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Issue with IDE drives failing auto detect

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First post, by Damionsux

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This has been a nightmare trying to get this retro build up and going- between ordering parts internationally or getting stuff that doesn’t work (the usual hassle) this is my first windows 98 build in 20 years and it’s all the headaches I remember..

Today, I got a replacement motherboard it’s an ABIT BX-6 2.0, and the issue that I am currently facing is that it refuses to detect my IDE drives, These drives were pulled from a working machine just weeks ago, the IDE cables are also from that said machine- they’ve been properly jumpered to the pri/master slave configuration and are set on IDE Channel 2- the dvd cdrw combination drive is on IDE Channel 1 and is immediately detected in the bios- now I have tried every single configuration of moving the drives from ch1 ma/slv , 1 drive, both drives, etc... the molex adapters are good and working in the machine, the cables have been swapped to the working dvd rom to verify that they’re working, i am at my wits end here with this build and trying to find info on the older hardware has been almost fruitless... i even thought of trying to find the information on the drive and adding it in the bios myself but no, as I cannot find it even on the spec sheets for the drives. The drives in question are a Western Digital WD400 40gb, Maxtor Diamond Max16 80gb and a Seagate 120gb- model number is unknown due to laziness, sorry.

Tl;dr I have 3 ide hard drives that are not being read by a computers bios and a cd/dvd rom drive is

Really any help is appreciated

Reply 1 of 16, by Jo22

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Hi, you could try WHATIDE or IDEDIAG utility. Maybe they help you to find out drive geometry.
Re: IDE disk-on-module + 386

Good luck! 😀

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 2 of 16, by konc

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This a PII 440BX motherboard, right? Don't just assume it can detect hard disks 40GB+. Common sizes back then were times smaller. I'd try a smaller disk and a BIOS update, many motherboards of that era had the 32GB limit. Another thing to check is if one of your drives has a jumper to limit its capacity to 32GB and try it like that

Reply 5 of 16, by konc

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derSammler wrote on 2020-03-21, 20:49:

BX has no such limit. 32 GB limit exists in FAT32 only (when using Win2000+), but not in hardware.

Yes of course it's not a chipset limit. The point I wanted to make is that motherboards of the PII/44oBX/"that" era don't always support disks larger than 32GBs. Many did through a BIOS update though.

Reply 6 of 16, by Damionsux

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I apparently do not have either a -a working floppy drive or b - a good floppy disk, I tried updating the bios by slamming the file in a bootable dos 6.22 ISO but no such luck.. the outdated bios seems reasonable as on the boot screen it says 1.0.

I will attempt to obtain a disk less than 32gb in the next few days, parts like that are very scarce here as either nobody bought the technology or it’s all been recycled away. I also need some decent floppies too ha!

Reply 8 of 16, by douglar

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Damionsux wrote on 2020-03-22, 00:00:

Also, even though I’ve been building systems for years, this is a level uncharted for me, I appreciate your patience with me

I have started making win98se builds for the first time in 20 years and I have learned:
1) it's hard to find a working floppy controller. I have 5 old isa multi-io controllers and only 1 has a floppy controller that works on multiple systems
2) getting new IDE drives to identify on old systems is really touch and go. If the drive wants UDMA6 and you are running on something ATA-3, it's really unclear how well they will get along.
3) event if they get along, they might negotiate to a lower speed than you expect
4) consider getting an old NIC card and putting an XTIDE Universal bios rom on it.

Reply 9 of 16, by Jo22

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douglar wrote on 2020-03-22, 00:46:

1) it's hard to find a working floppy controller. I have 5 old isa multi-io controllers and only 1 has a floppy controller that works on multiple systems

These floppy controllers are meant to be used with the corresponding ISA IDE interface (which is fully functional with Pentium BIOSes, btw).
They may not work together flawlessly with the on-board PCI IDE controller. It's related to some signalling lines, I recall.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 10 of 16, by Damionsux

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douglar wrote on 2020-03-22, 00:46:
I have started making win98se builds for the first time in 20 years and I have learned: 1) it's hard to find a working floppy co […]
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Damionsux wrote on 2020-03-22, 00:00:

Also, even though I’ve been building systems for years, this is a level uncharted for me, I appreciate your patience with me

I have started making win98se builds for the first time in 20 years and I have learned:
1) it's hard to find a working floppy controller. I have 5 old isa multi-io controllers and only 1 has a floppy controller that works on multiple systems
2) getting new IDE drives to identify on old systems is really touch and go. If the drive wants UDMA6 and you are running on something ATA-3, it's really unclear how well they will get along.
3) event if they get along, they might negotiate to a lower speed than you expect
4) consider getting an old NIC card and putting an XTIDE Universal bios rom on it.

How would I go about doing the xtide method?

Reply 15 of 16, by douglar

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Damionsux wrote on 2020-03-22, 01:05:

How would I go about doing the xtide method?

Easiest way is to search ebay for xtide, buy one of the $50 cards, flash it with AT bios, & configure it to be a secondary controller. Other routes are more complicated.

I missed that you were running a pentium when I first read your post. XTIDE with AT bios is really only for a 286, 286 or early 486. That's computers running basic IDE controllers running @ ATA-0 speeds.

Finding a working bios for your motherboard is usually a better solution. Glad you found one.

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