Hi, as far as I remember, in DOS, hard disks (or more precisely int13h BIOS devices) have priority over CD-ROM and network drives.
You could try to specify drive "E:" for the CD-ROM drive in DOS.
Not sure how muich this would cause compatibility issues with DOS games, though.
Windows games were more focused on "D:" being the primary CD-ROM drives, I believe though.
Alternatively, using ASSIGN command might solve your issue (wild guess, can't remember trying this before).

Edit: Never mind. Just re-read your posting.
Note sure if this is of any help, but you could try to load your CD-ROM driver low and/or remove the "/L:E" part.
If you don't specify the drive letter, it will try to use the next best one available.
Anyway, good luck! 😀

Trying to figure out why FDISK shows the disk to be about 8GB but the D: that is on it is 14GB. Or is that 8GB unallocated space?

Are you running FDISK in MS-DOS mode or did you open a command.com window in Windows 98? If it only shows up in a Windows 98 FDISK session, a wild guess would be that it's doublespaced/drivespaced and the DoubleSpace/DriveSpace driver isn't loaded in DOS mode. Seeing "Lastdrive=H" reminded me of the *Space drivers from back then.

Jo22 wrote:

Note sure if this is of any help, but you could try to load your CD-ROM driver low and/or remove the "/L:E" part.
If you don't specify the drive letter, it will try to use the next best one available.

I don't think it has to do with the CD-ROM driver. If I don't specify the drive letter, the CD-ROM takes the D: drive, if I don't load it at all, still no D: drive.

AlaricD wrote:

Are you running FDISK in MS-DOS mode or did you open a command.com window in Windows 98? If it only shows up in a Windows 98 FDISK session, a wild guess would be that it's doublespaced/drivespaced and the DoubleSpace/DriveSpace driver isn't loaded in DOS mode. Seeing "Lastdrive=H" reminded me of the *Space drivers from back then.

I can see the D: drive in fdisk on either, but it only gets mounted within Windows. I also noticed that the D: drive is missing from Safe Mode, which is probably related. I just double-checked and compression is not enabled. The 8 GB is what the FDISK built into Windows 98 thinks the total capacity of the drive is. Here is a screenshot of the full listing from within the tool as opposed to just "/status". The Non-DOS and EXT DOS partitions are my Linux installation.

Fdisk shows Disk 1's total disk space is 8033MB, yet the accounted space is much, much higher than that. Just adding the two lettered partitions together exceeds the "total disk space" displayed.

AlaricD wrote:

Fdisk shows Disk 1's total disk space is 8033MB, yet the accounted space is much, much higher than that. Just adding the two lettered partitions together exceeds the "total disk space" displayed.

Yes, my understanding is that there is an 8 GB limit built into the version of FDISK that comes with Windows 98. I could be incorrect, but I don't believe this is related to the core problem. My intention in showing the fdisk output was to illustrate that the tool sees the drive and assigns it the letter D:.

This is the "real" fdisk output from Linux:

1Disk /dev/sda: 29.8 GiB, 32019111936 bytes, 62537328 sectors
2Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
3Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
4I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
5Disklabel type: dos
6Disk identifier: 0x0007d55f
7
8Device     Boot    Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
9/dev/sda1  *          63  8401994  8401932    4G  b W95 FAT32
10/dev/sda2        8402944  9824255  1421312  694M 83 Linux
11/dev/sda3        9826302 31825919 21999618 10.5G  5 Extended
12/dev/sda4       31825920 62535679 30709760 14.7G  b W95 FAT32
13/dev/sda5        9826304 29825023 19998720  9.5G 83 Linux
14/dev/sda6       29827072 31825919  1998848  976M 82 Linux swap
15
16Partition table entries are not in disk order.

I am using LILO as the boot loader. I also double-checked that I am not hiding any drives / partitions.

