voodoo5_6k wrote:

Currently, it is configured to "Auto Detected". Other available options are "Standard CHS" (for drives with fewer than 1024 cylinders), "Extended CHS" (for drives with more than 1024 cylinders), and "Logical Block" (LBA). The BIOS does not show what selection it actually performs when I choose auto detected. Since LBA is supported, I could try forcing the BIOS to use it as this is the latest IDE translation mode it supports.

I also suggest trying LBA, then extended CHS. Do try Standard CHS most likely limits the size to 504MB, because drives with less than 1024 cylinders do not need geometry translation and they are smaller than 504MB.

voodoo5_6k wrote:

Thanks for the explanation, very interesting indeed. When I have some time within the next few days I'll try to manually configure it using the 1023/255/63 setting to see how that gets interpreted. When I first configured it manually, I used the 16 heads and 63 sectors variant.

Most likely you are not allowed to enter 1023/255/63 because this setting is the specs how the BIOS will access the drive, and ATA has only 16 heads. So drives larger than 8GB have xxx cylinders/16 heads/63 sectors, and BIOS translates that to 1023 cyl/255 head/63 sectors so DOS can see up to 8GB of it.

I forced the BIOS to use LBA, wiped the disk, created a single primary partition, formatted it (format c: /u /s) and rebooted without boot-floppy. But again, the non-system disk error message. Another try of fdisk /mbr, but to no avail.

I'll source another disk to cross-check.

Jepael wrote:

Most likely you are not allowed to enter 1023/255/63 because this setting is the specs how the BIOS will access the drive, and ATA has only 16 heads. So drives larger than 8GB have xxx cylinders/16 heads/63 sectors, and BIOS translates that to 1023 cyl/255 head/63 sectors so DOS can see up to 8GB of it.

I was able to configure the disk as 1023/255/63, but then fdisk will stop working when calling the create primary partition dialog. So, not working, like you predicted. But I was curious 😉

BTW: is the disk detected as primary master ?

Sammy wrote:

BTW: is the disk detected as primary master ?

Yes, it is. All drives are detected correctly during POST (SSD as primary master, ODD as secondary master, FDD as drive A:).

I have some tricky "BIOS-detects-HDD-but..." stories in the past, so I know as a fact that, "BIOS detects HDD larger than X" does not automatically mean "it will work with HDDs larger than X". I suggest you to use some utilities like SeaTools from Seagate, to limit your HDD's size to a more era correct size (below 32GB) and retry.

have you tryed Plop-Boot-Manger ?

have you tryed standard chs. (504 mb) and partition, format and install dos again ?

had the board ever booted from a hdd. and when yes which System ?

Sammy wrote:

have you tryed Plop-Boot-Manger ?

have you tryed standard chs. (504 mb) and partition, format and install dos again ?

had the board ever booted from a hdd. and when yes which System ?

1. No, I have not, so far.
2. Yes, I had, and it didn't work at all.
3. Yes, but ages ago, with another CPU and an older BIOS. Changing CPU and/or reverting the BIOS is not an option though (because of the Pentium Pro 200 1M).

tayyare wrote:

I have some tricky "BIOS-detects-HDD-but..." stories in the past, so I know as a fact that, "BIOS detects HDD larger than X" does not automatically mean "it will work with HDDs larger than X". I suggest you to use some utilities like SeaTools from Seagate, to limit your HDD's size to a more era correct size (below 32GB) and retry.

I might try this, if I find the time. I'm interested to see whether this would get the disk accepted for booting.

voodoo5_6k wrote:

I'll source another disk to cross-check.

Yesterday, I tested with an industrial IDE SSD (32GB) and this is indeed accepted, the system boots from this disk. Finally.

So, for the moment, thanks for all the input everyone!

For me, the conclusion is, that the VS440FX latest BIOS improved HDD detection/support, but in some areas for the worse (the disk in question works flawlessly in my Advanced/ML board which is roughly the same age).