64GiB is too large, use a 32GiB card instead.

dominusprog wrote on 2024-06-03, 16:36:

64GiB is too large, use a 32GiB card instead.

why is 64gb an issue vs 32gb?

Ribbicipp wrote on 2024-06-03, 16:55:

dominusprog wrote on 2024-06-03, 16:36:

64GiB is too large, use a 32GiB card instead.

why is 64gb an issue vs 32gb?

just tried with a 32gb card and it's the exact same issue.

Which version of fdisk are you using?

Win98, win95, dos 6.22, freedos, or 'other'?

Ribbicipp wrote on 2024-06-03, 16:55:

dominusprog wrote on 2024-06-03, 16:36:

64GiB is too large, use a 32GiB card instead.

why is 64gb an issue vs 32gb?

There are some BIOS that have issues if a storage device reports cylinders > 65535, which is what happens when a device has a capacity > 32GB (33.4 if you are doing base 10 GB). Your system seems like it is from a period when that could have been an issue.

What is the date on your motherboard BIOS? Is your BIOS configured for LBA or CHS addressing ?

And what version of DOS are you using? You need to use Win98 DOS or Free DOS to see devices larger than 8.4GB.

https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Storage# … age_Limitations

wierd_w wrote on 2024-06-03, 18:10:

Which version of fdisk are you using?

Win98, win95, dos 6.22, freedos, or 'other'?

im using the version that came with the win98 bootdisk, so win98 i guess.

douglar wrote on 2024-06-03, 18:38:

There are some BIOS that have issues if a storage device reports cylinders > 65535, which is what happens when a device has a c […]
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Ribbicipp wrote on 2024-06-03, 16:55:

dominusprog wrote on 2024-06-03, 16:36:

64GiB is too large, use a 32GiB card instead.

why is 64gb an issue vs 32gb?

There are some BIOS that have issues if a storage device reports cylinders > 65535, which is what happens when a device has a capacity > 32GB (33.4 if you are doing base 10 GB). Your system seems like it is from a period when that could have been an issue.

What is the date on your motherboard BIOS? Is your BIOS configured for LBA or CHS addressing ?

And what version of DOS are you using? You need to use Win98 DOS or Free DOS to see devices larger than 8.4GB.

My PC is an AST Advantage 623E and im running the latest bios for it, namely version "05576035.exe Advantage! 62x System BIOS 1.04 144193".
Im running the DOS version that comes with a win98 boot floppy, which is what im using when booting up the PC.

When entering the bios, i don't see any options for LBA or CHS. It's pretty barebones tbh. So even if i try to manually enter the heads, sectors etc for the SD, i can't get up to the numbers that i need in order to make it read over 503 or so mbytes.

But, like i said, when i format the SD from my modern PC with FAT32, the old AST PC recognizes that it's 58gb. It's just as soon as i delete the partition in fdisk/xfdisk that it only recognizes the unallocated space as 16mb free.

Generally speaking, DOS has a 1024 cylinder limit (usually counted as cylinder 0 to 1023).

MS-DOS 7.1 is LBA aware, yes, but then the drive geometry should be set up as LBA in CMOS and Extended int13h services should be available, too.
The FAT partition type should be LBA, too, I think.

"Fortunately, most OSs today can cope with hard drives with more than 1024 cylinders, or can use extended INT13 addressing.
The list of such OSs includes Windows 98.
If you have DOS on your system, you should ensure that its partitions fall entirely below the 1024-cylinder limit, just as do your bootable partitions.
Microsoft has introduced new partition types for partitions that fall partly or wholly above the 1024th cylinder,
but not all OSs understand these partition types, so if you use them, you might not be able to access these partitions from all your OSs."

Source: https://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp … 31238&seqNum=14

Edit: Old versions of GParted did support resizing of FAT32 partitions (older than 0.9.0).

Success report: How to resize a partition on Windows 98

Tools like Parted Magic or Hiren's Boot CD may help, too.

Ribbicipp wrote on 2024-06-03, 19:06:

My PC is an AST Advantage 623E and im running the latest bios for it, namely version "05576035.exe Advantage! 62x System BIOS 1. […]
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My PC is an AST Advantage 623E and im running the latest bios for it, namely version "05576035.exe Advantage! 62x System BIOS 1.04 144193".
Im running the DOS version that comes with a win98 boot floppy, which is what im using when booting up the PC.

When entering the bios, i don't see any options for LBA or CHS. It's pretty barebones tbh. So even if i try to manually enter the heads, sectors etc for the SD, i can't get up to the numbers that i need in order to make it read over 503 or so mbytes.

But, like i said, when i format the SD from my modern PC with FAT32, the old AST PC recognizes that it's 58gb. It's just as soon as i delete the partition in fdisk/xfdisk that it only recognizes the unallocated space as 16mb free.

Even though it lets you enter large values, it really sounds like your BIOS isn't going to do > 528MB without some help. Consider making an EZdrive bootable floppy and installing drive overlay software: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1900

It will let your PC use LBA on your storage device in a way that is compatible with contemporary computers.

douglar wrote on 2024-06-03, 20:57:

Ribbicipp wrote on 2024-06-03, 19:06:

My PC is an AST Advantage 623E and im running the latest bios for it, namely version "05576035.exe Advantage! 62x System BIOS 1. […]
Show full quote

My PC is an AST Advantage 623E and im running the latest bios for it, namely version "05576035.exe Advantage! 62x System BIOS 1.04 144193".
Im running the DOS version that comes with a win98 boot floppy, which is what im using when booting up the PC.