1# LILO configuration file
2# generated by 'liloconfig'
3#
4# Start LILO global section
5# Append any additional kernel parameters:
6append=" vt.default_utf8=0"
7boot = /dev/sda
8
9#compact        # faster, but won't work on all systems.
10
11# Boot BMP Image.
12# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8
13  bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp
14# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted
15# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):
16  bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0
17# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of
18# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many
19# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to
20# be used.  We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.
21  bmp-table = 60,6,1,16
22# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,
23# background color, shadow color.
24  bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255
25
26# Standard menu.
27# Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and 
28# use a boot message with the standard menu:
29#message = /boot/boot_message.txt
30
31# Wait until the timeout to boot (if commented out, boot the
32# first entry immediately):
33prompt
34# Timeout before the first entry boots.
35# This is given in tenths of a second, so 600 for every minute:
36timeout = 200
37# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
38change-rules
39  reset
40# Normal VGA console
41vga = normal
42# Ask for video mode at boot (time out to normal in 30s)
43#vga = ask
44# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
45#vga=791
46# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
47#vga=790
48# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
49#vga=773
50# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
51#vga=788
52# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
53#vga=787
54# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
55#vga=771
56# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
57#vga=785
58# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
59#vga=784
60# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256

61#vga=769
62# End LILO global section
63# Windows bootable partition config begins
64other = /dev/sda1
65  label = Windows
66  table = /dev/sda
67# Windows bootable partition config ends
68# Linux bootable partition config begins
69image = /boot/vmlinuz
70  root = /dev/sda5
71  label = Linux
72  read-only
73# Linux bootable partition config ends
74

Maybe the partition starts outside some cylinder limit (although the 1024 cylinder boundary usually refers to being able to boot from a partition).

I am thinking that it probably has something to do with the 8 GB Int 13h limit.

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/bio … im.htm#Int13ext
"Last but not least, we need a partition utility capable of creating partitions above the 8 GB boundary which the OS can see. The version of FDISK supplied with these Operating Systems is able to do this with the aid of new partition types 0Eh and 0Fh (FAT16) or 0Bh and 0Ch (FAT32; Win95b-OSR2 / Win98 only). Except for primary partitions below the 8 GB boundary, these new FDISK versions automatically select the new partition types, i.s.o. the old ones, when a BIOS with Int 13h extensions is detected."

I noticed that the fdisk in Linux showed the partition type as "b". I tried changing it to type "c - W95 FAT32 (LBA)" and reformatting it. Now the D: drive letter is there, but I am getting a sector not found error when trying to access it. Seems like a step forward but still not fixed.

If I can't get it working I'll just re-size the C: partition to use as much space under 8 GB as possible while still leaving room for my Linux /boot partition.

Oh, that's interesting. Would make sense, though. I'm still learning about DOS 7.x+.. 😊
(I recall that around Win9x, the enhanced inth13h interface was introduced; but I don't know if it was used by DOS 7.x ecer)
The 8GB limit was famous, though. Some FastDisk drivers for Win 3.1 also had an 8GB drive limit if memory serves.

Edit: Some typos fixed. Also worth a try - FreeDOS. 😀

I am almost certain this is being caused by some sort of 8 GB limitation with my BIOS. The version of fdisk that comes with Windows 98 should correctly report sizes up to 64 GB, but it gets cut off at 8 GB on this system. Somehow Linux and Windows 98 in GUI mode know how to deal with this and DOS does not. I am just re-sizing and shifting partitions around to get a bit more space on the C: drive and leaving it be.

Makes sense. Does the mainboard (486, 586 ?) support LBA already ?
I grew up with older Pcs and remember that some supported E-CHS aka LARGE, which also had an ~8GB limit.
Anyway, just saying. It's unlikely, but maybe -if the CMOS Setup is set to AUTO- it could be the case that the HDD detection
of such an old PC is confused by the rather modern HDD. 😀

Edit: Source: https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/Large-Disk-4.html

So, what is it you're trying to do? Use the entire hard drive as one drive? Are you willing to wipe the drive clean and start over? Because if your BIOS has a limit of 8GB, then find the Drive Overlay software that goes with that brand of old hard drive.

