> Maybe the fault is in the disk-driver, and impossible to get by using
> NetBSD, so the pfdisk.exe tool might be a solution. I have only heard
> references to this toool, I haven't seen it (nor looked for it).

It is included with the installation floppy images and rawrite.exe.

>  There is one special thing with it; it accepts 6244 (or
> whatever) as cylinder count, even if it is an old IDE controller. When I
> use the parameters 63s/16h/6244c it calculates the disk to 43MB, so it
> doesn't handle big disks, but it accepts the parameters. This makes it
> easier for newer software to identify the disk.

6244 mod 1024 is 100, and that would be 49MB. Maybe the BIOS is simply
ignoring the upper bits of the cylinder count you gave it.

I generally lie to the BIOS and tell it all my disks have 1024 cylinders,
and just make sure that any NetBSD boot partitions lie within those first
1024 cylinders. Soon after I start hacking sysinst there will be a warning
if your 'a' partitions are not believed to be wholly accessible by the BIOS.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ best.com