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Hard Drive Limit for 386

limboy777

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
64
Hi I have been looking up various sites etc on the hard drive limit fior 386 pc's.

Some say 504mb/512mb/528/540mb


I have bought a seagate st3600a which was advertised as 504mb

However on other sites it is listed as 525mb or 540mb

http://www.horizontechnology.com/products/storage/Seagate/ST3600A

I dont want to use drive overlay, can anyone tell me if worst case this was a 540mb that it would work. Im replacing a 40mb hdd
 
It will be more than DOS 3.3, currently the 40mb one has DOS 5.0 and windows 3.11.
 
Just wanted to ask if DOS was now freeware? If so where can I download it from?
 
Unfortunately MS DOS is not freeware,but you can download the dos bootdisk that contains all the files that you need to set up your computer from here:http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm (from what I know this is a legal site).The other solution is to use freedos but to my knowledge it is not working good with win 3.1
 
I have a 386 machine with DOS 6.11/WIN3.1 and I have a 5.1GB hard drive hooked up to it. The reason a drive this large works is because I bypass the Bios limitation and use Ontrack Disk Manager. It's a simple program that fits on a floppy disk. You insert the disk and install it before installing the OS.
 
I have a 386 machine with DOS 6.11/WIN3.1 and I have a 5.1GB hard drive hooked up to it. The reason a drive this large works is because I bypass the Bios limitation and use Ontrack Disk Manager. It's a simple program that fits on a floppy disk. You insert the disk and install it before installing the OS.

Yes, that's what we mean when we say "DDO"--Dynamic Drive Overlay. There are several of these--I think ANYDRIVE's been mentioned.

But, as Stone reminded me, the OP doesn't want to use a DDO.
 
Hi guys thanks for your quick replies.

I have tried installing DOS today but seem to have a few problems.


1. I have a cyrix 486 DRX2 50 upgrade chip in my 386 sx 25 Amstrad Mega PC. The current hard drive (40mb) has the software that loads the 1k cache before DOS starts. Ive managed to locate it and copy it to a floppy as well as the autoexec.bat file. The following are pics of my cache software in autoexec.bat and in the file manager on windows 3.1:

http://s1269.photobucket.com/albums...C/486 Cache/?action=view&current=DSC05677.jpg

I received a bit of help from a member on another forum to backup the cache software.

2. I installed dos 6.22 onto the hard drive and everything looked hunky dory. Asked me to remove disk and press return/enter

3. It went through memory counting cycle and then all i get is non system disk/ no system disk (cant remember..but will check tomorrow). The computer was checking the floppy

4. No DOS prompt would come up i.e no A: or C:

5. I made a DOS boot disk on my other computer using the format option (right click a drive, format, create ms dos boot disk).

6. Tried that, dos prompt came up, tried the DOS install disks and it says its already installed!

7. I copied over the autoexec.bat from the floppy and the cache software onto C: after using MD command (after installing DOS).

8. I cannot get into edit autoexec.bat to see if the cache software is on

9. If I put in the windows 3.1 disk 1, it says it is not a bootable disk.


Any ideas - thinking maybe something to do with the jumper settings on new hard drive? ( i have selected the correct size for the hard drive in BIOS). Hard drive is seagate st3600A and I chose hard drive as type 42 in the BIOS settings

Cylinder 1024
Heads 16
Sectors/Track:63
etc

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-drives-hdd/seagate/ST3600A-540MB-3-5-SL-IDE-AT.html

Pictures of the Seagate st3600a

http://s1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj587/limboy777/Amstrad Mega PC/540mb Seagte HDD/

I know I have discounted the overlay software but I have a 1gb and 512mb CF card which I was thinking of using as HDD's. Would a second HDD need the drive overlay installed if bigger than 540mb?
 
Last edited:
You're talking about the Seagate 540 mb. drive right? The cache software and autoexec.bat have nothing to do with the boot process so you can forget about them until after you get a C:\> prompt.

In FDISK is the C partition the Primary partition and is it marked Active? If not make it so and try again.

Can you boot from a floppy and see the C drive?

Try booting from a floppy and the run this.... FDISK/MBR

See if that helps.
 
Thanks Stone

Will try tomorrow (nearly midnight here).

I can see c drive when using dos boot disk.

do i do C: then FDISK/MBR ??
 
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