Subj : MS-DOS HDDs and partitions
To   : Paulie420
From : Abbub
Date : Fri Apr 14 2023 08:34:08

 > Many friends tell me MS-DOS 6.22 should be able to see the full 2GB w/o
 > DDO software - am I missing something?

Your issue isn't with DOS, it's with the BIOS as someone else mentioned. If
memory serves, OnTrack gets around the BIOS limitations by hanging out in the
boot block of the drive and overwriting the information about the drive
coming from BIOS so that DOS 'sees' a bigger drive than BIOS is actually
reporting. (My memories of this are dated, but I think that's more or less
how it worked.)

A better solution that I would propose is getting a 16-bit ISA network card
for your 486 that has a socket for a boot PROM. Then you can use the XTIDE
Universal BIOS and your 486 will be able to see and use larger drives without
having to bring any software into the picture. (There are also some multi-IO
and IDE cards that have boot rom sockets, but in my experience these are
rarer and harder to find than a NIC card.) I've done this for both my 386 and
my 486 and it works very well and is hassle-free.

---
 * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)

.