Make sure the 1st partition is also active. Otherwise you can try with command: fdisk /mbr

Hi, I second what kixs says.

If it still doesn't work, you can try installing DOS 7.1 from the Windows 98SE CD-ROM for testing purposes.
That way, you can see if the CF card is detected correctly etc.

Some utilities not found on A:\ are in D:\WIN98 or D:\WIN98\COMMAND
- Sorry, can't concentrate right now.

Please note that Win98 FDISK is not fully compatible with DOS 6.2x, though.
FDISK /MBR works different internally, writes a DOS 7 boot sector, for example.
It may use LBA even if you want to use CHS settings in BIOS, will try to use FAT32 if it can (say "NO" to big HDD support) etc etc.

Btw, you can try to figure out drive geometry whit IDEDIAG or WHATIDE.
I posted the first one years ago in Xjas' thread
IDE disk-on-module + 386

tried everything and a ms dos boot disk floppy none of works so i have no idea i just get that cursor even off a boot floppy so i've given up it will end up in the bin i expect.

Thank god OS's are this annoying anymore 🤣 progress is a beautiful thing.

dreamscape86 wrote on 2022-10-21, 16:13:

Thank god OS's are this annoying anymore 🤣 progress is a beautiful thing.

They weren't, you have something wrong with your machine.

Try taking the hard drive out of the laptop and then attempt to boot with the floppy disk. It's possible the drive is not very happy.

dreamscape86 wrote on 2022-10-21, 16:13:

Thank god OS's are this annoying anymore 🤣 progress is a beautiful thing.

Ever tried Linux? 😹

Linux is only free if your time is worthless.

Agree with keenmaster486 - eliminate any hard disks from the system and leave it just with a known-good floppy disk and drive.

It would be good to test your floppies too if it's possible they're not good. I usually MD5 the source image, write it, read it back, then MD5 the result and compare.

SITE NAME REMOVED has some other known good images you could try:

LINK REMOVED

Plop Boot Manager is also a good tool to try. Sometimes it will let you boot from devices the BIOS otherwise wouldn't boot from.

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/download.html

.. the laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 4010CDT.

It's made especially for Windows 95 and 98, it seems.
All entries on the web mention these OSes.
Same goes for the flyer.

At least one picture also shows Windows XP running.

User 133MHz did a fine review about his model many years ago.
Re: Decent retro gaming laptops

could it be a faulty CF card, or did you even try to boot it to DOS only?

If you don't want it, please PM me. Instead of throwing into the bin, I would like to take it. Just let me know the shipping charge in the PM. Thanks.

Shagittarius wrote on 2022-10-21, 16:48:

Linux is only free if your time is worthless.

Yes, it is, but only if you are screwing with it. Leave it alone and it will do the job.

My grandma is happy with Lubuntu. If she can handle it then you are probably doing something wrong.