Caution!
The ATA CF card that we include with evaluation kits is formatted to work with your board. Do NOT reformat it unless you are sure the file system is corrupted.
What kind of file system does the bootloader recognize on ATA PCMCIA and CF cards?
Although the linux kernel can mount, read, and write to ATA cards formatted as FAT16, the linux bootloaders do not always work with FAT16. If you have trouble booting from an ATA card or updating the on board flash from an ATA card, you may need to use FAT12 instead. On a linux PC, you can format your card with FAT12 using the following command:
mkdosfs -c -F 12 -v /dev/hde1
(If necessary, replace /dev/hde1 with the device on your PC that is the PCMCIA/CF slot for the card you want to format. For example, a USB card reader will likely be /dev/sda1 if it is the first "scsi" mass storage device.)
Do not format ATA cards with FAT32 or EXT2.
15-Sep-2003: jlackey - add caution against reformatting cards included with evaluation kits
23-Jan-2003: jlackey - edit remarks concerning linux bootloaders (remove statement indicating FAT12 is required - the bootloaders usually work with FAT16 and do not always require FAT12)