Processor: 300Mhz
RAM: 192MB
HDD: ATA-4, Ultra ATA/33, UDMA/33 2.5" Disk.
CD: na
USB: non-bootable via BIOS
FDD: 1.4MB floppy disk which is bootable.
I am attempting to install a Compact flash card in a CF-IDE adapter with a 4GB SanDisk into a Toshiba 3110CT as the system HDD.
This replaces the original 6GB IDE HDD.
I have formatted the Compact flash card as two partitions, C and D, both formatted as FAT16.
Partition D which is ~800MB housing the Windows XP SP1 distribution.
Partition C which is ~3000MB will be the system disk when completed.
I can start the windows XP SP1 install (i386winnt.exe) and it loads the setup files, it then reboots.
The system reboots on the Compact Flash and continues until is gets to the partition section of the install of Windows XP SP1.
It can go no further as is says the existing partitions are not part of a known disk drive.
The wording indicates that the Compact flash is seen as a removable disk and that the installation is looking for a conventional HDD.
Anybody installed a Compact Flash card as a Windows XP SP1 system disk and overcome the obstacle that Windows XP thinks the Compact Flash boot disk is a removal HDD?
I think it just needs some sort of driver for the Compact Flash card to 'fox' Windows XP into thinking it's dealing with a HDD.
Or is there some flag I can set on the 4GB Ultra SanDisk Compact flash to says it's a HDD?
Thanks for any help on this.
Reply 1 : Windows XP SP1 installed on Compact Flash System Disk
Interesting topic, as I've just completed installing a CF-IDE adapter with a SanDisk Ultra 4GB 200x Compact Flash card in a Toshiba Portg 3110CT myself.
OK, to start with you're falling for a lot of beginners traps.
Don't bother partitioning the flash card. It's not required, won't work on pseudo removable media and the dist. can be loaded from a local folder.
I notice you mention Windows XP SP1. Don't use it, use Windows XP SP2.
WinXP SP1 doesn't support the flash card well and your I/O will almost be reduced to nil during most of the install.
When you complete the install, don't let windows create a pagefile.sys. This will lock you out of the system as removable media doesn't support paging.
You can create paging on the Compact Flash card, but first you'll need to update the Compact Flash 'disk' drive in Device Manager to 'force' it into fixed drive state.
On the Portg 3110CT you mention the original Toshiba IDE/ATA-4 6GB 4200RPM HDD, this is NOT a fast drive and the 200x Compact Flash will easily out preform it.
This is quite important when using Windows XP as the Portg 3110CT can only support a max. 192MB RAM. This means that a pagefile.sys is mandatory and with the CF access time of 0.8sec compared to the Toshiba 6GB HDD's access time of 21sec, you will notice the different.
It's like swapping out a 7200RPM HDD for an SSD in modern terms.
The only ongoing consideration is the longevity of the CF card and it's integrity and potential corruption due to excessive read/writes.
Also when installing Windows XP one should look at an unattended installation in conjunction with a distribution assembler like nLite.
The following shows an original Toshiba IDE 6GB HDD and the SanDisk 4GB 200x CF 'fixed' drive.
OK, to start with you're falling for a lot of beginners traps.
Don't bother partitioning the flash card. It's not required, won't work on pseudo removable media and the dist. can be loaded from a local folder.
I notice you mention Windows XP SP1. Don't use it, use Windows XP SP2.
WinXP SP1 doesn't support the flash card well and your I/O will almost be reduced to nil during most of the install.
When you complete the install, don't let windows create a pagefile.sys. This will lock you out of the system as removable media doesn't support paging.
You can create paging on the Compact Flash card, but first you'll need to update the Compact Flash 'disk' drive in Device Manager to 'force' it into fixed drive state.
On the Portg 3110CT you mention the original Toshiba IDE/ATA-4 6GB 4200RPM HDD, this is NOT a fast drive and the 200x Compact Flash will easily out preform it.
This is quite important when using Windows XP as the Portg 3110CT can only support a max. 192MB RAM. This means that a pagefile.sys is mandatory and with the CF access time of 0.8sec compared to the Toshiba 6GB HDD's access time of 21sec, you will notice the different.
It's like swapping out a 7200RPM HDD for an SSD in modern terms.
The only ongoing consideration is the longevity of the CF card and it's integrity and potential corruption due to excessive read/writes.
Also when installing Windows XP one should look at an unattended installation in conjunction with a distribution assembler like nLite.
The following shows an original Toshiba IDE 6GB HDD and the SanDisk 4GB 200x CF 'fixed' drive.
Reply 2 : Windows XP SP1 installed on Compact Flash System Disk
Wait, what? Did you just answer your own question? 
No comments:
Post a Comment