Installing Applications on CF

Hypercubed · 05-31-03, 04:52 PM

I've had my Dell Axim for three days now and as a new user I'm trying out a lot of new software. I've read several of the post here and on other Pocket PC related sites that suggest that applications be installed on the memory cards. I happened to have a 64MB CF card lying around the house so I tried that. Here is my experience for what it is worth.

I tried used the ActiveSync software to install software. I told to program to not use the default location. When it asks me to chose a location to install to I selected the CF card. Sometimes this worked fine but often it did not. About 50% of the applications I tried to install ActiveSync would appear to work fine but the Axim would return a message "THE FILE "\CF CARD\XXX.CAB" IS NOT A VALID WINDOWS CE SETUP FILE". I could install the same application to the main storage just fine. But certain programs would never work if I tried installing to the CF card. I even tried a program (CabInstl by SK: http://www.geocities.com/s_k_s_k_s_kru/util.html ) that calmed to install CAB to any directory within the Pocket PC. This program returned the same error.

On a whim I remove the CF card and place it in the card reader on my PC. I copied all the files to my HD and formatted the card in FAT32 (was FAT). Then copied all the data back. Now everything worked fine. Even the CabInstl program worked as expected. I was happy... until... after a while the same error message returned. SO I did it again (reformatted the CF card). and everything is working fine again.

What's going on? Anyone else have this experience? Is the CF card becoming corrupted? Am I going to have to do this all the time? Will I have better luck with a SD card?

Hypercubed

P.S. Sorry for the lengthy post.

Raynne413 · 05-31-03, 05:16 PM

I have not ever had this problem and most of my programs are installed on my 512 MB CF card. If it was a card that you just had lying around, then I suppse it might just be a bad card and you would have better luck with a new one.

Hypercubed · 05-31-03, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Raynne413
I have not ever had this problem and most of my programs are installed on my 512 MB CF card. If it was a card that you just had lying around, then I suppse it might just be a bad card and you would have better luck with a new one.

Could be but I doubt it. The card was brand new and worked fine in my digital camera.