Table of Errors:

Most of these will prevent the Harddisk from working correctly under DOS, so
it's not likely that you ever get these errors.

Invalid Rootsector Signature
  The last two bytes of the rootsector must be 55 AA (hex)
More than one bootable Partition
  In the partition table there should only be one partition marked bootable
  You can override this message with the -omb switch
Invalid bootable-flag
  The bootable flag in the partition table should be 80h or 0
  You can override this message with the -obf switch
Invalid Start Sector
  The start sector number of the partition is either 0 or greater than
  the number of sectors per track
Invalid End Sector
  The end sector number of the partition is either 0 or greater than
  the number of sectors per track
Invalid Start Head
  The number of the start head of the partition is greater than the total
  number of heads of the drive - 1
Invalid End Head
  The number of the end head of the partition is greater than the total
  number of heads of the drive - 1
Partition Table Corrupt - start
  The start sector (head/cylinder/sector) does not match the absolute start
  sector
Partition Table Corrupt - end
  The end sector (head/cylinder/sector) does not match the absolute start
  sector + the number of sectors
Overlapping Partitions
  The partition table contains overlapping partitions
Invalid Jump Instruction in Bootsector
  The first three bytes of the bootsector 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 Bootsector
  The last two bytes of the bootsector 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 Rootdir entries must be multiple of 16
  One sector of the rootdirectory contains 16 entries
  You can override this message with the -ore switch
Number of Rootdir entries must not be zero
  Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?
Wrong Media Descriptor Byte in Bootsector
  The Media Descriptor Byte in the Bootsector should be F8 (hex)
  You can override this message with the -omd switch
FAT too large
  FAT has more than 256 sectors - useless, since 2 bytes * 64K entries =
  128K = 256 * 512 bytes. If you can access the drive, do not attempt to
  change this.
  You can override this message with the -olf switch
FAT too small
  The partition has more clusters than the FAT can handle
  You can override this message with the -osf switch
Number of hidden sectors incorrect
  The number of hidden sectors in the bootsector 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 bootsector
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 bootsector

Invalid Drive number
  Only the numbers 128 - 255 are valid drive numbers
Invalid Partition number
  Only the numbers 1 - 4 are valid partition 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
Wrong Media Descriptor Byte in FAT
  The first byte of each FAT is the Media Descriptor - it should be F8h
  You can override this message with the -omd switch
New Partition not empty
  The New Partition must be completely empty

Too many drives found
  FIPS can handle up to 9 drives - that should be enough for most PCs :-)
No Compatible Harddisk found
  Hey, where is your drive? Perhaps your Harddisk 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
Invalid Partition selected
  The partition selected with the -p switch is empty
Unknown Filesystem
  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.
Invalid new start cylinder
  The start cylinder chosen with the -c switch is not valid
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.

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.)
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 bootsector 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.
Sectors per track incorrect
  The number of sectors per track in the bootsector does not match the actual
  drive geometry reported by the BIOS
Number of drive heads incorrect
  The number of drive heads in the bootsector 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 bootsector, its signature byte is 29h. This
  is however totally ignored by DOS.
Drive number in bootsector does not match actual drivenumber
  The drive number in the bootsector does not match the drive number by which
  the drive is accessed
Wrong FAT entries 1 & 2
  A 16-bit FAT should start with F8 FF FF FF
Can't open debugfile
  The debugfile is created in the current directory - make sure it is
  writable

