sebberry

Hey guys,

I did search but got mixed results that I have a hard time deciphering so I am going to post this here...

Here's what I have done so far:

Installed XP Professional on my target system (a Single Board Computer with a built in CF slot) onto a standard laptop drive, set up all the drivers, etc... then used the Target analyzer program to create a file that I imported into target designer.

I did what I needed to do there, built the image and copied it onto a CF card.

Now, the CF card comes up as IDE2 (Secondary Master) on the motherboard, but I cannot get it to boot.

I have set up the CF card as a NTFS drive, is there something else I need to do to make it bootable?

Thanks!

SFiorito

have you read Microsoft's documentation on how to deploy to a CF card? Since your CF slot is on IDE2 have you configured your BIOS to boot from that channel? What's your boot.ini file point to?

sebberry

Yes, I read about BootPrep and how you don't need to use it on a NTFS formatted card, and I do have the BIOS set to boot from IDE 2.

However, I didn't think to edit the boot.ini file, so I will try that and see how it goes.

Thanks pal!

ignatz42

Did you see this? http://mason.gmu.edu/~sfiorito/eXPinstall.htm

DIGItonium

Be very patient... first time booting off the CF card after installing XP will take awhile.

After a few starts and restarts, it gets faster. With EWF and MiniLogon (only after you 'install' your programs), it'll be even quicker.

sebberry

I just wanted to get past the "no boot device found" error from the BIOS on startup

SFiorito

How did you format the CF card? Did you make it active?

sebberry

changed my boot.ini file to look for Windows on disk 2 but no go

sebberry

I just formatted it FAT32 in Windows then converted it to NTFS using the convert util in a command dialog box.

The problem is that I don't have an IDE-cf adaptor, and while the CF slot is on the IDE bus on my target system, I do not have a floppy drive for it.

And yes, the card is "Active"

DIGItonium

What kind of board do you have, and can you verify it supports booting off CF? I read somewhere certain [VIA] boards do not support booting from CF despite having a CF slot integrated to the IDE bus.

You can probably find a CF-IDE adapter locally for about $10. I know a computer store nearby that sells one :-)

sebberry

This is the board. One of the reasons I got it was so I could boot off CF.... well, and the size.

http://www.advantech.com/products/Mo...ZQW&BU=ACG&PD=

SFiorito

Ok, you said you installed XP on the target system on a regular HDD. So from that XP installation format and partition the CF card with NTFS marking it active.

I think the problem is that you're converting it from FAT32 to NTFS.

DIGItonium

What CF card are you using? Probably MBR issue.

FAT32 -> NTFS might be another issue. Not all CF cards can run with NTFS. The Sandisk Ultra II card I'm testing works well with NTFS. I barely get disk checks.

sebberry

Format it via Windows disk management?

I actually overwrote that windows installation on my regular HDD There was a copy of windows 98 on there and I did an "upgrade" of XP from within Windows from my USB HDD... I can't hook up a CD-Rom to the mini board because I don't have a 3 connector IDE cable for it (small laptop size...)

sebberry

Just a regular SanDisk 512MB