Booting from Compact Flash

Hi folks

this is my first post and need some guidance

Firstly, the specification

A1200 3.0 roms
Apollo 68030, 40mhz, 32mb (pcmcia friendly, no scsi)
PCMCIA compact flash adaptor - for 512mb ADF transfers using Dopus 4.12

540mb 3.5" internal hard drive and a 24x slim laptop CD ROM ... yes u read right, although both are external currently whilst sorting this problem out

both the above powered by AT power supply and ide cables as short as they come

IDE Fix 97 (express version with gayle adpator)

Classic WB ADV which looks fantastic and handles all dms, lzx, adf needs

this setup runs beautifully but i have been experimenting on making the miggy boot internally from 512mb compact flash INSTEAD of the heavy chunky 3.5" 540mb HD so i don't have to carry an AT power supply everywhere

i bought a CF to IDE adaptor for £3 on ebay, plugged it straight to the ide fix adaptor, extending the floppy power to power the device, fitted my 512mb CF card, thinking i would go to a 1 or 2gb if it works

seems strange not hearing a hard drive and nearly instant boot !!!! certainly quicker than a hard drive and makes my 3.2Ghz Athlon 64 with XP look slow !!!!!

using Power computing hard drive prep software i was surprised to find that the internal compact flash, when using the adpator WORKED and managed to install workbench 3.0 on it, with Dopus and the ADDITIONAL external 512mb pcmcia compact flash 512mb card for quick and silent ADF transfers

so i thought, no problem, just need to add the cd drive and everything done

as i my goal is to have the classic WB ADV boot from the internal CF card and then remove my 540mb 3.5" drive so that the ide fix adaptor can go inside the normal casing, then fit the laptop cd drive internally

i try to install the CD on the ide fix express adaptor using ide fix 97 (which works when using the 3.5" 540 conventonal drive with all the cables externally.)

there is no problem reading and writing to the compact flash, have repeated the process 3 times

all cabling is spot on, power supply adequate and cable lengths kept to minimum to the ide adaptor

the ide fix software hangs on install when detecting the CD, immediately after the PARK HARD DRIVE SOFTWARE

so.............. i think the ide fix software is shutting down the bootable compact flash when it installs park heads and can't detect a spinning motor !!

once it has done so............. i have to re prep the card

anyone got a stripped down version of ide fix 97 without this option ??

when i abort the installation at that point, it doesn't skip that part but aborts all !!

which is a shame

as soon as it is working i will be making the classic WB ADV boot from compact flash, then fit the CD laptop drive inside the amiga and do away with the AT power supply.

if anyone wishes to email me direct feel free to do so

hope the info is clear and concise, everythnig works until i install the ide fix software to get the cd running when using the compact flash internally

rbrayshaw@hotmail.com

Rich