With FAT16 you can have four 2GB partitions. With FAT32 you don't have such restrictions.

How much capacity you need really determines you choices.

First you need to check the BIOS for clues about drive size.

If there is LBA mentioned it should support up to 8 GB.

Other options are using Ontrack DDO software to smash whatever limitation your machine has. You can get storage controllers with their own BIOS (ISA or PCI), which is what SCSI does. They have their own BIOS. Not aware of any limits because I don't know much about SCSI. Google the controller, it should give you some hints.

blakespot wrote:

I am building an ASUS PCI-486SP3 system rev 1.8 with a DPT PM2021 SCSI card (ISA). The board has an IDE controller that I am not […]
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I am building an ASUS PCI-486SP3 system rev 1.8 with a DPT PM2021 SCSI card (ISA). The board has an IDE controller that I am not using.

Does SCSI remove drive size restrictions? OR...what size is max I should get for this board?

I was planning to install DOS 6.22 first then WIn98SE. How do I Format the disk, FAT 16 or 32? Should I install Win98SE first, directly? I still want to be able to boot to DOS, demos and games are my main concern.

Thanks.
bp

Short answer; no. That said they are a LOT easier to update the bios on to get larger hard drives. Does yours have that memory board? And I would NOT install windows 98 on a 486. I'd almost not even install 95 on a 486 truth be told.

I can't find much info on that DPT card, but I'm guessing it probably has an ~8GB limit... that was pretty much the norm for late ISA and early PCI SCSI controllers.

luckybob wrote:

Short answer; no. That said they are a LOT easier to update the bios on to get larger hard drives. Does yours have that memory board? And I would NOT install windows 98 on a 486. I'd almost not even install 95 on a 486 truth be told.

It does not have the cache board. I got the board in mid-1994, but I received an updated set of ROMs for it in 1997, which appears to be the latest offered for that board, the DPT PM2021 SmartCache III. So, will DOS format a disk at those higher capacities? The board may support 8GB sizes, say, but DOES doesn't, right? What is max size per partition for DOS 6.22 - 2MB?

The machine I had years ago of this config (exact config) ran 95 very well. Is 98 that much heavier a lift? Maybe I should just installed 95b instead.

Tnx.

bp