keropi wrote:

does not flash, because of the Packard Bell string....

Does your mobo only accept flash with Packard Bell string ?

have you try uniflash ? With it I managed to flash a DFI mobo, I was unable to flash with awdflash.

yeah, tried a newer version directly from intel website (version P10, packard bell has version P09) and intel flash program complained about the BIOS header string or something... did not try uniflash yet... maybe I give it a shot!

but still I have no indication if P10 will allow bigger HD to operate fully, I tried a 80GB one and was limited to ~8,5GB 😵

also after format, I had some "windows protection errors" during the 2nd reboot in installation... could be the single-sided 128MB SDRAM I use, or the 6.4GB HD that has bad sectors, 🤣

I have a similar problem with my 486 (it does not recognise more than 8.4GB). I am using DOS 6.2 and know I am limited to 8.4GB anyway, but as I am using a 20GB drive for it's silence it seems a shame to waste the remaining space (that I could use to dual boot another OS - win98 perhaps).

I think I will need a IDE controller card to overcome this (Plus the 20GB seagate drive will probably be faster on a newer controller) - do you have any opinions about which controller would be most suitable?

are you sure it is a ide controller limitation ?

yes, it is the BIOS limiting the HD size , in my case at least... on the pacard bell site it says so too....

The controller doesn't limit the size. But there may be controllers thet have their own BIOS.

true h-a-l-9000 ... tried it and still limit... I have seen controllers with BIOS chips... still 10GB limit
interesting is that on a p3/440BX machine with the 37GB limit, that controller allowed a 120GB HD to be used fully, though it was NTFS and XP loaded, not 98se....

ok, checked again.... my SIL680A controller has a bios, and it sees the HD ok... only fdisk sees 10GB (2 more than the 8GB mobo limit...) maybe I need to update the SIL680A BIOS, it is old...