Would a controller card (with it´s own BIOS) be an option?

majestyk wrote on 2021-12-31, 16:30:

Would a controller card (with it´s own BIOS) be an option?

Well it worked before so I assume it would work again - I recall I probably used a bootable CD tool to do it with ...

But with controller card, you mean something like this?

https://www.bol.com/be/nl/p/via-vt6421a-pci-2 … lBoC4doQAvD_BwE

Did you use some additional software to address 32GB? There were tools abailable back in the days from Seagate or Maxtor to circumvent BIOS limitations.
https://www.deinmeister.de/e_over8mb.htm

For a controller it´s necessary that the used controller chip is supported by both WIN98SE and DOS - driverwise. Maybe an older controller from the 90ies wpuld be better here.

majestyk wrote on 2021-12-31, 16:43:

Did you use some additional software to address 32GB? There were tools abailable back in the days from Seagate or Maxtor to circumvent BIOS limitations.
https://www.deinmeister.de/e_over8mb.htm

For a controller it´s necessary that the used controller chip is supported by both WIN98SE and DOS - driverwise. Maybe an older controller from the 90ies wpuld be better here.

I'll need to do some checking. I thought I found the CD I used - a Seagate Tool CD but it doesn't boot from it which is odd. Super FDISK is the only tool that wants to boot that I tested but this one is limited by the BIOS and hard locks when it detects the D drive.

Funny enough the D drive is fine in Windows - I can even access it within DOS running in Windows.

OK I'm getting nowhere. I tried every hard drive tool I could find and none worked. EZ-Drive came the closest but a bug in the software meant that while having to enter the partition value, it refused to accept it because the maximum number was more than 5 digits. Plus, the EZ BIOS overlay caused a loooooong delay before booting which is unacceptable (like 20 seconds) and required extra steps to boot from disk or CD.

I don't get it - before I wiped the drive, I had a working 32GB partition. I think I originally formatted the drive on the PC itself to 32GB but can't find the right program. It's clear what needs to be done: I need to circumvent the Int 13h limitation of a 8GB drive which Windows 98 does just fine. I

know DOS relies on the BIOS for hard disk access so that explains why it freezes when I go over 8GB (since the BIOS doesn't support more thanks to Int 13h) but it worked in the past so I know something had been done to make DOS read more than 8GB, I just don't know what. There were also no boot up messages about an overlay used so either there was none, or it was not visible.

Does anyone have any more ideas? I've been at this for over 8 hours now and I'm really stumped. The BIOS also has the latest update.

If you have a NIC with an EPROM socket, you can install a Promise DriveMAX ROM which will add BIOS support for drives up to 128GB. I have done this in several of my computers.

Plasma wrote on 2022-01-01, 11:49:

If you have a NIC with an EPROM socket, you can install a Promise DriveMAX ROM which will add BIOS support for drives up to 128GB. I have done this in several of my computers.

I've read about that. If I read right you don't even need to use the card - it will enable LBA support just by using your original IDE ports on your motherboard which is cool. It's a nice solution to keep in mind but I discovered my old post from 3 years ago where I apparently solved the problem myself without any help.

I didn't try it before because I thought it wouldn't work but if you make a partition of 32GB in Partition Magic formatted to FAT32 and then hook it up to the PC, BIOS will claim it's 8GB but FDISK actually sees it as 32GB which is peculiar because FDISK itself won't allow such a big partition by itself. Scandisk did throw up errors saying LBA is not enabled in BIOS but I'm letting it do a surface scan and hopefully after it's done, I'll still have a decently sized drive left.

Re: Diy modding support for k6+And 120gb hard drives into bios roms

You may be able to use a xt-ide to get the drive working?🤔 (same concept as the network rom)

But yeah, a pci add in card is faster than any of these options. Personally, I use a 2.5” ssd and a promise tx4 sata II 300

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:30:

Re: Diy modding support for k6+And 120gb hard drives into bios roms

You may be able to use a xt-ide to get the drive working?🤔 (same concept as the network rom)

But yeah, a pci add in card is faster than any of these options. Personally, I use a 2.5” ssd and a promise tx4 sata II 300

I still have a free PCI slot so I might just do that later on. You think it would support a BIOS that has no LBA?

red_avatar wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:52:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:30:

Re: Diy modding support for k6+And 120gb hard drives into bios roms

You may be able to use a xt-ide to get the drive working?🤔 (same concept as the network rom)

But yeah, a pci add in card is faster than any of these options. Personally, I use a 2.5” ssd and a promise tx4 sata II 300

I still have a free PCI slot so I might just do that later on. You think it would support a BIOS that has no LBA?

