Boot Laptop from PCMCIA CF memory card?

[Spinman]

My laptop is capable of booting from a PCMCIA ATA Flash PC Card

(ie: http://www.simpletech.com/commercial/produ...aflashcard.html )

I have also heard that you can boot using a CF memory card - because it mimicks the ATA protocol and is recognized by the BIOS as a drive. Would like to confirm that statement.

Can I use any combination of CF memory card and PCMCIA/CF adaptor - or do I need to look for something special to accomplish this?

Some of the CF memory cards specifically state that they are ATA compatable, most do not.

A few of the PCMCIA/CF adaptors state that they are ATA compatable - most do not.

Are the few that mention it, different - or are they just marketing their components differently than the run of the mill CF products to justify a higher price?

The general CF memory cards and PCMCIA adapters for digital photography are cheaper than those that state ATA compatable.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience....

[Aegis]

I wouldn't recommend it as flash-based cards have limited write-cycles and once you exhaust them, then you'll be incapable of writing any more data to them. Also you'll have to tweak your OS a bit to load up the CF driver as system-critical, which involves lots of advanced registry work.

[Zxian]

You could get a MicroDrive and boot from that (same form factor as CF cards), but I'm not sure what drivers it would require to boot - probably those than Aegis listed.

It's probably more hassle than it's worth...

[LLXX]

I wouldn't recommend it as flash-based cards have limited write-cycles and once you exhaust them, then you'll be incapable of writing any more data to them. Also you'll have to tweak your OS a bit to load up the CF driver as system-critical, which involves lots of advanced registry work.

The only OSs I'd risk booting from flash would be DOS, XP Embedded with EWF, and LiveCDs that run from RAM.

[Spinman]

Not looking to run an OS from the flash card -

I have a laptop that does not have an internal cd drive. Do not have the bootable external devices normally used with this configuration.

Wanted to boot into w98 emergency startup disk loaded on the CF - and from there install windows from a directory that was previously installed in the card while it was in another system (that does have a cd drive).

So my game plan is to use a 1 g CF card that would be bootable and from there start the windows installation onto the hard drive. Once installed - system would boot normally from the hard drive.

Just trying to understand if any regular type CF card (type 1 / type 2) is bootable when used with a PCMCIA CF reader - or do I need something special that has "ATA capabilities"?

[ripken204]

what about installing windows over a network? im not sure how to do that but i know some ppl here do.

[Spinman]

The box does not have built in lan - have PCMCIA lan card. Therefore, can't install from a network. USB port is not bootable. No CD. No Floppy. In the past, I've removed the drive and installed the OS via Ghost while mounted in a desktop.

Guess I'll see if I can trackdown someone with a PCMCIA CF card reader and CF memory card - hand on experimentation.

[prx984]

take the interal hard drive out and hook it up to a computer with an external drive enclosure if you have one, then copy the windows files on to it, this will work for win 9x and me, not sure about xp/2000 as they use a different setup method.

you can get a cf adapter pretty cheap, all the ones i have seen anyway. i think all of them are ata compatible, i doubt they could work any other way to be honest, but someone will prove me wrong with that

your best bet though would be to get the adapter (probably around 10 - 20 bucks) and a card and make that disk bootable.