486 won't see SSD via IDE adaptor \ VOGONS

486 won't see SSD via IDE adaptor

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First post, by Dan386DX

Posted on 2024-04-02, 20:21

Dan386DX Offline

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Hi, I've used these SATA IDE adaptors on older builds, but I'm struggling to get one working with a 486 system.

Is it just a step too far for hardware of this age?

I can confirm both drive and adaptor are working fine on a Socket 370 system. I've even tried a second adaptor and SSD.

Here's everything I've done so far:

- Formatted SSD with 2GB partition with FAT16 filesystem.
- Jumpered to slave, then to master, no difference.
- Connected alongside existing mechanical IDE drive and booted to Windows 95, not seen in Windows.
- Created pure DOS boot disk, SSD not seen in DOS or by FDISK.
- SSD not seen in BIOS, not deteced by BIOS 'IDE auto detect' feature.

Specs of system:

- AM486DX4-100
- 16MB RAM
- ABit PB motherboard
- 2MB VGA card, I forget which
- 240GB SSD via IDE to SATA adaptor pictured above

Everything else disconnected including sound card and CD drive.

I'm really quite stumped, and would appreciate a pointer in the right direction in case I've missed something. All thoughts welcome!

90s PC: IBM 6x86 MX PR 300. TNT2 M64.
Boring modern PC: i7-12700, RX 7800XT.
Fixer upper project: NEC Powermate 486SX/25

Reply 1 of 11, by Joakim

Posted on 2024-04-02, 20:40

Joakim Offline

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Older systems have bugs/limitations in the bios preventing them to see larger disks which is what you are describing. My pentium 1 will not accept even a 2gb disk.

You can do tricks with software but I have not looked into it myself. Results may vary I suppose.

https://youtu.be/JQh7Yu5_zDM?si=hLQm_LoC3xNX1S-x

Reply 2 of 11, by Dan386DX

Posted on 2024-04-02, 20:43

Dan386DX Offline

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Joakim wrote on 2024-04-02, 20:40:

Older systems have bugs/limitations in the bios preventing them to see larger disks which is what you are describing. My pentium 1 will not accept even a 2gb disk.

You can do tricks with software but I have not looked into it myself. Results may vary I suppose.

https://youtu.be/JQh7Yu5_zDM?si=hLQm_LoC3xNX1S-x

I really appreciate the reply, thank you. I did wonder if it was something like that, I was hoping that the small partition would be enough to make it work; looks like a deeper limitation than I thought.

I'll check out the video now, thanks again.

90s PC: IBM 6x86 MX PR 300. TNT2 M64.
Boring modern PC: i7-12700, RX 7800XT.
Fixer upper project: NEC Powermate 486SX/25

Reply 3 of 11, by Shponglefan

Posted on 2024-04-02, 20:51

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For a 486 system you may need a BIOS extension or dynamic drive overlay (DDO) software to use a drive that size.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 4 of 11, by Dan386DX

Posted on 2024-04-02, 21:00

Dan386DX Offline

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Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-02, 20:51:

For a 486 system you may need a BIOS extension or dynamic drive overlay (DDO) software to use a drive that size.

Thanks. BIOS extension seems to be out of the question from what I can see, but the DDO is a real possibility; I'll let you know if I can get it working.

90s PC: IBM 6x86 MX PR 300. TNT2 M64.
Boring modern PC: i7-12700, RX 7800XT.
Fixer upper project: NEC Powermate 486SX/25

Reply 5 of 11, by MyJules

Posted on 2024-04-02, 21:40

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i have this one below (amazon link) and it works ok with my 486 & 64GB SSD drive.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07TPBC34F

FYI, this is my MB.. https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/rectron-rt-4s3

Reply 6 of 11, by Sphere478

Posted on 2024-04-02, 22:17

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This may be that missing signal, I forget what it’s called, I think user Rayer? May have made a circuit for this.

Basically newer drives dropped a signal that those older boards looked for, but it can be emulated to make the drive work.

I’ll tag them.

Edit: IOCS16#

They’ve been tagged.

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 7 of 11, by douglar

Posted on 2024-04-03, 02:34

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Or it could be that your storage device only speaks LBA and your motherboard only speaks CHS.

It would be interesting if you could put an XTide ( or some other LBA aware) option rom in your system and see if it detects then.

Reply 8 of 11, by ubiq

Posted on 2024-04-03, 02:47

ubiq Offline

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It's not just the size of the partition, but the size of the drive itself. Try limiting it to 128GB using SeaTools as per Phil's guide here and see if that helps.

Reply 9 of 11, by Dan386DX

Posted on 2024-04-18, 00:20

Dan386DX Offline

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ubiq wrote on 2024-04-03, 02:47:

It's not just the size of the partition, but the size of the drive itself. Try limiting it to 128GB using SeaTools as per Phil's guide here and see if that helps.

This was the solution, thank you. Instead of using SeaTools, I ended up adjusting the LBA characteristics with Victoria for Windows which has a handy Windows GUI.

Thanks to all who posted!

90s PC: IBM 6x86 MX PR 300. TNT2 M64.
Boring modern PC: i7-12700, RX 7800XT.
Fixer upper project: NEC Powermate 486SX/25

Reply 10 of 11, by Sphere478

Posted on 2024-04-18, 00:57

Sphere478 Offline

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Sweet! Good job!

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 11 of 11, by ubiq

Posted on 2024-04-18, 02:26

ubiq Offline

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Dan386DX wrote on 2024-04-18, 00:20:

ubiq wrote on 2024-04-03, 02:47:

It's not just the size of the partition, but the size of the drive itself. Try limiting it to 128GB using SeaTools as per Phil's guide here and see if that helps.

This was the solution, thank you. Instead of using SeaTools, I ended up adjusting the LBA characteristics with Victoria for Windows which has a handy Windows GUI.

Thanks to all who posted!

Awesome, glad to hear it!

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