Well, seems it doesn't "find" the hdd with the adapter, damn. 😀
Anything else I can try?
Thanks!
I've tested out my method in 86box but it doesn't really work, just copying over the files isn't enough to make the drive bootable. There's probably ways to make it work but it'll be mega jank regardless. Honestly, since the board isn't even picking up the drive I think this is a sign. Go buy an appropriate IDE HDD, CD-ROM, FDD and do it right. Won't cost much. I mean, are you really getting the true Windows 9x experience if you don't have those things, anyway?
1999 Family PC: AST Bravo LC(?) 5166(?)/430TX(✔)/Pentium 166(?)/32MB(?) SDRAM/Virge DX\GX(✔)/ALS120(✔) - [OSR2 -> ME]
2006 Family PC: Generic Shuttle HOT-675/450MHz PIII/256MB SDRAM/Radeon 9200\9250/ST310240A 10.24GB - [XP SP2]
giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-26, 20:40:I've tested out my method in 86box but it doesn't really work, just copying over the files isn't enough to make the drive bootable. There's probably ways to make it work but it'll be mega jank regardless. Honestly, since the board isn't even picking up the drive I think this is a sign. Go buy an appropriate IDE HDD, CD-ROM, FDD and do it right. Won't cost much. I mean, are you really getting the true Windows 9x experience if you don't have those things, anyway?
Yup, that's true.
I have some on order but wanted to test the rest out today, oh well, will have to wait! 😀
Whenever I struggle with an old computer to get the IDE drive to do what I want it to do, I just slip it my USB to IDE adaper and fire up a qemu instance with it as primary master, with whatever images attached to whatever else is needed to do the job.
Then I do the job and switch it back when I'm done.
You can partition, make bootable, copy setup cabs, image disk, etc either on modern host or in the VM as appropriate and plant the prepared disk back in the original system afterward.
zapbuzz wrote on 2026-03-22, 17:39:jakethompson1 wrote on 2026-03-22, 17:22:I don't think this is the case. The -S seems to be an Award convention for SL-enabled CPUs originating with later 486 CPUs. For […]
zapbuzz wrote on 2026-03-22, 14:11:Pentium-s is displayed on the post screen because the -s is an acronym for sample. It isn't the CPU, its the microcode instructi […]
Pentium-s is displayed on the post screen because the -s is an acronym for sample.
It isn't the CPU, its the microcode instructions in the motherboard BIOS.
Engineers used the sample code instead of the release code for some reason.
It's probably impossible to get someone to update them now.I don't think this is the case.
The -S seems to be an Award convention for SL-enabled CPUs originating with later 486 CPUs. For example, Am5x86-P75-S.
I have no idea why this was carried forward with Pentium CPUs.I was an owner of a pc with it and the -s disappeared when the BIOS was updated unofficially with additional support for disk capacity increase plus i had noticed improvement.
I'd have to take you back in time to show you where and how it happened.
My experience is that very old motherboards would display Pentium-s on Intel Pentium CPUS with clock speeds beyond 100mhz.
My assumption is the p120/133 didn’t exist yet.
So if you upgrade the bios to June 1995+ it will drop the Pentium S nonsense
