cloop error with IDE compact flash drive

Hi,
I'm trying to do a "frugal install" of DSL on a CF-card mounted to IDE as /dev/hdb. It boots fine (loads kernel, scans for USB, CDROM, creates fstab etc.) until it runs into a

cloop: error -5 uncompressing ###some_wierd_block_numbers###

The ###wierd_block_numbers### are the same on every attempt. I transferred all the data from the compact flash drive to an acient 200MB real hard drive, and mounted that instead of the CF drive. This worked smoothly. So it is not a configuration problem. Somehow cloop doesn't like the CF drive.

Any ideas?

wia