When entering the bios, i don't see any options for LBA or CHS. It's pretty barebones tbh. So even if i try to manually enter the heads, sectors etc for the SD, i can't get up to the numbers that i need in order to make it read over 503 or so mbytes.

But, like i said, when i format the SD from my modern PC with FAT32, the old AST PC recognizes that it's 58gb. It's just as soon as i delete the partition in fdisk/xfdisk that it only recognizes the unallocated space as 16mb free.

Even though it lets you enter large values, it really sounds like your BIOS isn't going to do > 528MB without some help. Consider making an EZdrive bootable floppy and installing drive overlay software: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1900

It will let your PC use LBA on your storage device in a way that is compatible with contemporary computers.

Cool, will try it out and get back if issues occur (which they probably will).
Thanks for the tip.

Ribbicipp wrote on 2024-06-03, 19:06:

But, like i said, when i format the SD from my modern PC with FAT32, the old AST PC recognizes that it's 58gb. It's just as soon as i delete the partition in fdisk/xfdisk that it only recognizes the unallocated space as 16mb free.

This sounds like the usual sintechi SD->IDE adapter bug where it doesn't initialize properly if a FAT partition isn't found on the card.

jmarsh wrote on 2024-06-04, 01:23:

This sounds like the usual sintechi SD->IDE adapter bug where it doesn't initialize properly if a FAT partition isn't found on the card.

I have not run into that issue. You have trouble making the first partition on an empty SD?

douglar wrote on 2024-06-04, 03:01:

I have not run into that issue. You have trouble making the first partition on an empty SD?

Creating the partition usually isn't the problem, it's whether it will stick around after a power-cycle... typically if it's not a FAT partition, it won't.
It boils down to the adapter overriding its emulated C/H/S values with ones from the FAT partition's BPB, for "compatibility" reasons. Except when it can't find a FAT partition, it freaks out and won't return any data except the drive identify response (until a write to sector 0 occurs).

Since OP is using a different machine to initially create the partitions, I would guess the CHS values being set in the partition are different from what the adapter defaults to but it "adopts" them from the partition... then it reverts back to the defaults when that partition goes away, which are different from what the BIOS expects. Wouldn't be a problem if the "golden rule" of only using the target PC to partition and format the drive was followed...

jmarsh wrote on 2024-06-04, 11:44:

Creating the partition usually isn't the problem, it's whether it will stick around after a power-cycle... typically if it's not […]
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douglar wrote on 2024-06-04, 03:01:

I have not run into that issue. You have trouble making the first partition on an empty SD?

Creating the partition usually isn't the problem, it's whether it will stick around after a power-cycle... typically if it's not a FAT partition, it won't.
It boils down to the adapter overriding its emulated C/H/S values with ones from the FAT partition's BPB, for "compatibility" reasons. Except when it can't find a FAT partition, it freaks out and won't return any data except the drive identify response (until a write to sector 0 occurs).

Since OP is using a different machine to initially create the partitions, I would guess the CHS values being set in the partition are different from what the adapter defaults to but it "adopts" them from the partition... then it reverts back to the defaults when that partition goes away, which are different from what the BIOS expects. Wouldn't be a problem if the "golden rule" of only using the target PC to partition and format the drive was followed...

I agree that the symptoms that the OP having would be caused if his contemporary computer is using LBA and the legacy is using one of the mid 1990's ECHS addressing schemes. They just don't access sectors in the same way.

EZ drive should let the vintage computer use the same addressing scheme as the contemporary one does and that should solve the problem. There are a bunch of other options besides EZ drive, like XTide Universal BIOS or Ontrack.

XTIDE (from a ROM) may work but drive overlays would likely confuse the adapter because they replace sector 0.

jmarsh wrote on 2024-06-04, 16:01:

XTIDE (from a ROM) may work but drive overlays would likely confuse the adapter because they replace sector 0.

Never had an issue using Ontrack with SD or CF. In many situations overlays are better than XTIDE, especially on a faster machine with ram to spare.

Can't the BIOS be updated?
I remember there had been various patched versions at https://www.wimsbios.com/ and http://wims.rainbow-software.org/ and https://www.wimsbios.com/large-hdd-patched-bios.jsp

douglar wrote on 2024-06-03, 20:57:

Even though it lets you enter large values, it really sounds like your BIOS isn't going to do > 528MB without some help.

IIRC the AST Advantage! 600 series was not that old: while I couldn't find the exact spec of "623E", LGR had made a video about 622 last February, which had an 850MB HDD by default. Even the older Bravo series with 75MHz Pentium had minimum 850MB HDD. The BIOS of LGR's 622 was 1.02 and dated 1996 so Ribbicipp's 1.04 (assuming the same as TRW's) could only be newer and was the latest BIOS available for that MB.

I'd suggest Ribbicipp start with the smallest SD card available, preferably starting with 2GB or less using FAT16, followed by 4-32GB using FAT32. A 1996 vintage MB is likely to hit the 8.4GB barrier.

jmarsh wrote on 2024-06-04, 16:01:

XTIDE (from a ROM) may work but drive overlays would likely confuse the adapter because they replace sector 0.

They work for me with a Sinitchi IDE-SD bridge.