Hello, is it possible to install Windows 98 onto a CompactFlash Card in a PCMCIA adapter?

only if its the c: drive

You will eventually kill the card if you put the swap file on it.

OK, guess that option is out...
I have the Windows 98 down to the bare minimal of what I need, how can I copy that to a CompactFlash card and still have it be bootable? (Copying all the files does not work)
Thanks so far!

Yep,

copying all the files does not work.

Try to 'image' it with PQDI, Ghost, Nero etc.

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

I doubt that it will ever boot. I don't know if the BIOS is capable of booting a memory card in a PCMCIA socket. Note there are IDE Compact Flash Card Adapters that will boot.

Wizard-fred, correct, it will not boot from the PCMCIA slot... the card is in an adapter and used as the harddrive (set as master.) I just didn't know how to make it bootable.
And I will try PQDI as soon as I get a chance, thanks.

This is just an update.. I tried installing Windows 3.1 on the card while it was in the laptop via floppy disk... The setup had no errors, and my BIOS is set to boot from the harddrive, but it still won't boot.

Did you 'sys' the disk to install the boot files? It was unclear if you just copied them.

Sorry, I have no idea what "sys" means. But I didn't just copy Windows 3.1 onto the harddrive, I installed it.
Could you explain what you mean by "sys" and how to do it?
Thanks for all your help so far!

Win 3.1 is not bootable by itself. Normally you would install DOS 5 or 6.xx first. Some people has been using "DOS 7.1" from Win 9.x.

Ah, I will install DOS as soon as I get a chance, thank you for your help. It is fairly late where I am right now so I will install DOS and get right back to you, thanks.

Well, I installed MS-DOS 6.2 from floppy disks. I booted from a Windows 95 (or 98?) boot-disk and then put in the first DOS disk and started installing. The install finished without any errors, but it still isn't bootable. Perhaps CompactFlash cards don't have master boot records?

It is unclear, how did you set the card to 'master'?

There's a jumper on the adapter (to use the CF card as a harddrive.) There is one jumper on it. When the jumper is "off" then it is a slave. When the jumper is "on", then it is master.

The jumper shouldn't matter much if it's the only USB drive.

You can save yourself plenty of lost motion on the way to your goal if you use ONE [keyword: ONE] version of DOS.

That flash drive will not have an MBR unless you put one there.

FWIW, I sys'd a CF with w98se and it boots.

When it does, it's drive a:

So one of the challenges ahead is to make winders run from A: or somhow change the drive letter.

Probably SUBST won't work.

Maybe altering the media descriptor byte?

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

M2
Just a note. We're not talking USB. Its a compact flash card inserted into CF Socket connected to the IDE port or cable.

CompFreek101
With the card installed you should consider it has a hard drive.
1- Set so that is properly recognized in BIOS.
2- FDISK, Partition, And Set Active.
3- Format And Install System Files.
4- Are you sure you're connected to the Primary IDE port and the BIOS boot order is correct (IDE-0).

Hi wizard-fred,

Now I'm lost.

I thought it was a CF in a PCMCIA slot.

Guess I better stay out of it.

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

It was. But was determined not to be bootable. Now got side-tracked to a probable solution. There are embedded computer using this method.

PROBLEM SOLVED!
First, I partitioned, set as active, formatted... put the CF card in another computer and copied (just files) a boot floppy onto it. Works flawlessly now, thank you for all of your help!

Hello, dont know if you are still listening, but I am trying to do a similar project using CE (ie make CE bootable from CF). I have the same problem, I can copy files but it comes up invalid op sys. I have determined that the CF card is not formatted properly to allow it to boot. It sounds like you solved your problem, what hardware did you finally use to connect your CF card, format and load DOS??? Any help would be appreciated.

If CE is Windows CE I don't know The CE devices I had did allow booting from the memory cards.

Yes, its Windows CE. The device I'm using is a standard PC. Windows CE is just like Windows 3.1 in that DOS is first loaded and then CE loads and runs on top of it. So, all I need to do is create a DOS bootable CF card and copy on the CE files. Did you use an IDE to CF converter, if so, do you know which one?

creiff,
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=51076&item=5200847074&rd=1
this is the adapter I used. If you happen to use this one, when the jumper is on, it is set as "Master".

I've never seen Windows CE run on a computer other than a computer that was designed for it, this sounds very interesting, please keep us posted. :D

Thank you, I'm ordering one today. I'll let you know how it goes...
-C

Hi guys,
I have the same problem. I am trying to start a Windows CE platfrom from a compact flash. I use a SBC (Small Board Computer) for my CE project. To make the PC boot directly from the CFC i follow the MS instructions from the platfrom builder - making a setupdsik then booting from it in MS DOS. Then start fdisk and try to create an active partitition. Fdisk just freezez there and i can't do anything. Any ideas or help where the problem could be?
I have put the card into the slot for it on the board. I have an IDE interface but it seems inpropper to not be able to directly fdisk and format the card when it's plugged on its slot, it's an ide interface after all.
Any ideas?

OK I have it working! CE booting from CF.

Here is how I did it.

1. Start with a PC with the hard drives unplugged and a floppy disk, attach the IDE-to-CF adapter to IDE port 0.

2. Boot it up using a DOS6.22 bootable floppy disk, not a Windows Startup Disk.
(the Bios at this point should detect the CF card as a hard drive, it works best if you set your Bios to AutoDetect drives)

3. From the A:> prompt type Format c: /s
(This formats the CF card FAT16 and copies the DOS system files to the card. IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM These 3 files make the CF card DOS bootable.)

4. From here I moved the CF card to a normal computer running XP. I used a USB Sandisk Imagemate and loaded all CE files (NK.bin etc) and directory structure for my SBC device onto the CF card, DO NOT mess with the 3 files mentioned in step 3.

5. Put the CF card into my device and boot it up.

Just got this working, there may be an easier way, but this works. It seems the whole trick is to get the CF card formatted with FAT16 and the MSDOS6.22 boot files in the proper order. Apparently most CF cards come formatted in FAT16 but dont have the appropriate MasterBootRecord or boot files to make them bootable.

As a sidenote, I tried doing this using XP, but XP designates the CF card as Removable not Fixed Media. It would NOT allow me to format the CF card as bootable. If anyone knows of a way to make XP format FAT16 bootable let me know.

Hope this helps you Rusenec

Thanks to all who helped.

-C

Wonder about another approach that would minimize use of hard drive just to boot dos, then direct path to CF card ad drive D: with Windows 98 and other program files. Objective would be to maximize battery life on an older lap top. Could autoexec.bat be something like c:\command;D:\windows. It's been a long time since I fooled around in dos but thought it might be risky to move system files to CF card. But since the system files of dos are still recognizably present in Windows 98, wonder if this config might be possible. If swap file would kill the card, as suggested earlier, perhaps the swap file could remain in a windows directory on the hard drive? Hard drive use might be reduced just to booting.Any takers on suggestions? Although I am logged in a a Thinkpad with XP, I'm try to create this set up on an Omnibook 800 with Windows 98.