onboard CF to ide->CF adapter.....won't boot anymore

dyne · 03-20-2006, 02:11 PM

I have an old single board computer with an onboard CF slot. I had installed win98 on a CF card using the onboard slot, and discovered that the onboard CF was limiting the speed of the CF card

So, I bought an ide->CF adapter. I know the adapter works fine, because I was able to boot off the CF like I had, and read the CF card from my camera using the adapter.

When I plug the CF w/win98 on it into the adapter, I get an "invalid system disk" error when the computer tries to boot.

I've already set up all the software on the win98 install, so I don't really want to go and reinstall win98 onto the CF card using the adapter. Is there a way to get it to work without reinstalling?

edit: the actual error message is "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

roadhog · 03-20-2006, 02:26 PM

Check in the BIOS which disk (CF adaptor) is set as the system disk, or bootable disk. Is the new cf slot is being assigned a different drive letter?

dyne · 03-20-2006, 04:50 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by roadhog

Check in the BIOS which disk (CF adaptor) is set as the system disk, or bootable disk. Is the new cf slot is being assigned a different drive letter?

Im not sure whether or not the CF card is being assigned a different drive letter.

The only option that I can see being relevant is "Boot sequence." I've tried every option with that and get the same "invalid system disk" error when trying to boot

edit: the actual error message is "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

edit2: I get the same error message if there is no disk inserted

SlashEMc2k · 03-21-2006, 08:04 AM

check the boot up order and also make sure you haven`t got a floppy in the diskdrive.

LagunaICE · 03-21-2006, 08:35 AM

BTW I wonder whether you had your CF card write protected.

dyne · 03-21-2006, 11:44 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by SlashEMc2k

check the boot up order and also make sure you haven`t got a floppy in the diskdrive.

I've tried every possible boot up order, to no avail. There also isn't a floppy drive in the computer, so that's not it

Quote: Originally Posted by LagunaICE

BTW I wonder whether you had your CF card write protected.

what exactly do you mean? To limit the write cycles, I just turned of the page file. I doubt the amount of write cycles will destroy the card any time soon, so I figured I'd see how long this one lasted and just buy another one when it dies

faichiu · 03-21-2006, 11:50 AM

Make sure the bios see the CF card like a hard disk.

dyne · 03-21-2006, 03:37 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by faichiu

Make sure the bios see the CF card like a hard disk.

There is an "IDE HDD auto detection" option on the BIOS, which reads out the same data for the CF card, whether it's using the adapter or onboard slot

From that I'm assuming that it sees the CF as a hard drive

matt518000 · 03-23-2007, 03:47 AM

IDE to Compact Flash :

These units allow users to replace traditional hard drives with standard Compact Flash cards.

There are some real nice bennefits to using compact flash in place of a regular hard drive.

These include:
- very low power consumption (less then 0.5W)
- Fast startup, no spin up time, or USB bottleneck
- high transfer rate
- phisically very durable
- compatibility with IDE drivers, nothing special needed
- they are completely silent
- The use commodity (cheap and plentiful) CF cards