Not sure🤔 if talking about network card and rom or xt-ide

Network cards and roms are cheap.

You may wanna invest in a chip programmer though. If you have one of those it’s just so easy to flash roms without having to jump through hoops pop it out, program it, pop it back in all from windows 10 machine. Super easy

But if talking about the promise tx4 yeah, should work no problem I have em on all my socket 7 builds

You could always see if chkcpu (jan) can patch your system bios he is in that thread.

If you do this right you should be able to use 120gb on the mainboard IDE

But with a tx4 I think you can use basically whatever you want. Even the latest 12tb drives.

But os and partition table limits apply there. Anything past 2 or is it 3tb and you have to use gpt or mbr and multiple partitions

Gpt requires windows vista/7 xp64 or server 2003 r2 if I recall correctly

I did once get gpt working on xp32 but it sucked

Not that you would be likely to use these drives, just info.

Any old 2.5” ssd will do.

Be sure to put your page file on a magnetic drive though. And disable prefetch, hard drive defragmentation, etc. stuff that writes the drive alot

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-01, 14:27:

Not sure🤔 if talking about network card and rom or xt-ide […]
Show full quote

red_avatar wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:52:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:30:

Re: Diy modding support for k6+And 120gb hard drives into bios roms

You may be able to use a xt-ide to get the drive working?🤔 (same concept as the network rom)

But yeah, a pci add in card is faster than any of these options. Personally, I use a 2.5” ssd and a promise tx4 sata II 300

I still have a free PCI slot so I might just do that later on. You think it would support a BIOS that has no LBA?

Not sure🤔 if talking about network card and rom or xt-ide

Network cards and roms are cheap.

You may wanna invest in a chip programmer though. If you have one of those it’s just so easy to flash roms without having to jump through hoops pop it out, program it, pop it back in all from windows 10 machine. Super easy

But if talking about the promise tx4 yeah, should work no problem I have em on all my socket 7 builds

You could always see if chkcpu (jan) can patch your system bios he is in that thread.

If you do this right you should be able to use 120gb on the mainboard IDE

But with a tx4 I think you can use basically whatever you want. Even the latest 12tb drives.

But os and partition table limits apply there. Anything past 2 or is it 3tb and you have to use gpt or mbr and multiple partitions

Gpt requires windows vista/7 xp64 or server 2003 r2 if I recall correctly

I did once get gpt working on xp32 but it sucked

Not that you would be likely to use these drives, just info.

Any old 2.5” ssd will do.

Be sure to put your page file on a magnetic drive though. And disable prefetch, hard drive defragmentation, etc. stuff that writes the drive alot

Thanks! I bought one for €25 including box & cables which seems a good deal. I wonder what the speed would be if directly connected to the card - probably pretty bad. However, it might be fast enough to hook up a SATA DVD drive?

red_avatar wrote on 2022-01-01, 16:50:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-01, 14:27:

Not sure🤔 if talking about network card and rom or xt-ide […]
Show full quote

red_avatar wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:52:

I still have a free PCI slot so I might just do that later on. You think it would support a BIOS that has no LBA?

Not sure🤔 if talking about network card and rom or xt-ide

Network cards and roms are cheap.

You may wanna invest in a chip programmer though. If you have one of those it’s just so easy to flash roms without having to jump through hoops pop it out, program it, pop it back in all from windows 10 machine. Super easy

But if talking about the promise tx4 yeah, should work no problem I have em on all my socket 7 builds

You could always see if chkcpu (jan) can patch your system bios he is in that thread.

If you do this right you should be able to use 120gb on the mainboard IDE

But with a tx4 I think you can use basically whatever you want. Even the latest 12tb drives.

But os and partition table limits apply there. Anything past 2 or is it 3tb and you have to use gpt or mbr and multiple partitions

Gpt requires windows vista/7 xp64 or server 2003 r2 if I recall correctly

I did once get gpt working on xp32 but it sucked

Not that you would be likely to use these drives, just info.

