Are you using the first or second edition? I suspect it's the first edition as second will let you use up to 128gb.

Need to find out? Open the properties in the setup.exe and tell us the version number.

If all you want to do is to partition the hard drive, you can use the Partition Magic 5, that you mentioned, to partition it.

If you're wondering about the FDISK and large drives, maybe as propahse_j said, an older version might be the problem. Still, it's odd, if you can see the "Enable Large Drive" screen, and yet, only see 12GB?

Does the drive have any jumper pins at the back of the drive to cap the size limit?

Another suggestion:Have you tried partitioning the drive using a booted XP cd? I often partition (and sometimes format) a drive using XP before I install 9x on it as it saves me a lot of time 😉
I know it's probably best to atleast do a full format but usually drives tend to be in good condition anyway.

XP can only format up to 32gb with FAT32. I really think your on the first version and when it gets info from the BIOS about the drive being larger than 32 it trips out.

Errmm...correct me if I'm wrong - I thought XP can partition & format upto 2TB of FAT32 - the max for a FAT32 partition?

But yes, the version of the software might also have some effects.

And yes, if the BIOS can recognize the full capacity, the back cap-jumper-pins setting, if any, is not a concern.

Windows 2000+ can use any size FAT32 partition but their own formatting tools can only format up to 32GB FAT32 partitions.

I had this the other day I dont know how i fixed it to be honest try...

deleting all partitions and rebooting and redoing that ide drive detection in the bios

It's the i tried the retail edition FE and then a custom SE bootdisk. I previously had the Win7 beta on it, so I had to fdisk to kill it.

I'm pretty sure the jumpers are right, Win7 beta and Partition magic 5 see's the drive as 80gb. I even changed the it manually in the BIOS to CHS to LBA and while the cylinder and such changed, still shows 12gb with fdisk.

OK, I just hooked up a IBM 30gb and fdisk has no problems seeing the drive as 30gb and partitioning it freely.

I double checked the jumpers on the 80, master & 16 heads, same as the 30.

I'll just have to use Partition Magic 5 i guess, still kind of bugs me though.

Why not just fdisk using an XP cd?
I tend to avoid programs like partition magic if they are not really needed

xp doesnt come with fdisk

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263044

Does anyone know what's the difference between Fdisk for Windows 98 First edition and Fdisk for W98 Second edition?

It sounds like that support article has the answer. You should try that and let is know

Simon wrote:

xp doesnt come with fdisk

It does. How else do you suppose you can create separate partitions with it?
I've created partitions using XP dozens of times and those partitions will work with 9x 😉
I do it that way because it's MUCH speedier then the 9x fdisk which has to check the entire harddisk everytime you click 'ok' 🤣!

Edit:I remembered something (had a hunch) and indeed! Windows ME's fdisk DOES recognize partitions over 64GB!
Another reason why ME is such a gareat OS! 😁 😜

Random quote from our biggest internet mate google:
I posted a Windows ME boot disk on my Downloads page. You can either use this one [labeled "FDISK floppy"], or grab one from bootdisk.com. I suggest the one labeled "Windows ME" as this particular disk contains the latest version of FDISK, which supports hard drives larger than 64-GB.

Calvero wrote:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263044

Does anyone know what's the difference between Fdisk for Windows 98 First edition and Fdisk for W98 Second edition?

BTW I used the Second edition version of Fdisk from that Microsoft site to partition an 80GB hard disk and it did work. When I formatted it with Format it said it was formatting 10GB, but when it was finished all 80GBs were formatted.

Calvero wrote:

BTW I used the Second edition version of Fdisk from that Microsoft site to partition an 80GB hard disk and it did work. When I formatted it with Format it said it was formatting 10GB, but when it was finished all 80GBs were formatted.

On my other two (now retired) PCs running Windows 98 SE, I've previously used a W98SE DOS bootup floppy and FDISKed several largish hard drives with no problem. On one PC the HD was 128 gigs, and on the other the HD was 160 gigs. On the latter though, I could only FDISK and format using 128 gigs of the hard drive, but that was due to BIOS limitations on that specific motherboard.

(edit) Duh, almost forgot the purpose of my reply 🤣:

I too remember that when I was formatting the hard drives in question that FORMAT reported some ridiculously small amount of disk space... but after the format was complete, everything was fine and OK.

Yes, on larger drives, FORMAT shows low hdd capacity while formatting but will display the full capacity after the format.

Partition Magic is more versatile than FDISK and FORMAT combined. I'm using Partition Magic 7 though.