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Partition limits

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First post, by creid2

Posted on 2013-08-25, 19:12

creid2 Offline

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Joined: 2013-04-24, 03:46
Location: Bristol, RI

Greetings Vogons members:
My first post. I have been inspired by the world's fastest 486 to build my own rocketed-up socket3 machine. I have acquired various parts pieces and trying to dust off my memory of how all these things go together.

Right now I am having difficulty formatting my hard drive. I have the Adaptec 2940U2W and a Seagate ST373207LW and ST3146707LW. The Adaptec utility recognizes the 73GB HD as 4466MB and the 147GB HD as 8932MB. However, I've used both Win95 and Win98 FDISK with large dive support (FAT32), and it invariably fails to write the primary partition.

I am trying to format these on a SOYO 4SAW/2/W5 with a PODP5V83. As of now, I have no reason to think the MOBO/processor are at fault. How have other members dealt with partition limits on these retro rigs?

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Chris

Reply 1 of 5, by Joey_sw

Posted on 2013-08-25, 20:49

Joey_sw Offline

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Posts: 550
Joined: 2011-08-17, 12:03

if your 486 hasn't support LBA, partition limit (or rather HDD limit) are about 8 GiB, as maximum CHS could handle,
some hdd controller can't support more than 16 heads, so it would slash the limit to only about 512 MB if theres no workaround for more than 1024 cylinders ...

oh yeah, unpatched win9x only support LBA28 which limit to 128 GiB, theres patch for it somewhere.

Last edited by Joey_sw on 2013-08-26, 02:18. Edited 1 time in total.

-fffuuu

Reply 2 of 5, by creid2

Posted on 2013-08-26, 01:11

creid2 Offline

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Posts: 8
Joined: 2013-04-24, 03:46
Location: Bristol, RI

Thanks Joey_sw.
I can't find whether LBA is supported; there is neither an indication of LBA status on the Adaptec 2940U2W utility (v 2.57) nor on the motherboard bios. Also could not find any option for LBA on a Biostar 8433UUD bios. I do believe the problem has to do with addressable limits between controller and HD, I just don't know how to get the old 486 playing nicely with the large-capacity SCSI drives.

Chris

Reply 3 of 5, by TheMAN

Posted on 2013-08-29, 03:49

TheMAN Offline

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get a newer SCSI BIOS and try... there is a 3.10 BIOS for the card, you will need to look for it as Adaptec pulled it from their site
file name is 2940u2w_bios_3100.exe

Reply 4 of 5, by creid2

Posted on 2013-08-29, 15:04

creid2 Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: 2013-04-24, 03:46
Location: Bristol, RI

Yea, I had seen the 3.1 bios posted elsewhere. I tried this on one card, but the flash did not work and made the card inoperable. After killing the card, I read that the bios should not be flashed to 3.1 on OEM cards. Lo and belohd, the card I was flashing had a sticker that said "Dell" on it.

My other 2940U2W does not have a Dell sticker on it, but after the first experience I'm a little nervous to fry another card.

Are there any details on what the 3.1 Bios supports? It would be nice to know what the limits are. I'm skeptical that it will support drives this large.

Chris

Reply 5 of 5, by TheMAN

Posted on 2013-08-30, 05:30

TheMAN Offline

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Posts: 840
Joined: 2011-02-12, 08:39

3.10 has many changes, a new menu system, newer device support, faster scanning time during bootup
I have a 2940UW with the 3.10 BIOS... if I had a U2W bios I would give it to you in a heart beat!

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