This is how I setup my CF cards.

For FAT16:

Go to bootdisk.com and create a DOS 6.22 Boot Disk
Boot from that disk
Run FDISK
View existing partitions
Create a new partition
Exist and reboot from floppy
format c: /s
CF card should now work

For FAT32:

Go to bootdisk.com and create a Windows 98 SE Boot Disk
Boot from that disk
Run FDISK
View existing partitions
Create a new partition
Exist and reboot from floppy
format c: /s
CF card should now work

which card are you using? please be specific
not all cards implement the IDE protocols properly... this is a particular issue when using a CF card in an old HDD based ipod.... for ipod users, only certain brands of cards work, such as sandisk

which card are you using? please be specific

Specifically the two that were recognized by BIOS, Windows and Linux instantly (but still no boot) were:

Transcend 16GB Industrial CF160 - Model TS16GCF160
Transcend 8GB 133X - Model TS8GCF133

I also tried a Viking Industrial card but Windows refused to see it at all. Linux did though.

I've read about people using SanDisk cards but was a bit weary because I heard they no longer support the "Fixed Disk Bit" and that the leaked utility to set that bit doesn't work on newer cards. Of course this may or may not be true ...

I bought the Transcend Industrial because it was supposed to be "true IDE" and Googling showed various people online booting OSes from the card. I am not sure if they were using IDE2CF adapters or USB adapters, etc.

This is how I setup my CF cards.

Thanks but right now I can't get MS's DOS FDISK (non-NT) to acknowledge the CF cards exist. 😢

You can use Puppy Linux or Knoppix to change some flags of the CF card. Also check if there isn't a disc overlay software or something similar installed.

I have various no-name cards (memorette and other ones). The only branded one I have is a Kingston 16GB and a few Seagate microdrives.

The other questions:

Have you confirmed that they work in a USB CF reader?

Do you have another machine with IDE ports to test?

You can use Puppy Linux or Knoppix to change some flags of the CF card.

How exactly? I thought those flags were CF-card specific and only manipulatable using vendor tools? (Like SanDisk's leaked ATCFWCHG.COM.)

Also check if there isn't a disc overlay software or something similar installed.

Indeed. I looked for that but none of the cards had any. For each of the cards I also deleted the partition table and created a new MBR one so only the boot partition existed on the drive.

Have you confirmed that they work in a USB CF reader?

Yes. They all work flawlessly in a USB CF reader. Of course they all also work fine with the IDE2CF adapter too except for the booting problem. Using a boot CD I can partition, "format", read and write data to all of them without any issues.

Do you have another machine with IDE ports to test?

Yes, although I am not sure how that would help. For example, I have one machine (a NAS) using USB-based CF reader and it boots from any CF card I try. The BIOS on that system (also Intel) is new enough to be designed specifically to boot from removable drives. If booting worked on that system using the IDE adapter then it would just tell me that it worked that way too. If it failed on the same system it wouldn't provide any more clues as to what exactly is wrong with the system in question. Or am I thinking about this wrong?

Thanks!

It's really odd that Windows XP setup allows you to partition the drive, but DOS 6.22 doesn't even see it...

I'm sorry but I'm out of ideas...

I can't remember regarding the Linux CDs, but it was something straight forward and came with the distribution.

It's really odd that Windows XP setup allows you to partition the drive, but DOS 6.22 doesn't even see it...

Yeah. I found that ... odd. I really wish I knew why.

I'm sorry but I'm out of ideas...

Thanks for the info. 😀

Anyone know why this could be happening?

CF cards can have issues with some BIOSes, particularly older ones. To take one example, PhoenixBIOS used on 386 laptops can't boot MS-DOS, because >~512 byte reads will hang. On the other hand, 386BSD or LILO and GRUB bootloaders do work with these.

Try booting LILO or GRUB.

CF cards can have issues with some BIOSes, particularly older ones. To take one example, PhoenixBIOS used on 386 laptops can't boot MS-DOS, because >~512 byte reads will hang. On the other hand, 386BSD or LILO and GRUB bootloaders do work with these.

Your post was perfectly timed. 😀 Last night I wondered if it was a BIOS problem and so I found a 4GB Microdrive and used it. I managed to boot with a DOS floppy and sure enough, it said the drive was 500MB. BIOS problem!

Do you use grub4dos? Has anyone installed a drive overlay on a CF card? I am going to experiment with that tonight if I have time.

Thanks!

Try booting from floppy, and do the fdisk /mbr + fdisk + format /s sequence. If that succeeds, then at least the BIOS should read/write without problems. Check if you can boot now. If not, that would be very very strange.

The best solution to the BIOS problem is an XT-IDE bios in an option rom slot (e.g. on a network card). Drive overlays do impact performance.

Odd that a PIII era board would have problems with the 500mb limit though...

Odd that a PIII era board would have problems with the 500mb limit though...

Agreed, especially an Intel board with AGP. I have an earlier Intel Pentium II board that can see past 500MB so needless to say I did not expect this problem on the motherboard. For some reason Intel no longer lists this board on their website and it is hard to find documentation and drivers for it. In most cases Intel lists all of their vintage motherboards on their website so I don't know why this one is different. It's possible that something about the CF cards are triggering an odd BIOS bug. The fact that DOS can only see 500 GB of a 4 GB drive does point to something going wrong though.

Try booting from floppy, and do the fdisk /mbr + fdisk + format /s sequence. If that succeeds, then at least the BIOS should read/write without problems. Check if you can boot now. If not, that would be very very strange.

Thanks. I will experiment and see what happens.

if you purchased your transcend CF card recently, then they are known to cause problems
look at this list and try to get one of those cards listed... it should work without problems
http://www.tarkan.info/20080506/blog/iflash-c … ity-help-needed

I gave up trying to find something reliable and cheap and just got a sandisk instead.... since it worked perfectly on my ipod, it should work perfectly with your CF -> IDE adapter in DOS

I have to note that for the 386 I have where I tried to use CF as a hard drive I also had different results depending on the CF adapter I used. I first tried the cheapest ebay adapter which plugs directly to the IDE slot the PC didn't even POST (the adapter worked fine in another PC - a p200mmx). When I replaced it with another CF adapter which I could plug to the IDE cable instead it did work fine however. So you might want to try a different adapter sometime, they're very cheap anyway.