Boot from Card Reader

[genetev]

Hello, everyone!

I've made bootable Flash-drive (1 gb) and bootable SDHC-card (8 gb).

In the first case i can boot but in the second one I can't.

Computer: CQ61-310ER Compaq Presario.

Bios is updated.

Card reader works fine (with the SDHC card in Win7).

What should i do?

[topmahof]

It won't work in the card reader itself because the bios won't recognize it as a bootable device.  But you might be able to get it to work in a usb card reader.  As long as the bios recognizes it and lists it in the boot order.

[genetev]

Is it possible to make card reader recognizable as a bootable device?

I can see in AIDA (or Everest) the card reader is plugged in by usb.
 
So, what do we have? Not all card readers can be recognized as a bootable device?

[topmahof]

Go into the bios and see if the reader shows up in your boot order.  If it does, then you can use it to boot.  This is an internal reader, right?  If you had an external usb reader, that would probably show up and you could use it to boot from.  The bios has to recognize it in order to boot from it. 

[genetev]

Yes, it's an internal reader. In the bios I don't see the reader. 

It is strange that the bios doesn't recognize the reader as bootable.

[topmahof]

Yeh, I know. It could be because all the usb hubs are on pci bus 0 and the card reader is on pci bus 2. One thing I did do is I have an external multi card reader and I hooked it up and went into the bios and it's there. Tomorrow I'm gonna put linux on an sd card and see if I can boot from it.  I doubt if the read and write times are going to be very great but I'll try that and I think I have a cf card around here somewhere and I'll try that also. I'll let you know how I make out.

[topmahof]

Well, I mistook the external card reader for the usb hard drive in the bios.  So, it's not there, doesn't show up. So, can't boot from it.  I installed ubuntu on the sd card and tried to see it in the bios. It doesn't show up until windows is loaded.

[topmahof]

With a cf card in the reader, it does show up as a bootable device.  I might not have formatted the sd card right.  The external card reader shows up as a usb hard drive and with linux on the cf card it boots.  So, an external card reader shows up but the internal one doesn't.

[topmahof]

Okay, this works.  I'm typing this from ubuntu which is on a cf card which is on an external card reader which I booted up from the bios.  It works very well, very quick.   I'm gonna do the same thing with an sd card. I'm sure it'll work.

Edit:  No matter what I do or how I format it, the sd card will not read as a bootable device in the bios.  The cf card works great.  I'm going to keep playing around with the sd card, but as it is right now, I can't get it to boot or even be recognized in the bios.

[genetev]

"It could be because all the usb hubs are on pci bus 0 and the card reader is on pci bus 2."

It's interesting version. I've investigated it with AIDA (Everest). And in my case it isn't true. All plugged in usb-flash-drives and card reader are under one section named "... USB2 Enhanced Host Controller". So it's another reason.

I have only one card and only one internal card reader. I have to find another card at least or another reader or comp)) I'll write what I got.