EStool, help needed!

slowrunner · 27 Dec 2009 at 11:33

How do you get this program to run? I downloaded the iso off the samsung website, burned it to cd-rw, but when I try to boot off it the machine goes through post then just sits there saying freedos_ with the underscore flashing, and nothing else happens?

jbloggs · 27 Dec 2009 at 20:49

I found I had to run it from a floppy to get it too work...

slowrunner · 27 Dec 2009 at 21:34

hmm, not much point in them offering a cd-rom version then!

Oh well, will have to see if I've still got a FDD and cable hiding somewhere.

CaptainCrash · 27 Dec 2009 at 21:37

The ESTool ISO is a bit hit-and-miss with optical drives - you *might* be able to get it running by switching your mobo controller to legacy IDE mode (as opposed to AHCI or RAID), but even then the embedded DOS driver doesn't seem to support all makes and models of optical drive.

If you don't have a floppy drive, it's probably simplest to create a bootable DOS flash drive (instructions here), copy the estool.exe file from the ISO onto it, and run it from the command prompt as normal.

slowrunner · 28 Dec 2009 at 10:36

Hmm kay, any idea what I should set the bios to boot from? It gives me 4 options, usb-fdd, usb-zip, usb-cdrom and usb-hdd?

slowrunner · 28 Dec 2009 at 11:26

Well, got it to boot from a 1GB usb stick, typed estool, hit enter, and nothing, for half an hour it just sat there with an underscore flashing.

So, time to screw around with floppies!!!!!!!@@@@@@

alex24 · 12 Apr 2010 at 17:21

Sorry to bump an old thread, but found it while searching for a similar issue.

There are reports that disabling virtualisation in the BIOS allows estool to function properly when booting with USB.