BIOS Configuration for Harddrive (486 PC) \ VOGONS

BIOS Configuration for Harddrive (486 PC)

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First post, by leon22

Posted on 2024-09-10, 18:01

leon22 Offline

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My old harddrive died (was 22 years old) and now I'm trying to replace it with a newer SATA disk but I'm not able
to boot from that disk:

https://imgur.com/a/kgSvGUa

My configuration:

- 486 PC with Gigabyte GA-486AM (latest Firmware, Nov 7, 1995 REV.A)
- StarTech.com IDE to SATA Adapter for Hard Disk Drives or Optical Drives - 40-Pin PATA to 2.5” SATA HDD / SSD / ODD Converter
- a partition (2GB) with MS DOS 6.22 installed and bootable on e.g. VirtualBox (I know this BIOS version can handle up to 8GB partitions but how to format with FAT16?)

Which settings are needed in the BIOS to work with that drive? I assume LBA must be active?!

Current try:

https://imgur.com/a/m1bLRvW

https://funwithretrocomputers.blogspot.com/

Reply 1 of 8, by Disruptor

Posted on 2024-09-10, 21:30

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If your BIOS does not support HDD autodetection, you may try CHS 1023/16/63.
FAT16 with its maximum cluster size (supported by DOS) of 32kB has a limit at 2 GB (2047/2048 MB).
But you may add an extended partition with up to 3 logical 2 GB more partitions.

Edit: Sorry this are wrong values. 1023/16/63 = 504 MB and should work with almost every BIOS. Use this for troubleshooting only.
You'd better try 1023/255/63 as jakethompson1 has written: Re: BIOS Configuration for Harddrive (486 PC)

Last edited by Disruptor on 2024-09-11, 06:31. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 2 of 8, by dormcat

Posted on 2024-09-10, 21:41

dormcat Offline

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So what's the make / model / total physical capacity of your SATA HDD?

I've got a 16TB SATA HDD but I wouldn't just create a 2GB partition and put it into a 486 build with an adapter.

Disruptor wrote on 2024-09-10, 21:30:

If your BIOS does not support HDD autodetection, you may try CHS 1023/16/63.

It has:

The attachment GA-486AM p4-24.jpg is no longer available

Reply 3 of 8, by jakethompson1

Posted on 2024-09-10, 21:51

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Flip it from LBA back to normal, temporarily

Change to: 16320 cylinders, 16 heads, NONE (or 65535) precomp, 16320 LANDZ, 63 sectors.

Flip from NORMAL back to LBA.
It should change to: 1024 (or 1023) cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors. If it doesn't, your BIOS can't handle this drive.
Note that some Award BIOSes of this era miscalculate the size displayed and that's fine. The important part is the 255 heads

Reply 4 of 8, by jakethompson1

Posted on 2024-09-10, 21:53

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That DISK BOOT FAILURE message is from Award BIOS and isn't a good sign.
You should at least get "Missing operating system" (from the MBR)
or "Non-system disk or disk error" (from the VBR)

Reply 5 of 8, by wbahnassi

Posted on 2024-09-10, 23:23

wbahnassi Offline

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I suggest using SeaTools to shrink the HDD down to -say- 1GB, then the 486 BIOS should work just fine without any tricks. It's good that it supports LBA, so it should be able to handle 1GB, and maybe 2GB if you're lucky.

Turbo XT 12MHz, 8-bit VGA, Dual 360K drives
Intel 386 DX-33, Speedstar 24X, SB 1.5, 1x CD
Intel 486 DX2-66, CL5428 VLB, SBPro 2, 2x CD
Intel Pentium 90, Matrox Millenium 2, SB16, 4x CD
HP Z400, Xeon 3.46GHz, YMF-744, Voodoo3, RTX2080Ti

Reply 6 of 8, by Horun

Posted on 2024-09-11, 02:28

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Hmm based on this post: Re: Which harddrive solution for a fast 486 system
I take it the "old drive" you had on your GA-486AM was a 40GB IDE. What size and Make/Model is the new drive ?

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 7 of 8, by leon22

Posted on 2024-09-11, 19:26

leon22 Offline

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Horun wrote on 2024-09-11, 02:28:

Hmm based on this post: Re: Which harddrive solution for a fast 486 system
I take it the "old drive" you had on your GA-486AM was a 40GB IDE. What size and Make/Model is the new drive ?

At the moment a very big one (2TB, WD Green, partioned to 2GB with FAT16) because I don't have another one by hand.
But to be honest I think the SATA/IDE adapter is maybe the problem. What else I could use? It should be a new volume
because I don't want to replace it again.

https://funwithretrocomputers.blogspot.com/