Boot Disk Won't Work-Illegal Partition Table

[Laysan_A]

Hi,

 

First, thank you so much Lightning for Imgburn (and the other which shall remain nameless - but that I still use on a regular basis!) it really is a top-notch program.

 

I just got a new computer with an AMD 64 processor. As of now it has no operating system installed. I downloaded the latest mb bios update from asus and I want to flash the bios with their little dos utility. I have a growing pile of coasters as evidence of my dedication to the task...

 

I don't have a proper bootable cd to extract the boot image from and I don't have a floppy drive (except on my WinME laptop). I downloaded a freedos image to use. I did try to extract the image from my winME install disk, but it extracted the menu structure and everything and I couldn't find my bios file and utility (I don't think they were there).

 

Since I cannot extract the image myself there are no settings to copy in the log. I've been using the default, except that I used custom and four sectors once and the disk hanged.

 

The disks boot fine, but three errors occur, one for each of my included files: illegal partition table drive00 sector 0.

 

The files are not visible on the newly booted computer, in dos, but they come right up in file manager in windows.

 

I lack the background to figure out what's going on.

 

Help?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Do you have a USB pen?

 

Make that bootable and just copy the asus flasher and firmware onto it.

 

They're much better suited to such tasks than optical discs are.

[Laysan_A]

Do you have a USB pen?

 

Make that bootable and just copy the asus flasher and firmware onto it.

 

They're much better suited to such tasks than optical discs are.

 

Hi Lightning. Yes, I know it would be MUCH simpler to use a flash drive, (asus has a utility especially for that) but, no, I don't have one. My wife and I are on a Very tight budget and I just haven't sprung for one yet. Besides, simpler or no, something about using a fifteen to twenty dollar piece of hardware to do the same job I should be able to do with a thirty cent cd just doesn't seem right to me (unless I already had one).

 

From your comment about optical disks being less than ideally suited for this sort of thing, I'm guessing there isn't a simple answer to my problem...

 

I was wondering, I'll need to reinstall daemon tools, but if I mount the freedos image (it will mount won't it?), copy it to a file, add my bios, etc. then burn it with include system and hidden files selected? It wouldn't work, would it, because the whole thing with the boot images is that they fool the bios into thinking it's loading a diskette. Hmmm...any other ideas, or should I just wait until I can get a flash drive?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

You can get pen drives for a couple of quid here, I'm sure they're even cheaper in the US.

 

You'll have to google for a bootable disc image that loads cdrom drivers. Use the image as the boot image and add the flasher + firmware to the cd as normal data.

 

Without physically doing it myself and giving you the image, that's about the best advice I can give you.

[Laysan_A]

You can get pen drives for a couple of quid here, I'm sure they're even cheaper in the US.

 

You'll have to google for a bootable disc image that loads cdrom drivers. Use the image as the boot image and add the flasher + firmware to the cd as normal data.

 

Without physically doing it myself and giving you the image, that's about the best advice I can give you.

 

Yeah, you know what? Everything I've read and tried implies a level of uncertainty I'm becoming increasingly uncomfortable with. When it comes to flashing my motherboard's bios - an uncertainty in itself, I shouldn't be taking unnecessary chances of ruining my motherboard because I'm not willing to spend a couple of bucks on a flash drive. I'm going to follow your original advice.

 

Thanks for your help, Lightning. I appreciate it very much.

 

(Just how much is a quid, anyway???)

[mmalves]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quid

[Cynthia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quid

a prototype for a possible future type of currency for use by space tourists

 

[volvofl10]

1 quid is about 1.4 US$

[Laysan_A]

1 quid is about 1.4 US$

 

Thanks for all the quid replies!!

 

For some reason I had the impression that it was different than a pound - don't know why...

 

That space currency thing is funny!

[volvofl10]

That space currency thing is funny!

Dont laugh !! it could be in by January the way things are going in the money markets worldwide