But yeah, the fact this drive isn't even showing up in a third-party program, like MiniTool Partition Wizard, makes me suspicious. Under the Device Manager, it's listed, but that's it. Windows and Partition Wizard only lists 7 drives when it should be 8.

Also tried uninstalling the drive from Device Manager, connecting the drive to my brother's laptop, uninstalled the device from USBDeview, switched USB ports from 2.0 to 3.0, checked the Disk Management, but nothing. No drive. And yet it's recognised by Windows 98. Though won't let me perform a scan disk.

Here is what you need for for > 128GB support:

1) The BIOS (usually on the motherboard, but might be superseded by your IDE controller) needs to be able to talk LBA48. If the BIOS you are using to boot from your hard drive does not support LBA48, consider using XTide Universal BIOS Extensions or install Ontrack Disk Manager 10.46, or LILO on your hard drive as a work around. This will provide LBA48 support for your OS boot loader and for DOS.

2) If you are running a protected mode OS like Windows 9x or Windows NT, your OS storage driver need to talk LBA48 or things will crash or your hard drive will get corrupted.

3) If your are using DOS to partition your drive, you need a patched version of FDISK that handles LBA48 disks. Windows 98/98SE FDISK patched by KB263044 or FreeDOS 1.4 work pretty well.

douglar wrote on Today, 14:10:

Here is what you need for for > 128GB support: […]
Show full quote

Here is what you need for for > 128GB support:

1) The BIOS (usually on the motherboard, but might be superseded by your IDE controller) needs to be able to talk LBA48. If the BIOS you are using to boot from your hard drive does not support LBA48, consider using XTide Universal BIOS Extensions or install Ontrack Disk Manager 10.46, or LILO on your hard drive as a work around. This will provide LBA48 support for your OS boot loader and for DOS.

2) If you are running a protected mode OS like Windows 9x or Windows NT, your OS storage driver need to talk LBA48 or things will crash or your hard drive will get corrupted.

3) If your are using DOS to partition your drive, you need a patched version of FDISK that handles LBA48 disks. Windows 98/98SE FDISK patched by KB263044 or FreeDOS 1.4 work pretty well.

Okay, thanks. How/where is LILO? Isn't that for Linux? How would that work? I also have no experience with BIOS extensions. How would I know if I can use them? How do you use them?

Ontrack is what I have, so I'll try that first. I believe the system is patched for FDISK. It was one of the very first things I installed after reformatting. FDISK is what I used initially, although it was done in a DOS box in Windows rather than pure DOS. I think it only recognised it as 130+GB though.

But I believe option 2 is where I'm at.

Lilo is "LInux LOader", and can be found on one of itsrespective project codebases. (It's rather old, but there are many clones of the codebase on github)

https://github.com/lexagr/lilo

Most dont have built binaries available though.

The documentation for using it is also rather dated, since most everybody is using GRUB these days.

https://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO-9.html

But, in a nutshell, you write the lilo boot sector to the MBR. More or less.

As I recall, there WAS a dos binary release of LILO bitd, and this was used to bootstrap linux installation from a DOS envirionment.

I'll look for this unicorn. Give me a bit.

Okay, thanks. In the meantime, I'm going to try and see if I can get the drive working properly on the 98 PC. Through experimenting on my main PC, at one point it did recognise the drive. But now I can't get it to again. >_< I've also tried diskpart in the Windows 10 command prompt. That recognises it, but says No media and 0B. No other disk manager recognises it.

DustyShinigami wrote on Today, 15:02:

Okay, thanks. How/where is LILO? Isn't that for Linux? How would that work? I also have no experience with BIOS extensions. How […]
Show full quote

douglar wrote on Today, 14:10:

Here is what you need for for > 128GB support: […]
Show full quote

Here is what you need for for > 128GB support:

1) The BIOS (usually on the motherboard, but might be superseded by your IDE controller) needs to be able to talk LBA48. If the BIOS you are using to boot from your hard drive does not support LBA48, consider using XTide Universal BIOS Extensions or install Ontrack Disk Manager 10.46, or LILO on your hard drive as a work around. This will provide LBA48 support for your OS boot loader and for DOS.

2) If you are running a protected mode OS like Windows 9x or Windows NT, your OS storage driver need to talk LBA48 or things will crash or your hard drive will get corrupted.

3) If your are using DOS to partition your drive, you need a patched version of FDISK that handles LBA48 disks. Windows 98/98SE FDISK patched by KB263044 or FreeDOS 1.4 work pretty well.

Okay, thanks. How/where is LILO? Isn't that for Linux? How would that work? I also have no experience with BIOS extensions. How would I know if I can use them? How do you use them?

Ontrack is what I have, so I'll try that first. I believe the system is patched for FDISK. It was one of the very first things I installed after reformatting. FDISK is what I used initially, although it was done in a DOS box in Windows rather than pure DOS. I think it only recognised it as 130+GB though.

But I believe option 2 is where I'm at.

Let's stick with Ontrack if you are not comfortable with option roms and you are not familiar with how to boot multiple operating systems from LILO.

When you do your partitions, you need a patched version of Win98 FDISK or a third party FDISK like the one in free dos. Re: FDISK issue with hard drive size

I agree. I'd suggest that EZDrive or Ontrack would be 'period correct' for most instances of this problem, and the most approachable with only a dos machine on hand, if we are stuck without either a patched system bios, or a bootrom like xtide to provide support.

It's easy to install. use a disk image too to write the diskette, boot, and follow the instructions.

I did create the boot disk using Ontrack, but for some reason it fails to initialise on boot. Says bad command or file name. Luckily, I did put the image on my Gotek and that's booted up fine. I'm currently running some diagnostic tests first. It seems to be taking ages performing a read test. I can't help but wonder if it's stuck. The HDD LED is lit green, but the bar has 0 to 100% and it's been on 1% for ages.

EDIT: Ooh. It's gone up by a whole percent 🤣.

douglar wrote on Today, 14:10:

Here is what you need for for > 128GB support: […]
Show full quote

Here is what you need for for > 128GB support:

1) The BIOS (usually on the motherboard, but might be superseded by your IDE controller) needs to be able to talk LBA48. If the BIOS you are using to boot from your hard drive does not support LBA48, consider using XTide Universal BIOS Extensions or install Ontrack Disk Manager 10.46, or LILO on your hard drive as a work around. This will provide LBA48 support for your OS boot loader and for DOS.

2) If you are running a protected mode OS like Windows 9x or Windows NT, your OS storage driver need to talk LBA48 or things will crash or your hard drive will get corrupted.

3) If your are using DOS to partition your drive, you need a patched version of FDISK that handles LBA48 disks. Windows 98/98SE FDISK patched by KB263044 or FreeDOS 1.4 work pretty well.

Okay, so, I decided to disconnect all my HDDs in case it interferes with my C and D drives, so it's just the new one. Then I booted with my boot disk and then Ontrack Disk Manager. I believe the version I'm using though is 9.57 from Phil's Computer Lab. Does it need to be 10.46? So far, it's formatted it as FAT32, but it's still only recognising it as 130GB. Or do I have to do some calculation and specify the correct amount manually? Thanks.

Okay, I think I found the option, but unsurprisingly...

Decided to try it on my main PC again, which it still wasn't recognising, and then a thought hit me to try one more time. And managed to catch the SOB - it appeared in File Explorer! Might have been pure luck or thanks to reformatting it with Ontrack. I'm running some tests now. ScanDisk turned up nothing and the Surface test in Partition Wizard says no errors were found.