Question : Install Problem - "Create an MS-DOS Boot Partition?"

I found some good prices and decided to do multiple system upgrades at once.  That is doubtless at the root of my problems.  Once I got things well and truly screwed up, only then did I pull everything out and put things bacak one at a time.  By then, things were pretty well messed up.  The RAM upgrade (added 128 Meg of PC 133 to the previous 128 Meg of PC 100) seems to be working out fine.  The new hard drive and/or installation of Win ME are another story.  I write to seek help in determining just where the problem lies.

Here is what I know so far, and where I think I have my problems:

My BIOS seems to recognize my 30Gig Maxtor HD, and the Maxtor/Promise PCI based ATA-100 controller also finally seems to be OK.  I ran MaxBlast to partition the HD, and it recognized it as 30 Gig and let me make the three partitions I chose.

I will leave out much idiocy on my part, and simply note that I copied the install directories of W98 and W-Me to the first partition of the new HD, then connected it to my MoBo controller.  I have a BCM QS440BX MoBo with the 1 Meg version of Award BIOS 4.51.  I understand that it is possible that part of my trouble came when I connected the ATA100 HD directly to that DMA33 controller.  The installation crashed repeatedly, and when it finally finished installing, plugging in a USB device instantly froze the system.  I wound up reformatting the HD.

Now, MaxBlast refuses to recognize the HD as being any larger than about 4.7 Gig, even though BIOS, FDISK, and what have you all have finally agreed to see it as being in the 30Gig range.  That took a while, but I think I am past that stage of the problem.  I think, but am not sure, based on some reading here on the Exchange today, that I know enough to FDISK, partition, and reformat the whole thing, and thereby avoid the need to use MaxBlast again.  I note the MaxBlast issue only because I suspect it is related to other problems.

When I try to install W-Me, I get error message SU0013.  I get the same message if I try to install W98 on the same drive.  Likewise, the message shows up whether I try to install from the HD or the CDROM.  The full error message can be found in a file named SETUP.TXT which appears on both the W98 and W-Me disks in their respective installation folders (i.e., "WIN98" or "WIN9X".  It mentions many possibilities that seem to me to be unrelated to each other. I think I have ruled out most of the possibilities.

The one that I cannot rule out, I am also unsure I understand.  It suggests "Create an MS-DOS Boot Partition."  Is this something I do when I format my HD?  Is it part of my initial DOS partition?  I want my C:\ drive to be in the 15Gig range.  Does this matter?

Just what command or commands do I use?  I read something about a /b switch.  Is that what I want?  Will something like "A:\>FORMAT C: /s /b" do the trick?  If so, is my spacing correct?  If not, what should I do?

I've thought for several days that I was on the verge of figuring this out.  Right now, I think this issue is the last thing between me and a clean install.  Then again, as a DOS illiterate, I suppose I can believe whatever I want without making any of it true.

Answer : Install Problem - "Create an MS-DOS Boot Partition?"

fdisk /mbr repairs the master boot record
As I stated above, connect the HD to the ide controller, install then connect to the promise card and install the drivers