Missing FAT or FAT32 Partition?

[Dan Mitchell]

The other day I created a boot disk for my 1100 athlon w/ME. When I tried it out it seemed to work fine, but the 1st thing I got was an error message "C:\ does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition". HD is a Western Digital 40gig Caviar. I understand that a file allocation table is a file windows uses to keep track of the scattered fragments of data on the HD. Searching C:\ for FAT returns no apparent system files (closest thing is S32FATL.DLL in c:\program files\rescue disc and a couple fat.db's in the Netscape user directories). I don't know enough to know the significance (if any) of all this, it seems if FAT function were totally missing the PC would be hard pressed to run at all. Still, I'm wondering if there is a problem here and if it may be related to the frequent lockups I have with the PC. Comments?

Dan

[rond36]

Need more information about your system software and hardware

[rond36]

I suggest you make another boot disk go to control panel-->add and remove programs--> startup disk tab and create a new startup disk does it boot from your normal boot drive if it does your FAT is just fine without a working FAT your PC will boot through the POST and that is as far as it will go. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
It's like trying to boot from a drive that hasn't been formatted.

[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 09-03-2001).]

[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 09-03-2001).]