Any old 2.5” ssd will do.

Be sure to put your page file on a magnetic drive though. And disable prefetch, hard drive defragmentation, etc. stuff that writes the drive alot

Thanks! I bought one for €25 including box & cables which seems a good deal. I wonder what the speed would be if directly connected to the card - probably pretty bad. However, it might be fast enough to hook up a SATA DVD drive?

What connected to the card?

Which thing did you buy?

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-01, 18:02:

red_avatar wrote on 2022-01-01, 16:50:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-01, 14:27:

Not sure🤔 if talking about network card and rom or xt-ide […]
Show full quote

Not sure🤔 if talking about network card and rom or xt-ide

Network cards and roms are cheap.

You may wanna invest in a chip programmer though. If you have one of those it’s just so easy to flash roms without having to jump through hoops pop it out, program it, pop it back in all from windows 10 machine. Super easy

But if talking about the promise tx4 yeah, should work no problem I have em on all my socket 7 builds

You could always see if chkcpu (jan) can patch your system bios he is in that thread.

If you do this right you should be able to use 120gb on the mainboard IDE

But with a tx4 I think you can use basically whatever you want. Even the latest 12tb drives.

But os and partition table limits apply there. Anything past 2 or is it 3tb and you have to use gpt or mbr and multiple partitions

Gpt requires windows vista/7 xp64 or server 2003 r2 if I recall correctly

I did once get gpt working on xp32 but it sucked

Not that you would be likely to use these drives, just info.

Any old 2.5” ssd will do.

Be sure to put your page file on a magnetic drive though. And disable prefetch, hard drive defragmentation, etc. stuff that writes the drive alot

Thanks! I bought one for €25 including box & cables which seems a good deal. I wonder what the speed would be if directly connected to the card - probably pretty bad. However, it might be fast enough to hook up a SATA DVD drive?

What connected to the card?

Which thing did you buy?

PROMISE SATA300 TX2plus / TX4

red_avatar wrote on 2022-01-01, 19:38:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-01, 18:02:

red_avatar wrote on 2022-01-01, 16:50:

Thanks! I bought one for €25 including box & cables which seems a good deal. I wonder what the speed would be if directly connected to the card - probably pretty bad. However, it might be fast enough to hook up a SATA DVD drive?

What connected to the card?

Which thing did you buy?

PROMISE SATA300 TX2plus / TX4

Sweet! I love mine.

It is sometimes picky about what slot it’s in. Try slot 1 or two first. 👍

I wanna say that I’ve seen 90 or so MB/sec on a modern pci slot/system. But some systems it is around 40 or so.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-02, 02:01:

Sweet! I love mine.

It is sometimes picky about what slot it’s in. Try slot 1 or two first. 👍

I wanna say that I’ve seen 90 or so MB/sec on a modern pci slot/system. But some systems it is around 40 or so.

Hopefully I won't have to do a lot of shifting - I only have 3 PCI slots and the Voodoo2 is in the top one because of easy access. If it works I'll be very happy - now that I'm testing more and more games, I realize 8GB won't be enough for keeping even my favorite ones installed. Thinking back, my Pentium 166 had a 4GB drive very quickly and I still ran out of space so I had to get a CD writer to burn data to CDs and this was before I had the Internet so this was just my own files & games.

If I could get 120GB working it would be perfect - I'd be able to keep CD images of my main games to run by Alcohol 120%

red_avatar wrote on 2022-01-02, 12:31:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-01-02, 02:01:

Sweet! I love mine.

It is sometimes picky about what slot it’s in. Try slot 1 or two first. 👍

I wanna say that I’ve seen 90 or so MB/sec on a modern pci slot/system. But some systems it is around 40 or so.

Hopefully I won't have to do a lot of shifting - I only have 3 PCI slots and the Voodoo2 is in the top one because of easy access. If it works I'll be very happy - now that I'm testing more and more games, I realize 8GB won't be enough for keeping even my favorite ones installed. Thinking back, my Pentium 166 had a 4GB drive very quickly and I still ran out of space so I had to get a CD writer to burn data to CDs and this was before I had the Internet so this was just my own files & games.

If I could get 120GB working it would be perfect - I'd be able to keep CD images of my main games to run by Alcohol 120%

Use native sata drives the adapters cause problems often