Max Disk Size DOS can handle

[Gandalf_Grey_]

Does anyone know the maximum disk size that DOS 6.22 can handle? I forget

[JungleMan]

512MB, I THINK, not sure

[Gandalf_Grey_]

uh if i go over the limit, will it just **** up or will it just register as 512 mb or will it just **** up with alot of errors, cause if it will **** up with alot of errors then i know it must be at least 2 gb cause i have installed dos on a 2 gb drive. However i didn't think to check how much it registered as

[filburt1]

It's either what Justin said or the limits of the FAT16 filing system, 2 GB IIRC.

[Guv]

I thought that the limit was more like 2Gigs. I run a multiple OS system, and my DOS/Win3.11 partition is 1GB, so 512MB is not the limit.

I also thought the limitation was partition size rather than disk size. I am not sure, but I think that partitioning was first invented to get around the limitation on disk size.

Also, there was a gimmick called LBA (perhaps for Logical Block Addressing) which allowed for disks larger than the original DOS design limit. There was some track or cylinder limit. The LBA gimmick pretended that there were more R/W heads than what actually existed (or something like this). At any rate, the BIOS mapped the addresses of a large disk into virtual addresses that DOS could cope with.

Using both of the above gimmicks, I think DOS 6.22 could cope with at least a 10-20GB disk.

[Gandalf_Grey_]

well i will just divide it temporarily thanks

[Guv]

My Partition Magic Manual states that a bootable DOS 6.22 partition must not start beyond 2GB, implying a 2GB basic limitation on disk addressing. This also implies that a disk larger than 2GB can be used.

See my previous post for the LBA gimmick and mention of partitioning as methods of exceeding the 2GB basic limit.

[scoutt]

dos 6.22 used fat16 which is a 2gig limit

[j2k]

There is no actual HD size limit in DOS 6.22. It's partition size, which, as people have said, is the limit of FAT16, which is 2GB.

So a 40 GB hard disk would still work with DOS 6.22, albeit in 2GB partition chunks - so you'd have C: through to V: as one HD in FAT16!!

[Ianpbaker]

as no one else has mentioned it. when you run FDISK, it asks wether you want to enable large disk support which basically determines whever you want to us FAT16 or FAT32

[Gandalf_Grey_]

It is amazing how a thread can continue to live even after it has lost all relavence to the thread creator

[Behemoth]

as far as I remember, the OS will allow usage of the maximum amount of the disk, and simply ignore the rest...

But dont quote me on it...I've been drinking...