Table of Errors: Most of these will prevent the hard disk from working correctly under DOS, so it's not likely that you ever get these errors. Invalid root sector signature The last two bytes of the root sector should be 55 AA (hex). This is a serious error and usually prevents the hard disk from being accessible under DOS. You can use 'fdisk /mbr' after booting from a floppy disk to write a correct root sector. Calculation error Oops, this is a bug in FIPS. The changed root sector is defective. Please send a bug report to schaefer@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Overlapping partitions The partition table contains overlapping partitions. This is a serious problem and should not happen. Invalid jump instruction in boot sector The first three bytes of the boot sector must be a 3-byte jump (E9 xx xx) or a 2-byte jump (EB xx 90). Perhaps the partition is not yet formatted. FIPS can only split DOS-formatted partitions. Invalid boot sector The last two bytes of the boot sector must be 55 AA (hex) Can't handle number of bytes per sector The number of bytes per sector must be 512 Number of sectors per cluster must be a power of 2 Only 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 are allowed Partition must have 2 FATs Every DOS partition has 2 copies of the FAT Number of root directory entries must not be zero Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Number of hidden sectors incorrect The number of hidden sectors in the boot sector must match the number of the start sector in the partition table 12-bit FAT not supported FIPS can't split partitions with a 12-bit FAT Number of sectors (short) must be zero For partitions with more than 65536 sectors (BIGDOS) the number of sectors (short) must be zero Number of sectors (short) does not match partition info The number of sectors in the partition table must match the number of sectors in the boot sector Number of sectors (long) does not match partition info The number of sectors in the partition table must match the number of sectors in the boot sector Invalid drive number Only the numbers 128 - 255 are valid drive numbers Error reading FAT 1 Read error - bad sector Error reading FAT 2 Read error - bad sector FAT copies differ The two copies of the FAT differ - use 'chkdsk /f' to correct this New partition not empty The New Partition is not empty. Apparently this is a bug in FIPS, since the empty space of the partition has been determined before. Please send a bug report to schaefer@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Too many drives found FIPS can handle up to 9 drives - that should be enough for most PCs :-) No compatible hard disk found Hey, where is your drive? Perhaps your hard disk is not int 13h compatible. No valid partition found All partitions in the partition table are empty No free partition All four partitions are in use Error reading drive geometry Interrupt 13h 08h returned an error code Drive initialization failure Interrupt 13h 00h returned an error code Error reading root sector Read error - bad sector, wrong drive number or incompatible harddrive Can't split extended partitions FIPS can not yet split extended DOS partitions Unknown file system Only DOS partitions can be split (system indicator byte must be 4 or 6) Error reading boot sector Read error - bad sector Partition too small - can't split If the partition has only slightly more than 4085 clusters, it can't be split any further without rewriting the FAT to 12 bit. Last cylinder is not free Since the new partition is created at the end of the old one and contains at least one cylinder, the partition can not be split if not at least the very last cylinder is completely free. Probably there is a hidden file like 'image.idx' or 'mirorsav.fil' in the last cylinder - see the doc. Error writing root sector Write error - perhaps the disk is write protected? Error writing boot sector Write error :-( - this will hopefully never happen ... Too many save files on disk There can only be ten save files on one floppy disk (rootboot.000 to rootboot.009). Delete some or use another floppy disk. Can't open file FIPS tried to write the file rootboot.00? to drive A: but an error occured Try using another floppy disk Error writing file FIPS tried to write the file rootboot.00? to drive A: but an error occured Try using another floppy disk Error closing file FIPS tried to write the file rootboot.00? to drive A: but an error occured Try using another floppy disk Warnings: These will not cause FIPS to exit, since they are not really errors. If you have the possibility to correct the problem, do it; if not, this will not affect DOS, so you should be safe. More than one active partition More than one partition is marked 'active' in the partition table. There are some boot programs that do not complain about more than one active partition - they will just use the first one. If you have such a program in your root sector and the PC boots normally, you may ignore this message. Otherwise use fdisk to correct the error. Invalid active flag The 'active' flag of a partition should be either 80h or 0. By modifying the active flag and the boot program it is theoretically possible to boot from the second harddrive. If you happen to have such a configuration, ignore this message. Otherwise you can delete the flag now. Partition table inconsistency FIPS has detected that the 'physical' start or end sector (head/cylinder/ sector) do not match with the 'logical' start/end sector. This is not an error since the 'physical' values are redundant and not used anyway. There are many configurations where the values differ. This message is meant only to inform you that FIPS has adapted the 'physical' values according to the current drive geometry. So don't be alarmed by an unex- pected cylinder range. Invalid partition entry The partition entry contains data, but the system indicator is 0 (empty). Attention: FIPS will possibly overwrite this entry. Make sure this is no valid Partition (temporarily disabled etc.) No active partition No partition in the partition table is marked active. Normally you will not be able to boot from this disk. Use fdisk to correct that. Partition does not end on cylinder boundary All partitions should end on a cylinder boundary Partition does not begin on cylinder boundary Normally, all partitions except the first one should begin on head 0, sector 1 of a cylinder. This is not required by DOS, however. Free space between partitions There is free space on the harddisk that is not covered by a partition Number of reserved sectors should be 1 The boot sector uses only 1 sector, so the number of reserved sector is usually 1. If you can access your drive, do not attempt to change this. Number of root directory entries must be multiple of 16 One sector of the root directory contains 16 entries. An invalid number of root directory entries is accepted by DOS but causes problems. Wrong media descriptor byte in boot sector The media descriptor byte should be F8h for a harddisk, but other values like FCh are accepted by DOS (perhaps used for removable media ?). FAT too large Since the number of sectors per FAT is a 2 byte number, it is theoretically possible to have up to 65535 sectors per FAT. A number of FAT sectors greater than 256 is accepted by DOS, but not useful, since the largest possible FAT has 2 bytes * 64K entries = 128K = 256 * 512 bytes. If you can access the drive, do not attempt to change this. FAT too small If the number of clusters in the partition is larger than there are entries in the FAT, DOS uses only part of the partition. Something has gone *very* wrong with this partition, but all is not lost - reduce the partition to a size that can be properly managed. Sectors per track incorrect The number of sectors per track in the boot sector does not match the actual drive geometry reported by the BIOS Number of drive heads incorrect The number of drive heads in the boot sector does not match the actual drive geometry reported by the BIOS Wrong system indicator byte For BIGDOS Partitions the System Indicator Byte should be 6; for DOS16 Partitions it should be 4 Wrong signature Partitions with 32-bit sector numbers (since DOS 4.0+) have an 'extended Bios Parameter Block' in the boot sector, its signature byte is 29h. This is however totally ignored by DOS. Drive number in boot sector does not match actual drive number The drive number in the boot sector does not match the drive number by which the drive is accessed Wrong media descriptor byte in FAT The first byte of each FAT is the Media Descriptor - it should be F8h for a hard disk, but other values like FCh are accepted by DOS (perhaps used for removable media ?). Wrong FAT entries 1 & 2 A 16-bit FAT should start with F8 FF FF FF Can't open debug file The debug file is created in the current directory - make sure it is writable