Need FAT32EBD.exe

Just installed an old blank hard drive in old computer. Will not boot to floppy so I can run fdisk. I think FAT32EBD.exe may work but do not have the original Win 98se CD. It is in EBD CAB.
Will someone pls send me that file or advise some other way to boot to A: drive so I can fdisk & format.

 

heydude

Depending on the hardware, you need to run the BIOS setup program by tapping the DELete key or some other, like F2, F10, etc., go to the boot options and make the A drive the first option (or temporarily the only option, which you can change later). Then a proper boot floppy will work, unless the floppy drive is not working, in which case no software will boot - it will need to be repaired. The screen usually tells which key to use to enter the bios, but you may need to hit the Pause/Break key to stop scrolling so you can see it.

 

Still no luck

Have tried all the bios boot sequence options after using BootItNG to partition hard drive. Floppy works but get this message "No operating system--insert bootloader disk in A: ". Which I do not have. But would prefer to use Fdisk as I am familiar with it or use FAT32EBD.exe but I do not have it.
I have win98se startup disk + ultimate boot disk but of course they do not work because there is nothing on hard drive.
I have downloaded (2) freeware partition programs & may try them in a few days. Any other suggestions??

 

If you do indeed have a 98SE startup disk you should have FDISK and Format availabe. I just checked to make sure and FDISK is available. At the A:\ Prompt just type FDISK.

I know nuttin from nohow about the Ultimate Boot Disk. But i would bet that FDSIK is availabe from it too.

You do not need ( or want ) anything on the HD to partition and format it.

If you should happen to be looking at the files on the Floppy, you will not see FDISK and it is in a .cab file and is copied to RAM.

The above is not correct. I looked again ( more carefully ) and it is visable.

BillyBob

 

heydude

You can download a bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com and place a disk in your A: drive and run the downloaded program which will write the files to the disk. Then you'll have fdisk and format and all the rest that one finds on a boot floppy.

 

Fdisk

Thanks guys but the problem remains inasmuch I cannot get an A:\ prompt. The hard drive is partitioned & formatted as FAT32. Have tried 98se startup disk & Ultimate boot disk. Error msg says "No operating system, insert boot media in Drive A: "
Any other suggestions??

 

Something is deffinetly wrong here. So lets see if we cna find out what.

#1 is the BIOS set to boot to the FLOPPY as the FIRST boot device ?

Error msg says "No operating system, insert boot media in Drive A:

I read the above as saying IT IS NOT. Or you do not have a true 98SE SUD. I can put my 98SE SUD in and boot any one of the three machines and wind up wuth the A:\ Prompt. And no mention of an HD at all.

#2 do you have an OEM machine. ( DELL, HP etc, ) ?

If so that may leave me out as they can be QUITE different.

#3 and maybe most important. Do you have real 98SE Startup disk ? If you do it should wind up with an A:\ Prompt. IF the BIOS is set correctly

#4 If you do have a full fledged 98SE SUD then there should be no mention whatsoever of the HD AS it should be going nowhere near the HD until you as the user tell it to.

BillyBob

PS
#5 Are you trying to boot from a complete POWER OFF state ?

BB

 

Still trying

Thanks for your answer, BillyBob.

#1: Yes, floppy is set in BIOS to boot first. Error msg is "This partition does not contain an operating system. If you are about to install a new OS then insert the installation diskette in Drive A:" . My 98se operating system is on CD, not floppy & it is not bootable.
I made startup disk from my other computer running 98se so it should be OK.

#2: Not OEM. Has Phoenix BIOS & Cyrix cpu.
#3: Have real 98se startup disk. See my #1.
If there is no operating system on HD, how can any startup disk work??
HD is set up as follows:
Have ms dos partition set as active & bootable.
Have win 98se partition
Have BootItNG partition (this is partition program)
Should I also make 98se partiton active, if I can??
Will keep trying.

 

I made startup disk from my other computer running 98se so it should be OK.

That should be OK. But from waht I am reading it is not.

#2: Not OEM. Has Phoenix BIOS & Cyrix cpu.