I'll tell you what I did with my build so you can understand what I mean.

I've got a 200MHz P54C Pentium in a Socket7 ATX board, 64MB of RAM via 72-pin 60ns EDO SIMMs. I run Windows 95 OSR2 on it.
The smallest hard drive I had is an old Maxtor 20.4GB hard drive.
Problem is, the motherboard is a Micronics m55hi. Even with the latest BIOS update for it, it still has a hard limit of 8GB, just like your BIOS seems to have. Even FDISK from a Windows 98 startup disk kept giving me errors. It REFUSED to let me partition/format more than 8GB - that that was simply unacceptable to me.

So I found the Maxtor Drive Overlay software, used a USB Floppy drive to format and create the floppy image, and then booted to that in order to configure the drive. Once I booted the system and the Drive Overlay software became resident in memory, it saw all 20.4 GB and FDISK had ZERO problems formatting it as one big drive. After that, it was simple to install Windows 95.

I have had NO issues since. I have disabled BIOS booting to anything but the hard drive, because the MAXTOR software actually has a boot option for both floppy (space) and CD-ROM (letter C) built into it. If I don't push anything, it continues to boot into Windows 95. And it stays resident in memory as long as the system is on, so even if I boot into DOS mode, DOS sees the partition and has full access. If I exit Windows 95 into DOS mode, same thing: full access.

I know Western Digital had software like that too. I might even have a floppy of THAT software lying around somewhere.

.................

Yep. Found it.

My only goal really is to make sure I have some sort of half way sensible partitioning scheme and enough space for everything (DOS games, Windows, Linux). It doesn't need to all be on one partition. I am using a 32 GB compact flash card.

I'm using a Gigabyte GA-6BXC 440BX board with the PowerLeap BIOS. This board doesn't have a "hard" 8 GB limit, but there are a couple of limitations that I have found that need to be worked around.
-Bootable partitions need to be in the first 8 GB.
-DOS (and Win 9x in MS-DOS mode) can't seem to see partitions beyond 8 GB. Windows and Linux can.

I've settled on the following that I think will work:
-7.5 GB primary partition for Windows 98 C: drive. (Windows 98 OS and MS-DOS programs)
-512 MB primary Linux /boot.
-10 GB primary Windows D: drive (Windows programs as MS-DOS mode can't see it).
-1 GB extended Linux swap.
-12 GB extended Linux /

I've used drive overlay software in the past but I think I can get by without it here.

What if you set the drive as active? (PM will still take preference so wont affect booting) I dont think it will make a change but cant hurt to try?
Seems really strange that Win98 can see it but dos cant?

chinny22 wrote:

What if you set the drive as active? (PM will still take preference so wont affect booting) I dont think it will make a change but cant hurt to try?
Seems really strange that Win98 can see it but dos cant?

I don't remember for certain, but I believe I tried that and it didn't help. Yes, this is very weird.

I thought about this more and decided that since I am using one of those CF adapters that fits in a PCI slot for storage, I was being silly with all these complicated partitioning schemes and boot loader configurations to handle multiple OSes. I ended up using WD Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 and I was easily able to install Windows 98 on a single 32 GB partition. MS-DOS mode also reports the capacity correctly. Before that, Windows 98's fdisk would only see 8 GB total. I will install Linux to a separate CF card.

When i want to make big partitions on my DOS\Windows machines, i most often have to put the CF card in a new machine like a Socket 370 Pentium 3 😀 Boot up with 98SE startup disk, make all the partitions most time like this:
C: 1.9gb (Active)
D: 14gb
then i move the CF card to my socket 3\7 machine..
Or i just use a 400-1,8gb IDE Drive as C and make a full D: out of the hole CF\SD card..