Yup. It's normal for 286/386 BIOSes.
One workaround is chosing XT-IDE BIOS (AT) as a HDD Controller in PCem.
Depending on the BIOS files available, it can be selected.
Another workaround is to load a
Dynamic Drive Overlay (DDO), like for example EZ-Drive.
Phil's Computerlab site has a collection of these DDOs, I think..
If a 486 is fine, too, WinBIOS machine type in PCem can be used.
It's fairly modern by comparison to what a 386 system has.
It has auto-detection and can handle bigger HDDs by supporting E-CHS and LBA (I think).
So HDDs up to about 7GB or 8GB should be fine, which also matches the maximum what DOS 6.2x can handle without problems (8GB).
Over 8GB it's a bit "hit and miss": It may work, or may not work. FDISK and third-party Windows 3.1x HDD drivers may not support large HDDs properly.
Edit: I forgot to mention. BIOS and CMOS Setup Utility (or Setup, in short) are not the same.
Unfortunately, most people can't remember that.
The BIOS is the "invisible part" which loads when the PC boots up.
Most which it does that can be seen is printing a copyright information and the amount of RAM.
The BIOS has all the software routines that DOS uses.
The Setup is the configuration program in which we can make changes, setup drives, change date/time.
- Originally, it wasn't even in ROM. It was separately stored on a 5,25" diskette.
Compaq continued that practice with the Setup diskette for years.
In the 90s, the company had the Setup software stored on a hidden partition on the HDD.
So BIOS and Setup separate programs, essentially. And that's the problem.
If we enter unsupported values for HDD, the Setup will happily accept these and then show us the calculated capacity.
However, the BIOS has no use for them, because it has limitations.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
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