Sounds like a bad CF card, or a fake one that doesn't really have 16 gb.

Is there some kind of Overlay in use to make the older machine compatible with the CF card's size?
16GB sounds a lot for a machine running DOS 6.22/7.x.

jaZz_KCS wrote:

Is there some kind of Overlay in use to make the older machine compatible with the CF card's size?
16GB sounds a lot for a machine running DOS 6.22/7.x.

No, its just a plain install.
Can you tell me what that overlay woud be ?

An overlay software (in the veins of EZ-Drive or Ontrack Disk Manager) translates the C/H/S geometry for systems that do not support the size of the HDD (or the substitute).

That is only necessary if the older system in question does not support that HDD size, which could be the culprit of the copied files sometimes being readable and sometimes not.

The fact that you can boot from it, but are not always able to read the copied files tells us that the older machine at least detects the CF card as (some, maybe wrong) type of HDD. But it seems to have a problem with the partition (either its size, file system, etc.). Which could mean you are passing an "unsupported barrier". This could very well be fixed, if applicable BIOS HDD type settings can be manually set. If not, one could fall back to using overlay software.

That being said, it could very well also be a faulty card or adapter, as derSammler mentioned.

What are the older machine in question's specs?

its a bit of a frankenstein machine...

Pentium 166 mmx
32mb ram
Phoenix S3 Trio64 (PCI)
that CF adapter as Harddisk

Dont know which chipset of the top of mz head.
There is nice graphical Award BIOS though

It provides some settings for the IDE controller.
Like LARGE, LBA, NORMAL and AUTO etc.
I have no idea what that does though

any info is appreciated

In modern machine, are you "safely removing" or ejecting the cf card before you remove it from card reader?

Pentium class machines are usually fine with 16GB hard drives and don't need overlay software.

With those specs and without further info, I am going ahead and wildly guess that the max. HDD limits could be anything between 6 and 32GB, depending on the chipset.
I guess you formatted the whole 16GB with DOS 7.1 a la FAT32?

Your chipset might very well have a problem accessing anything from for example past 8GB, and whenever it is supposed to access anything from beyond that it craps itself.

But I suspect the actual limit to be 32GB, another possible explanation of it "sometimes reading the copied files and sometimes not" could be that the volume (drive) was not correctly unmounted ("safely removed" in Windows), as GigAHerZ correctly stated.

I have alwayes used the safely remove option. So that cant be it.
The CF card is 16GB.
I have indeed formatted it with dos 7.1

can i just try EZ-Drive or do i have to format again ?

If you were able to partition and format it on that pentium to 16GB, you should not have problems that ez-drive fixes.

But sure, you can try. What's there to lose? 😉

GigAHerZ wrote:

If you were able to partition and format it on that pentium to 16GB, you should not have problems that ez-drive fixes.

But sure, you can try. What's there to lose? 😉

The existing partitions and data. Hue

You can go ahead and try although that would require a reformat, iirc. I would like to try and see whether we could solve this otherwise before falling back to overlay software. Maybe you can get more detailed specs.

Ok. lets see...

Mainboard: MB-M537 pcchips (BIOS: ROM PCI/ISA BIOS (2A5LDH09)
RAM: 32mb edo RAM
CPU Pentiom 166mmx
HDD: Delock IDE to Compact Flash Card Reader for CFI/CFII/MD + SanDisk SDCFHS-016G-G46 Ultra CompactFlash UDMA7 - 16 GB
BIOS Setting for HDD = LBA (Size 2114; cyls 1024; head 64; precomp 0; landz 31044; sector 63)
FAT32 formatted
FDD: 5,25 720kb Drive + 3,5 1,44mb Drive
CDD: BenQ DVD R/W
GPU: VGA PCI S3 Trio64V (4MB)
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Vibra16c ISA
OS: DOS 7.1

anything else you need ?

thrawn235 wrote:

Ok. lets see... […]
Show full quote

Ok. lets see...

