http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/bioslim.htm

perhaps try a disk manager like OnTrack if the info on that site (not my site) doesn't help

Most later 486 boards support LBA up to 8GB. No clue why you're unable to set that up. What about a manual drive paramater configuration?

Well, this board is an early revision (1.2). But it has 1994 BIOS and exactly the same chipset as the newer ones - and it actually detects full CF size in BIOS.

I will try to completely remove any partitions on the card and try to make a native partition in FDISK provided with win98 boot disk. Will report the results.

If your BIOS won't support it the easiest way to do this is use EZ-DRIVE (EZ-BIOS) or Ontrack. This'll let you use large drives despite any BIOS limitation. I'm using an 80GB on my 8GB limited Pentium

Phil (from Phil's Computer Lab) did a good video on this if you need some more info

Did you try to manually configure the drive geometry? It's entirely possible that your CF to IDE adapter is reporting some wrong values.

It's not a bug, it's feature! 😀

But seriously, it could be that your BIOS simply behaves too well or too ideal (i.e. 16 heads / 1024 cylinder limit, no logical CHS).
The classic versions of DOS do use basic int13h services, thus won't see full drive capacity.
A workaround would be to convince them to use int41/46h directly..

Anyway, the most practical ideas would be (probably) to..
a) use a disk-overlay software
b) boot DOS 7.1, which has LBA and extended int13h support
c) install a more recent BIOS

Or use a dedicated disk BIOS, like that from a SCSI host controller card or XT-IDE.

History of BIOS and IDE limits
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Large-Disk-HOWTO-4.html

Edit: Link added, small corrections.

Ampera wrote:

Did you try to manually configure the drive geometry? It's entirely possible that your CF to IDE adapter is reporting some wrong values.

Definitely try this! my 486 detects my 8GB card wrong as well, but works fine if I set the geometry myself

Found the probable answer (nasty!):

BIOS Ignorance: This is truly an ugly issue. Some systems with an older BIOS correctly reports the true number of logical cylinders of the drive, making you think the motherboard and BIOS (your system) supports the full size of the hard disk. In reality, the BIOS doesn't have a clue as to the number of cylinders or what to do with them. It's actually just reporting what the drive reports. When you attempt to partition and format the hard disk, you're faced with the stark reality of a 1.024 cylinder limitation, but this is not readily evident. It can have you chasing your tail for hours trying to determine what is wrong. Fortunately though, this is only seen in systems with an older BIOS and the 1,024 cylinder limitation.

Indeed, I spent HOURS trying to figure out what was going on. I'll get one of those Promise or TEKRAM controllers.

Maybe this adds some more 486 flavour to the build...

That's the 504MiB/528 Mb limit that is present on some older 486 boards:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/sizeMB504-c.html

@tikoellner Yes, and the heads limit is also something. Some BIOSes do allow more than 16 heads, as well. About 256 (0-255), I think.
It depends on the BIOS flavor wheter or not the full amount is reported back via standard int13h.
http://philipstorr.id.au/pcbook/book4/hdlimit.htm