Re: When ramdisk boot formats NTFS CF, it won't boot

From: Mark K Vallevand (mark)
Date: 02/18/04 

Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 11:59:46 -0600

Building the CF on XP Pro with diskpart/format command lines is OK.

I still cannot get format command line to create a bootable CF when running
from XPe. Everything on the CF looks bootable, and the file system is OK.
But, it doesn't boot.

Does format try to align things in the file system along drive geometry?
Maybe the partition boot sector is getting lost because of some alignment
problem.

I noticed that XP Pro and XPe have different disk geometry. At least
diskpart won't partition the same sizes on the two systems. But, the drive
geometry that is reported by a test program I have seems to be the same.
And the diskpart program is the same version on both XP Pro and XPe.
Format.com is the same, too. 

-- 
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand
"Mark K Vallevand" <mark DOT vallevand AT unisys DOT com> wrote in message
news:eVfXZhj9DHA.2392@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I have many CF devices that work when formatted on my "media-build"
machine.
> CF formatted on any XP Pro machine with IDE-CF adapter will boot.  But,
one
> difference:
> I always use disk manager on XP Pro and diskpart/format command line on
XPe.
>
> Maybe I'll build a CF on XP Pro using diskpart/format command lines.
>
> -- 
> Regards.
> Mark K Vallevand
>
>
> "Slobodan Brcin (eMVP)" <sbrcin@ptt.yu> wrote in message
> news:OSs%23CWa9DHA.1936@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> > Have you ever tried to format your OS partition on CF with this type of
> > device?
> >
> > I mean do you have one device like this with Windows XP that can be used
> for
> > testing format command.
> >
> > Also try to boot USB SDI on your development (device that format your CF
> > correctly) and use it for preparing CF.
> > Then try if it will work.
> >
> > On different hardware platforms, format sometimes behave differently.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Slobodan
> >
> >
> > "Mark K Vallevand" <mark DOT vallevand AT unisys DOT com> wrote in
message
> > news:#laDPiZ9DHA.1636@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> > > I boot a ramdisk image from a USB device to initialize the IDE CF
> device.
> > I
> > > use diskpart to clean, partition and activate the partitions on the
CF.
> > > Then I use command line format to format them as compressed NTFS.
Then
> I
> > > copy files to the partitions.  The resulting image will not boot.
> > >
> > > If I do the format on another XP Pro machine, the resulting image will
> > boot.
> > > Diskpart and file copy are done while running from the ramdisk.
> > >
> > > I've checked the master boot sector and partition boot sector.  They
are
> > the
> > > same as a booting CF.
> > >
> > > I've updated the boot.ini file on the CF that doesn't boot so that I
can
> > see
> > > if ntldr is reading boot.ini.  It isn't getting that far.
> > >
> > > I've deleted ntldr to see if partition boot sector is reading ntldr.
It
> > > isn't getting that far either.
> > >
> > > I've made the partition non-active, and the BIOS (or master boot
sector)
> > > complains.  So, it is getting that far.
> > >
> > > Any one have any ideas what could be wrong with the format?
> > > --
> > > Regards.
> > > Mark K Vallevand
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

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