Mainboard: MB-M537 pcchips (BIOS: ROM PCI/ISA BIOS (2A5LDH09)
RAM: 32mb edo RAM
CPU Pentiom 166mmx
HDD: Delock IDE to Compact Flash Card Reader for CFI/CFII/MD + SanDisk SDCFHS-016G-G46 Ultra CompactFlash UDMA7 - 16 GB
BIOS Setting for HDD = LBA (Size 2114; cyls 1024; head 64; precomp 0; landz 31044; sector 63)
FAT32 formatted
FDD: 5,25 720kb Drive + 3,5 1,44mb Drive
CDD: BenQ DVD R/W
GPU: VGA PCI S3 Trio64V (4MB)
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Vibra16c ISA
OS: DOS 7.1

anything else you need ?

This is not right. You are - if I am seeing this right - allocating 8GB only. Try the AUTO function, or enter values neccessary for 16GB, if that is an option. If not you will have to fall back to Overlay software, which will translate the C/H/S values necessary for 16GB if the BIOS does indeed not support that size. I don't know this motherboard and/or whether the limit of this board is 8GB. Maybe someone else has another idea.

EDIT:

It's a motherboard with SD-RAM. I would expect it to have 32GB limit, if even that.

The hdd settings seem to be wrong. Do you have "AUTO" option in bios for HDD?

hmm, thats interesting. its what the auto detect configured...
i can change certain settings by hand. i can double the cylinders for example, that automaticall increases the size (sector size?) to 8228. cant change that though.

i have tried to double the cyls, it doesnt seem to change the behaviour though.

some other things i noticed.
if i start scandisk, it complains about not beeing able to read the last sector of the disk. it says i should set it to LBA (which i have tried, it didnt change anything)
fdisk reports a total disk space of just 2014 mb but a partition size of 15279

EDIT:
there are AUTO, LBA, LARGE and NORMAL Modes
On AUTO and NORMAL i can change the Disc Layout manually.

Due to the fact that you want to run post-ultimate DOS versions like 7.x on this and that the BIOS - at least on this version - seems to not AUTOmatically detect it. There are two options. Enter valid values for 16GB harddrives, although using this method there might be ongoing issues about scan software nagging about the end of the partition here and there, if you use one full sized partition.

Or

To just screw it use overlay software like EZ-Drive. EZ-Drive has a built-in test.

Before doing anything, it would be interesting to just try and boot from the attached EZ-Drive floppy and select "Full Automatic Install", and see if it afterwards tells you that your "BIOS does not support your HDD and you need to install EZ-BIOS!". If it doesnt tell you that but proceeds to asking you how to partition without this message then we know there is something else going on and you actually wouldnt need overlay software.

If it tells you that your BIOS is incompatible, then you might as well proceed... Or do a BIOS update of the board, and check again if it now extended the HDD limit barrier.

I've selected Full Automatic Install, the next screen is *** WARNING *** You have chosen to overwrite:
and so on.
I'd have to type YES or no.

I dont hugely mind reformatting the Drive, but does that mean EZ-Drive thinks my bios is fine ?

I cannot recall fully, sadly... Maybe you have to go one step further to spark this message, as I only ever use EZ-Drive with fully wiped drives...

If it asks you what type of OS you want to use (partition setup) however, then you have surpassed that point. NOTE: It will not have overwritten anything up to this point, iirc.

Ah, ok. EZ-Drive did tell me BIOS does not supprt the Drive. it only goes up to 8gb.
Ive formatted it with ez-drive.

How do i get a OS on it now though ?

My Dos 7.1 CD does not detect any HDDs and aborts installation.

Is that a bootable CD? With overlays, you have to let them load before you boot from any removable media. This is why they have a point of interaction upon boot where you can prompt for boot options, in EZ-Drive's case, pressing CTRL when it says so. EZ-Drive cannot boot from CD though, so you have to boot from a floppy and then run the 7.1 installer from the CD if that is an option. (Be sure to have the CD drivers loaded)