I have received the following email from HP, which seems to clarify the conclusions on Novell's discussion thread:
When attempt to access DOS partition of NetWare 5.1 or 6.0 server (usually by restarting the server for some reason), the DOS partition is inaccessible and the server will not boot. Prior to restarting, NetWare continues to function properly, but may have problems with real-mode access to the DOS partition from within the OS.
Symptoms
. The FAT table of the DOS partiton becomes corrupted which renders the partition inaccessible. Version of DOS in use is DR-DOS 7.02 which is set up during the NetWare install.
Cause
SmartStart 6.x modifies the partition boot sector on the DOS partition just prior to launching the NetWare install with the intent of making the drive bootable (similar to the DOS SYS command). Something during this process causes the CHS (cylinder/head/sector) information in the FAT16 boot record to become corrupted. This creates a lot of lost clusters and cross-linked files in the DOS partition. After a while, normal reads/writes to the DOS partition will step on a cross-linked or lost cluster, thereby resulting in corruption of the FAT table. Utilities such as Scandisk and/or CHKDSK will not fix this problem because of the incorrect CHS information in the boot sector.
NOTE: This problem only occurs on SmartStart-created DOS partitions of 1503 MB or higher. If the partition size is 1502 MB or less, this problem does not occur.
Resolution/Workaround
Smartstart 6.40 and later Assisted installs of Netware will create and format the DOS partition correctly.
When using Smartstart 6.0 - 6.3, this issue can be prevented/worked around in 1 of 2 ways:
1.If using SmartStart 6.0 - 6.3 to start a NetWare install, set the DOS partition size to 1502 MB or less. This issue does not occur unless the DOS partition is 1503 MB or greater.
2. Bypass SmartStart altogether and perform a manual installation of NetWare. If the DOS partition is created manually prior to or during the NetWare install, this issue does not occur. Remember that the maximum size DOS partition that NetWare 5.1 or 6.0 will support is 2048 MB (if manually created) or 1500 MB (if created as part of the native NetWare install process).
3. On a unit with NetWare 6.0, the DOS partition may be deleted and re-created if you have a working backup of the DOS partition. Please do not attempt this workaround on NetWare 5.1 units, as it may render NSS volumes inaccessible.
