Boot Windows XP from Compact Flash Card

**absolute55** · 21-01-2009

Using basically two applications for this adventurous process. First thing essential for this adventure to happen is XP Lite from the Lite PC.com, one of the best systematic utilities that will help you remove data and information from the Windows OS. The other best utility to be preferred is Partition Magic, which makes it easy to compress and copy one hard drive to another and vice-versa. There are several utilities as well as software that can be used for such kind of tasks, but I will prefer Partition Magic because it is much more simpler and dependable.

Step 1 - Develop an operating system using a hard drive:

Your operating system i.e Windows XP will be requiring 1.5Gigs of hard drive memory, so the initial step is to create the system using a typical standard hard drive.
Try to Create a partition of 2 Gigs, but it is not possible to install windows xp service pack 2 at this stage, so put the Operating system on a 3 Gigs or bigger drive for proceeding in a successive manner .
After the above step, Install a new copy of the Operating system using NTFS file system since it has option of minimizing the file contents which is to be used by the user at later stages.
Make the addition through drivers and wait for appropriate time so that Windows Update will install and place latest patches.
make an Installation of Beyond TV Link and the Firefly Remote software.
Try to keep a track or a record that the above procedures are been followed in an appropriate manner and they are functioning properly.
Right now at this stage it is not so possible or preferable to back up everything using any tool like Partition Magic.
In case you want to roll back to this stage; follow the below given steps with at most care:

Step 2 - Try to turn off Virtual Memory:

Initially you should turn off virtual memory so it does not create a paging file on the drive. This can be applied by right clicking My Computer and selecting Properties. It’s below the Advanced Tab, insert into another dialog by selecting the Settings button below Performance.
From there, it’s below yet another Advanced tab and it’s labeled Virtual Memory .
Make sure that when you select No paging file you hit the Set button or it will not adjust the settings.

Step 3 - Develop XP Lite from Lite PC:

The next step is switching back the OS using XP Lite from Lite PC.
Here you should do is disable Windows File Protection in the option named Window File Protection tab .
If you are not able to, then you’ll find windows constantly complaining about missing files.
Then remove most components including those Advanced Components you can get to show up by changing the default settings .
since you’ll likely remove the System Restore feature which gobbles up a lot of space, but prevents you from doing something completely irreversible.
Make sure you reboot a couple times afterwards to remove any system restore points.

**absolute55** · 21-01-2009

Step 4 - Perform Clean up activity:

The next step to follow is to boot into Windows Safe Mode to do some basic clean up of the system.
make it a confirm to change file explorer to show hidden and system files. This can be found in the Folder Options menu in the View tab.

There may be some difference in system but here are a few good things to remove or change to get more disk space:

Delete anything in the Windows directory that starts with NT Uninstall.
Delete anything in the Windows/Software Distribution/Download directory.
On larger directories, go to the properties dialog and select the Advanced button and go for compress contents to save disk space. Note that this will be only available if you format your drive using NTFS.

Try doing this to the following folders: Program Files, Windows/Microsoft.NET, Windows/.inf, Windows/system32.
Doing just that, the system down to 750MB or so.

Step 5 - Perform Resize and Copy:

Run floppy boot disks for Partition Magic to resize and move the OS to the compact flash card.
Make sure you compress the hard drive partition small enough to fit the compact flash card, and then from within Partition Magic, copy the drive over to the compact flash drive.

Final Step - Dismental original Drive and put Compact Flash Drive in its place:

Concluding step is to dismental the original hard drive and switch the connectors so it puts the compact flash drive in its place.
Try to get confirmed that it's in the same location on the ID Bus (e.g Master Drive, Primary IDE channel) or you have to quickly run into a NT loader is missing error.
Definitely, it will boot up as it did before, a lot more quietly than that squeaky old disk you were using before.

**raphaelriv** · 14-09-2011

Hello

I wonder if anyone could give me a hand, I just found your tutorial guide through my efforts of booting windows XP embedded from a CF card. I downloaded the free trial version from

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en...ng=en&id=16958

I used the utility tools that came with the installation, these are: UFDPrep.exe, tap.exe, target designer etc etc to build an image, after setting my CF card slot to be the master on the first IDE bus and inserting my CF card. Windows seems like it's going to boot properly but after the Windows XP embbeded loading logo, I obtain (see attached image)

Windows\system32\

blinking cursor, then after a few minutes the unit re-boots again into the same mode.

I tried creating other images, using other flash cards, reading into NTvs EWF loaders, I used both with no avail

does anyone know what might be the issue?

thanks

**Deep123** · 15-09-2011

This message appears for two reason. First you are booting the system in safe mode command prompt or if Windows is not able to locate the boot file. When you reboot press f8 continuously and go in safe mode. Check that you can see the desktop. If not and still the same screen try the following :