Once connected to the PC, FDISK itself should be able to do it.

Yup. MS-DOS 6.22's FDISK creates max. partitions of 2 GB. Four of them at the most.

You can enter smaller sized though 😀

I found a 2GB card anyway and FDISK was able to see it. The machine would not even detect the 16GB one. All running nicely so far.

I think I spoke to soon 🤣. I used FDISK to create a primary DOS partition and then it says "system will now restart". The computer restarts and it has not created the partition. It is a 2GB SD Card. I even tried making the partition 1GB instead. It can see the disk, it just won't create a partition. It doesn't give any error messages, it just says "system will restart" and when it does, there is no disk.

Any ideas?

"Format c: /u /s" and then reboot to do the OS installation part.

rick12373 wrote:

The machine would not even detect the 16GB one.

Is the 16GB card SDHC / SDXC? What about the 2GB card? Older readers won't read those newer types of cards.

brostenen wrote:

"Format c: /u /s" and then reboot to do the OS installation part.

I can't, after asking FDISK to make a primary DOS partition it says it is restarting the computer. After it restarts there is no hard drive to format. FDISK detects 1 fixed drive but will not create a partition, it just says restarting computer and I am back to square one.

swaaye wrote:

rick12373 wrote:

The machine would not even detect the 16GB one.

Is the 16GB card SDHC / SDXC? What about the 2GB card? Older readers won't read those newer types of cards.

The 16GB is an SDHC, so this is probably why that one does not work. The 2GB does not say SDHC or SDXC.

I found the problem. I am using a SD Card extender cable thing so that I can replace cards easily without having to open the case. When I plug the card directly in to the IDE interface board it works. Annoying...

Nice to hear that you figured it out. Sucks that the SD extender doesn't work...will using a 40pin IDE cable extender cause the same issue I wonder?

retrofanatic wrote:

Nice to hear that you figured it out. Sucks that the SD extender doesn't work...will using a 40pin IDE cable extender cause the same issue I wonder?

Not sure on that.

It detected and formatted the 2GB card, installed DOS 6.22 and then when it had finished and said to remove all floppies and restart, it hangs on boot...

Try FDISK /MBR and see if it boots

alexanrs wrote:

Try FDISK /MBR and see if it boots

Holy crap! That worked! Thank you so much. I had actually partitioned it to 1GB this time. I think I will try again now but try 2GB.

** Edit - The SD Card extension works now as well. Nice 😀

rick12373 wrote:

alexanrs wrote:

Try FDISK /MBR and see if it boots

Holy crap! That worked! Thank you so much. I had actually partitioned it to 1GB this time. I think I will try again now but try 2GB.

** Edit - The SD Card extension works now as well. Nice 😀

Nice indeed! Get to hear it works now.

So I was just thinking about this too..

SDHC are getting dirt cheap.. $7 for a class 4 which isn't too bad especially using it in an old PC where you're not reading/writing tons of data as fast as possible. If you mount it so that it is easily accessible you can easily pull the card and replace it which is great for swapping out entire systems on old PCs and not having to redo partitions.

Also, Instead of booting to the PC, hooking up network, copying files over that which is pretty slow on old systems, you can just plug it into your PC with the appropriate adapter, copy the files you want, and plug it back into the system and boot.

It seems lower sized SSDs are going to get harder to find as they start manufacturing the bigger ones, but SD cards are still going to be readily available in these smaller sizes.

Yep, it is nice. I have the SD extender mounted on the outside of the case and can switch SD cards in and out. It is very convenient.

Thraka wrote:

So I was just thinking about this too..

Same!

And I can buy them at the super market 😀

I've bought two models from eBay, but they haven't arrived yet.

Just beware that, unlike CF cards, SD cards do not have the IDE logic built in. Therefore you are entirely reliant on the adapter's chip itself, which can be a problem with cheap stuff from China and more care and research should be put into choosing a good adapter.

What about this one?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SD-SDHC-SDXC-To-C … 5oAAOSwHnFV2AaL

Anybody has any experience on these adapters? It will probably enable us to use SD cards in standard cheap CF to IDE adapters.