how to create a bootable disk (CF card) under Windows 7?

[Stan Huang]

I would like to format my CF card into a bootable media so that my system image file, VxWorks, can be started up by BIOS after power on. Long time ago, I did it by DOS command: "format f: /s". It's very simple. But now, it doesn't work at Windows 7. I even used Computer Management tool to format it, but I can't find the option of 'system'. The formatted CF card is not bootable even I copied my system image into it. Let me know how I can do it.

[foxidrive]

You need to use a tool that creates a bootable USB drive.

RMPARTUSB is one such tool.  I haven't tried a CF card using that but you can have a shot.

[patio]

If your expecting to run an OS off of that card good luck...

[BrianS]

I use the " HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool" for Win7, I use V2.1.8 but a v2.2 is available for download.

This tool formats USB storage devices, I put the CF card in a SanDisk USB reader and run on a Win7 machine. The option is offered to make the card Bootable, move the files required into a subdirectory on the Win7 machine. I format the CF card as FAT-32, and use Win98se booted into realmode via bootgui=0 in MSDOS.SYS. The cards boot on a VortexDX embedded processor, then runs PharLap in protected mode.

[Geek-9pm]

Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactFlash

In November 2010, SanDisk, Sony, and Nikon presented a next generation card format to the CompactFlash Association. The new format has a similar form factor to CF/CFast but is based on the PCI Express interface instead of Parallel ATA or Serial ATA.[10][11] With potential read and write speeds of 1 Gbit/s (125 MByte/s) and storage capabilities beyond 2 TiB the new format is aimed at high-definition camcorders and high-resolution digital cameras, but the new cards are not backward compatible with either CompactFlash or CFast. The XQD card format was officially announced by the CompactFlash Association in December 2011.[12]

It has enough speed.

[BrianS]

I'm assuming the OP meant traditional CF cards, which is what I use. I use mostly 256MByte, 1GByte, and 2GByte cards. I prefer FAT-32 for efficiency. I use these in PC104 format embedded systems and ICOP VortexDX boards. The ICOP boots off of USB, had a custom CF reader integrated into the custom computer. The PC104 WinSystems board comes with the CF reader built in. I also use Panasonic Toughbooks models CF-51 and CF-52, both can be configured to boot off the USB port- including the CF cards in a reader. My CF-52 now has a 512GByte Fat-32 SATA (not easy to do) drive that dual-boots DOS 7.1 (win98se realmode) and XP. Himem.sys gives DOS access to up to 3.4GBytes RAM, either booted off the hard-drive or the CF card.

WinSystems sells an industrial grade CF card pre-configured to boot for their systems. Using the HP utility provides a large cost-savings compared with the Winsystems cards. The latter are spec'd for high-temperature operation, but I did not require the full temperature range.