Hi there 😀

I'm in the process of building a retro gaming PC using an old HP NetServer E45 (Pentium II) that’s been collecting dust in my attic. Everything was going smoothly—until I ran into a strange problem with CompactFlash (CF) cards.

To start, I had a dual CF-to-IDE adapter from an old Amiga system (CF-IDE40 Adapter C.A01, DMA mode, VCC from IDE pin 20). In the primary slot, I installed a 4GB Kingston CF card (model: CF/4GB/3.3V/5V 9904524-001.A01LF) and successfully installed Windows 98SE. It boots and runs perfectly.

Wanting more disk space, I ordered two Transcend 8GB CF133 cards (model: TS8GCF133). Here's where things go wrong:

The BIOS detects the Transcend CF card, and I can partition it.

But after creating a partition and rebooting, the system hangs at a blinking cursor where it should say "Starting Windows 98...".

After about 20 seconds, the system reboots automatically.

I've tried everything I can think of:

- Large and small partitions
- Different partition types (Primary DOS partition, Extended etc.)
- Different CF slot and IDE cables
- Various IDE-related BIOS settings
- Tried partitioning & formatting the cards (as FAT32) on another (modern) system

Nothing works, the moment there's a partition on the Transcend CF, DOS just won't boot. With no partition, it does boot (from the primary card). But I’m stuck.

Has anyone run into a similar issue with CF cards and older systems? Is this a compatibility problem with the Transcend cards, or possibly an issue with how the BIOS handles certain CF types?

Would love to hear any ideas, suggestions, or workarounds.

Kind regards,
Bastiaan