From post #1:
In 1990s stuff, it's your BIOS and your Dos version that mattered for how big your disk could be. WinXP absorbed Dos but win98 needed it, and dos supplied fdisk. This is a story of lies & damn lies, to quote Churchill.
The first disk size limit was 512MB. Then 2G, which held when win98 came out IIRC. In every case it was the number of cylinders that expanded beyond all reason. They quickly updated Dos to get a bigger size and I forget what that was. Then, Like Pinnochio's nose, the lies (and the disks) got bigger & bigger.
If rusty memory serves, you could get lucky by formatting one partition within the required size. so if you have to use CHS, clear the disk and try
- ≤512MB / (16*63) cylinders, (16 heads, 63 sectors)
- ≤2G / (16*63) cylinders, (16 heads, 63 sectors)
You can also lie about the number of cylinders. Just put down a smaller number than it autodetects
Updating your BIOS and your Dos version might help.
If the Bios doesn't recognize either setting, give up. If 2G works, try a second partition and keep increasing it until something pukes. You'll have passed the cylinder count.
Frankly, I wouldn't put time into such a crappy POS, but be my guest. As for linux, you can still download ancient OSes, source ancient 1.44MB floppies. I used to use Tomsrtbt as a 'save-my-a**' OS. It built on a single 3.5" floppy disk.
http://www.toms.net/rb
