Problems booting copied image from CF card

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Hi,

I'm having problems with booting an XPe image from a CF card. The
sequence I use is:

1. Build image in Target Designer, copy to IDE HDD
2. Connect HDD to target, configure as primary master. FBA completes
successfully
3. Shut down, configure HDD as primary slave.
4. Connect 512MB CF card to secondary master.
5. Connect second HDD with XP Corporate installation as primary
master. Boot from this drive.
6. Copy all files from primary slave to secondary master. Power down
& disconnect both primary HDDs.
7. Attempt to boot from CF card.

The symptom is that the Windows desktop (with no icons or taskbar,
just a mouse pointer) appears. After a few minutes a cycle of 3
dialog boxes "Logging on" -> "Applying computer settings" -> "Logging
off" appears, this continues for a further few minutes and is then
replaced by a message "A problem is preventing Windows from accurately
checking the license for this computer".

I think I've covered the most common causes for this:
- FBA drive and CF both have a 420MB primary partition, a 48MB logical
partition, the remainder of the drive is unpartitioned. Boot
partition size is set to 420MB in Target Designer.
- Image includes the Administrator account and Automatic Logon
components, set to log in as Administrator with a blank password.
- Valid PID entered under Run-time Image Licensing.
- Boot drive set to C:\

I have successfully built images for the same target recently, the
only thing I'm aware I've changed is to add components for the Digi
Edgeport/4 and Edgeport/8 USB-serial converters. I can't see how this
change could make it boot OK from the FBA drive, but not the CF.

Anything else I should be checking?

TIA
 
Anything else I should be checking?

Yes, get mbrfix and check the disk signature, see
http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm

Read with this tool the signatrue from your booting hard drive, then use
this tool to write the same signature into your non-booting compact flash.
Hope that helps.
 
Yes, get mbrfix and check the disk signature, seehttp://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm

Read with this tool the signatrue from your booting hard drive, then use
this tool to write the same signature into your non-booting compact flash.
Hope that helps.

OK, just tried that, problem solved - many thanks!

I can't find any mention of this problem on MSDN, or anywhere else for
that matter - surely it must be fairly common?
 
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