non-removable, I may be able to sell more product!

I"m not sure if MS understands how big of an issues this is. I think they
would since it seems like 25% of all the posts are "can't get EWF" working."

David

 

[Anil Ingle]

Are you using RAM based overlays? You can reply off-line (anilingl at
NOSPAMPLEASE microsoft dot com) if you like.
-Anil[MS] This posting is provided AS IS. It provides no warranties and
confers no rights.

 

[David Ditch]

Yes, Ram based overlay

David

Are you using RAM based overlays? You can reply off-line (anilingl at
NOSPAMPLEASE microsoft dot com) if you like.
-Anil[MS] This posting is provided AS IS. It provides no warranties and
confers no rights.

It would save a TON of grief and cost if we did not have to make the media
non-removable to do all this as well as use the EWF.
MS, please keep us in business so we can buy more XPe liscences!

If I could save $$$ on CF cards by not being restricted to using
non-removable, I may be able to sell more product!

I"m not sure if MS understands how big of an issues this is. I think they
would since it seems like 25% of all the posts are "can't get EWF" working."

David

image

to versions
and

 

[Anil Ingle]

Did you look at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnxpesp1/html/XPESP1_CF_EWF.asp

HTH

-Anil [MS] This posting is provided "AS IS". It provides no warranties and
confers no rights.

Yes, Ram based overlay

David

Are you using RAM based overlays? You can reply off-line (anilingl at
NOSPAMPLEASE microsoft dot com) if you like.
-Anil[MS] This posting is provided AS IS. It provides no warranties and
confers no rights.

It would save a TON of grief and cost if we did not have to make the media
non-removable to do all this as well as use the EWF.
MS, please keep us in business so we can buy more XPe liscences!

If I could save $$$ on CF cards by not being restricted to using
non-removable, I may be able to sell more product!

I"m not sure if MS understands how big of an issues this is. I think they
would since it seems like 25% of all the posts are "can't get EWF" working."

David
I do it similar. Only for testing and FBA I run the Image from a HD
connected to the target system. For further deployment I copy the

image

to
the CF and I make a harddisk image with PowerQuest's DriveImage. If
DriveImage runs under W2k or XP the CF must be non-removable, NT 4

or
Dos

don't care this (DriveImage runs also under NT or Dos).

But I hope also MS addresses this special subject 'XPe on CF' and
simplifies
something (with easier preparation tools). You can see from the responses
here that CF is very important for many XPe engineers. Something very
difficult is that the LBA mode is different in the various BIOS versions
and
the windows disk driver. I would need a tool where I can format and
partition a CF with cylinders/heads/sectors that match my target system.


All,
I have appreciated everyone's help getting my OS to work on a CF card.
Here
are some notes on the process I follow to get it done: