Well, if you suspect the BIOS, try to update that first (er, from floppy or better Gotek if you can't trust the HDD/SD). Apart from that, do you have another system to test the SD solution or the HDD in? CF-to-IDE is just a straight passthrough as CF *is* IDE at a protocol level (which is why I prefer it for retro purposes), so the extra adapter shouldn't matter - but that's assuming the SD-to-CF adapter is fine in the first place.

It's puzzling the board did previously accept a 40GB HDD, as there are no logical limits between 32GB and 137GB. That suggests either motherboard or HDD are wonky. Does the 40GB drive still work? Then I fear the new 80GB drive may be dead. If the 40GB drive doesn't work with this board anymore, the board must be prime suspect. My first though would be bad caps given era and brand.

> THIS SD card to Compact Flash adapter, THIS Compact Flash to IDE adapter and an old SanDisk 2Gb microSD card

Is the texts and links here back to front?

Anyway I have a very similar sd/cf adapter with a 8gb SD card in a different sort of cf/ide adapter (one that plugs directly into the ide slot), and it works perfectly with dos6. Motherboard is Asus P5A.

> Get a proper SD -> IDE adapter

I am not sure what you mean by proper. Most (all?) of these adapters are chinese made junk, much of which doesn't work half the time. Cf/sd adapters otoh are very mature devices from the professional camera industry, many designed and made in Japan.

dionb wrote on 2020-01-27, 07:01:

Well, if you suspect the BIOS, try to update that first (er, from floppy or better Gotek if you can't trust the HDD/SD). Apart from that, do you have another system to test the SD solution or the HDD in? CF-to-IDE is just a straight passthrough as CF *is* IDE at a protocol level (which is why I prefer it for retro purposes), so the extra adapter shouldn't matter - but that's assuming the SD-to-CF adapter is fine in the first place.

It's puzzling the board did previously accept a 40GB HDD, as there are no logical limits between 32GB and 137GB. That suggests either motherboard or HDD are wonky. Does the 40GB drive still work? Then I fear the new 80GB drive may be dead. If the 40GB drive doesn't work with this board anymore, the board must be prime suspect. My first though would be bad caps given era and brand.

I already have the last BIOS available, there is nothing more recent than that.
I still have to try the 80Gb drive as a single master without the memory card installed, to be honest. Will look into that as well.
The 40Gb did work and I only took it out because it was loud as hell; it was the only drive apart from the DVD and they were configured as primary and secondary master with no slave drives. The HDD had the 80 wire cable and the DVD had the 40 wire.
Unfortunately I don't have other systems old enough to have IDE so I'm stuck with this one ATM.

Description for the IDE adapter says it takes a 40-wire cable, not 80. It's not a good idea to use them with something else on the cable anyway (other master/slave device).

kolderman wrote on 2020-01-27, 07:07:

Anyway I have a very similar sd/cf adapter with a 8gb SD card in a different sort of cf/ide adapter (one that plugs directly into the ide slot), and it works perfectly with dos6. Motherboard is Asus P5A.

> Get a proper SD -> IDE adapter

I am not sure what you mean by proper. Most (all?) of these adapters are chinese made junk, much of which doesn't work half the time. Cf/sd adapters otoh are very mature devices from the professional camera industry, many designed and made in Japan.

I mean direct SD to IDE adapter (the Sintechi ones for example). I don't know if anything could improve though, as they usually don't even have the master/slave jumper.
My Qumox SD / CF was actually made in Taiwan 😉

Yes many sd/cf adapters are made in taiwan or japan and hence high quality. If you were a professional photographer in the early 2000s you would not have bought junk from china.

And yes almost all cf/ide adapters are from china and are junk. That's why they can cost a couple of dollars or less.

And who really cares about master slave in retro pcs? You have 2 ide ports, one for your cf/ide adapter, the other for 1-2 cd drives.

Let me get this strait. The Hard drive is properly detected under linux but not DOS from 98se?

Warlord wrote on 2020-01-27, 08:28:

Let me get this strait. The Hard drive is properly detected under linux but not DOS from 98se?

The SD didn't seem properly detected under any OS. At best I could see a 32Mb drive and nothing more than that.
Same thing with the HDD, at best I got an 8Gb drive (but I was always focused on the SD and didn't pay that much attention to the HDD).

jmarsh wrote on 2020-01-27, 07:11:

Description for the IDE adapter says it takes a 40-wire cable, not 80. It's not a good idea to use them with something else on the cable anyway (other master/slave device).

I tried both cables, with and without slaves but no luck.

DeadnightWarrior wrote on 2020-01-27, 09:28:

jmarsh wrote on 2020-01-27, 07:11:

Description for the IDE adapter says it takes a 40-wire cable, not 80. It's not a good idea to use them with something else on the cable anyway (other master/slave device).

I tried both cables, with and without slaves but no luck.

Have you tried another card? I can only speak for the Sintechi 2.5" and 3.5" SD2IDE adapters (Firmware "CF-to-IDE" v1.0, 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3) but they do indeed show 32MB of storage if no card is actually inserted. I never had one of these adapters fail under any circumstance (be aware they HAVE to be master (they have no jumpers) and on some motherboards, having something as SLAVE on the same IDE channel simply wont work even if you force the CDRom to slave for example. Most of the times it works though.).
But I once had a card fail and the adapter behaved like there was no card inserted at all (it will then show 32MB, which are ofc not even accessible.)

PS: Also be sure to completely zero the card and then initialize the Filesystems of choice on the machine in question.

jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-01-27, 10:59:

Have you tried another card? I can only speak for the Sintechi 2.5" and 3.5" SD2IDE adapters (Firmware "CF-to-IDE" v1.0, 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3) but they do indeed show 32MB of storage if no card is actually inserted. I never had one of these adapters fail under any circumstance (be aware they HAVE to be master (they have no jumpers) and on some motherboards, having something as SLAVE on the same IDE channel simply wont work even if you force the CDRom to slave for example. Most of the times it works though.).
But I once had a card fail and the adapter behaved like there was no card inserted at all (it will then show 32MB, which are ofc not even accessible.)

PS: Also be sure to completely zero the card and then initialize the Filesystems of choice on the machine in question.

I could try another microSD card, sure, but it's completely fine when used in a modern system... Could it be the SD to CF adapter?
And yes, the card was zeroed more than once with different methods. I always tried to start having totally unallocated space on it.

I have one of those adapters you mentioned (the CF-to-SD one (red)). Although it works on newer machines, I never could get it to work with any SD card on older systems. This might not be the same case here though, but still. For me, either pure CF-card or SD2IDE worked fine. But an SD card in one of these adapters never worked for me, maybe they are to blame, as you now go adapter on adapter, like I did.
The ones that always worked for me were these: (in maybe one out of 10 systems, I couldnt have anything else on the same IDE channel, but 9 out of 10 times everything works...

Here is an example shot of a VIA KT133A board with an XP2100+ running two of these adapters (both sizes, 2.5" and 3.5" (I didnt have anough 3.5" adapters)). As you can see the systems works fine with these..: (given the fact that you already have one of the known to work CF adapters, I would just go and see whether you can source a fittable CF card. I think the adapter on adapter link is to blame.)

jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-01-27, 11:21:

I have one of those adapters you mentioned (the CF-to-SD one (red)). Although it works on newer machines, I never could get it to work with any SD card on older systems.

I had planned on buying one of these red adapters (microSD -> SD -> CF), heard from some it works but now I feel unsure haha. Anyway, what is the difference between your powered and unpowered SD2IDE? If the one that requires no additional power works fine, I would get that since it saves a molex/floppy connector.

@OP, have you tried other newer microSD cards?

svfn wrote on 2020-01-27, 12:26:

jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-01-27, 11:21:

I have one of those adapters you mentioned (the CF-to-SD one (red)). Although it works on newer machines, I never could get it to work with any SD card on older systems.

I had planned on buying one of these red adapters (microSD -> SD -> CF), heard from some it works but now I feel unsure haha. Anyway, what is the difference between your powered and unpowered SD2IDE? If the one that requires no additional power works fine, I would get that since it saves a molex/floppy connector.

@OP, have you tried other newer microSD cards?

Look close, they both use power. One is 2.5" the other 3.5". The 3.5" uses a molex (either big or small (FDD)), and the 2.5" had ofc power coming through the pin connector, as is standard (the attached black and red cable).

jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-01-27, 12:29:

svfn wrote on 2020-01-27, 12:26:

jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-01-27, 11:21:

I have one of those adapters you mentioned (the CF-to-SD one (red)). Although it works on newer machines, I never could get it to work with any SD card on older systems.

I had planned on buying one of these red adapters (microSD -> SD -> CF), heard from some it works but now I feel unsure haha. Anyway, what is the difference between your powered and unpowered SD2IDE? If the one that requires no additional power works fine, I would get that since it saves a molex/floppy connector.

@OP, have you tried other newer microSD cards?

Look close, they both use power. One is 2.5" the other 3.5". The 3.5" uses a molex (either big or small (FDD)), and the 2.5" had ofc power coming through the pin connector, as is standard (the attached black and red cable).

Oh yeah that is the 2.5" version fit for laptops too, need an adapter for it, still saves a power connector if similar in performance.

jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-01-27, 11:21:

I have one of those adapters you mentioned (the CF-to-SD one (red)). Although it works on newer machines, I never could get it to work with any SD card on older systems. This might not be the same case here though, but still. For me, either pure CF-card or SD2IDE worked fine. But an SD card in one of these adapters never worked for me, maybe they are to blame, as you now go adapter on adapter, like I did.
The ones that always worked for me were these: (in maybe one out of 10 systems, I couldnt have anything else on the same IDE channel, but 9 out of 10 times everything works...

So, in the end my best (and most likely, last) bet would be to get a real CF card.
As I never used any CF before, what brands / models should I consider? Of course it will have to be no more than 2 / 4 Gb as I'm going for pure DOS here. Any other OS will likely be installed on the HDD.

jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-01-27, 11:21:

Here is an example shot of a VIA KT133A board with an XP2100+ running two of these adapters (both sizes, 2.5" and 3.5" (I didnt have anough 3.5" adapters)). As you can see the systems works fine with these..: (given the fact that you already have one of the known to work CF adapters, I would just go and see whether you can source a fittable CF card. I think the adapter on adapter link is to blame.)

If I recall correctly the KT133A should be a close relative to my KM133, right?

DeadnightWarrior wrote on 2020-01-27, 13:04:

jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-01-27, 11:21:

I have one of those adapters you mentioned (the CF-to-SD one (red)). Although it works on newer machines, I never could get it to work with any SD card on older systems. This might not be the same case here though, but still. For me, either pure CF-card or SD2IDE worked fine. But an SD card in one of these adapters never worked for me, maybe they are to blame, as you now go adapter on adapter, like I did.
The ones that always worked for me were these: (in maybe one out of 10 systems, I couldnt have anything else on the same IDE channel, but 9 out of 10 times everything works...

So, in the end my best (and most likely, last) bet would be to get a real CF card.
As I never used any CF before, what brands / models should I consider? Of course it will have to be no more than 2 / 4 Gb as I'm going for pure DOS here. Any other OS will likely be installed on the HDD.

Tough call, maybe down to preference here. An industrial graded CF card of that size will probably cost you 10-20 bucks. as will the SD2IDE adapter. As you plan to go full on DOS with that solution anyways, speed-wise there will be no difference between SD and CF.

OK, so I tried one more time.

Here's the current configuration:
- SD/CF is primary master on the 40 wire cable.
- 80Gb HDD is secondary master on the 80 wire cable.
- DVD is secondary slave on the 80 wire cable.

Leaving BIOS to autodetect the drives results in this:
https://i.imgur.com/l1fqqQR.jpg

Manually setting C/H/S in the BIOS like this:
https://i.imgur.com/CMViYhx.jpg

STILL results in this, even if the values are correct:
https://i.imgur.com/n7qZTX4.jpg

Here's what FDISK sees:
https://i.imgur.com/lq1YP7z.jpg

And what WHATIDE reports:
https://i.imgur.com/oxCXd5E.jpg

The only odd thing that I notice in the WHATIDE report is that 1Kb sector buffer.
Other than that, I'm at a complete loss.

a] I have no clue at this point, as you already have the adapter-adapter on the primary IDE alone.
b] Just out of personal experience with the same kind of adapter and that it didnt work for me when used in a converter to IDE makes me think it is to blame... That there is something fundamentally missing on a lower level when translating that makes them not work in these scenarios/machines. I would try with either a Sintechi SD adapter alone instead of two adapters in row or with a CF card instead. Both should work without a hitch (SD adapter in Auto / CF card (if necessary) with desired values set, but should also work on Auto.)