OK.

A true 98SE startup disk DOES NOT EVEN NEED a Harddrive to boot the machine. That is the main idea behind the SUD. I have used it many times to set up the BIOS on a new MB before I even think about going to the HD.

If there is something on the SUD that you have that requieres an HD then I believe something is wrong. That should not be.

I have no idea whstsoever about the FAT32EBD.exe. I can not even find it. But the files used to make the SUD are in C:\Windows\Command\EBD and C:\Windows\Command\EBD\EBD CAB. That is after Windows is installed anyway. If they are used during the initial indtall/setup I do not know.

At least that is the way things are on my two 98SE machines.

The file here C:\Windows\Command\EBD\EBD CAB get extracted into RAM when the machine is booted to the SUD.

Again. That message should not appear if the SUD is correct.

Being asked by my Wife for help. Be back later.

BillyBob

 

Thanks for jumping in here TonyT

0. probable cause is related to BootIT NG you have used.(see below)

I took quick peek at that and unless I am reading/understanding wrong it still should not go to the HD first. Unless the floppy drive is bad. It needs to go directly to the Floppy which is not happening right now.

heydude

I suggest that you have someone that also has 98SE AND NO 3RD party software involved make a boot disk for you. Try it and see what goes. If one of them does not work or you get the same results then I think either the BIOS is not correct or the Floppy is bad.

If it does work then you will know that the SUD you do have is improper.

BillyBob

 

PLEASE> STOP bringing up BAD memorys about miss-using software.

One way to confirm OUR SUSPICIONS I believe would be to disconnect the HD entirley. Then if the Floppy still does not boot properly It is either a bad floppy drive or disk.

OR BAD info on the disk. If the floppy was indeed made from another machine and that machine also had the 3rd party software that might be possible too. ( bad info )

BillyBob

 

clarification/summary

This shows a misunderstanding of the boot process. I hope this has been clarified by BillyBob and TonyT, especially by

To reiterate what TonyT said, this

(with a floppy in the drive) indicates either that the BIOS boot order is not set correctly (maybe wasn't saved on exiting Setup) or there is no bootable disk in the floppy drive or the floppy drive hardware is faulty. Don't waste your time on "freeware partition programs "; learn to do things correctly.

 

Possible solution

I believe the problem is that the BIOS on this old computer will not support the 10Gig HD I installed. It came with 225MB HD.
Thanks for your input & patience.

 

heydude

If you haven't read this page, please do. Also, you can upgrade your BIOS if you can find a correct version from your mobo manufacturer; but you need to understand the boot process COMPLETELY to do this without destroying your computer!

 

This is an old machine, and I doubt there is any BIOS update availble for it. I would be very surprised if the cyrix processor is faster than 166 MHZ.
The only way to get this computer to see the entire capacity of the drive is to install the drive overlay. This drive overlay would be contained on the CD that came with the drive. If no CD, who is the manufacturer of the drive?
Without a drive overlay, the BIOS will see the drive only as large as it can, I am guessing at 8 gb. The drive will work in this condition, and this would have no bearing on the floppy drive. I have installed windows on a drive in this condition, other than a loss of drive capacity, there were no problems. Which brings me to this.

You would need to do this all over again, as I do not think this was done on this machine. I say this if the drive was done on a machine that does see the entire capacity.

Now you have one of three problems.
Faulty boot floppy.
Faulty floppy drive.
Boot order is set incorrectly in the BIOS.

How to diagnose the problems. Remove the floppy drive from the old machine and install into the other one you have mentioned. It is a simple R+R process, no BIOS settings need to be changed except for boot order if applicable. Try to boot the other computer with a floppy.
If it boots, the drive and floppy are good, and this indicates the BIOS boot order is incorrect in the older machine.
If not, the drive is probably bad, and they are cheap to replace these days. Or it could be just a build up of dust, as air is pulled in through the drive by the power supply's cooling fan.
This could also indicate a bad Floppy Disk Controller on the older machine's motherboard. There isn't exactly a way to fix this, as I do not believe anyone makes a FDC card anymore.