WTB 16-Bit ISA IDE - Found

[exiled350]

Know this is a long shot but I'm looking for a bootable 16-bit ISA IDE controller. LMK if you have something to part with at not eBay prices.

*Found one in my parts drawer, just needed some jumper relocation to work.*

 

[Luke M]

By bootable you mean has a boot ROM? I doubt you would find a "normal" IDE card with one. A RAID card perhaps.

 

[mvmiller12]

To be clear, the IDE bus is a subset of the ISA Bus, and the IDE HDD Controller is more of an "adapter" than a "controller." The Controller is built right into the IDE Drive (unlike with SCSI). This is why you still have to set the drive parameters in the BIOS settings for the IDE HDD to work on those old systems. And in case you are not aware of it, some BIOS on those old systems do not properly support drives over 504M and will require special software to overcome that limitation. Also remember the maximum partition size for FAT-16 partitions (used by ALL versions of MS-DOS/PC-DOS and Windows 95 OSR 1 and below) is 2GB. FAT32 support was not introduced until Windows 95 OSR 2 and was never supported by OS/2 or Windows NT 4.

That being said, some fancy controllers, particularly VESA Local Bus and PCI ones but also some 16-bit ISA ones as well, supported drive features such as bus mastering and (U)DMA mode support - though they usually required a special driver from the card manufacturer to function.

 

[Halon]

Oh god, this is pinging off an obscure memory of NT 4.0 (and possibly earlier versions) supporting 4GB FAT16 partitions with 64KB disk clusters. Irrelevant to the subject at hand, but that was a weird few years.

Free bump.

 

[exiled350]

To be clear, the IDE bus is a subset of the ISA Bus, and the IDE HDD Controller is more of an "adapter" than a "controller." The Controller is built right into the IDE Drive (unlike with SCSI). This is why you still have to set the drive parameters in the BIOS settings for the IDE HDD to work on those old systems. And in case you are not aware of it, some BIOS on those old systems do not properly support drives over 504M and will require special software to overcome that limitation. Also remember the maximum partition size for FAT-16 partitions (used by ALL versions of MS-DOS/PC-DOS and Windows 95 OSR 1 and below) is 2GB. FAT32 support was not introduced until Windows 95 OSR 2 and was never supported by OS/2 or Windows NT 4.

That being said, some fancy controllers, particularly VESA Local Bus and PCI ones but also some 16-bit ISA ones as well, supported drive features such as bus mastering and (U)DMA mode support - though they usually required a special driver from the card manufacturer to function.

To clarify what I am looking for, I have an old 386sx machine that has a RLL disk and controller in it. The onboard IDE took a crap probably 30 years ago and causes all sorts of problems if it's enabled. I had planned on going with a CF-IDE adapter and retiring the spinning rust. An XT-IDE would work but they say it's wicked slow for more modern machines.

 

[Executioner]

I thought I may have one, but I only have 3 old SCSI cards with the 50 pin connector. Bump for you.

 

[faster7]

Mmmmmm I'll dig around but suspect most of my older stuff is going to be 486 and P1 with onboard IDE....

 

[w1retap]

Are the ebay prices of $20-30 too much? What's the goal price here? I see a ton of goldstar and other generic 16-bit ISA IDE adapters on there.

 

[exiled350]

Are the ebay prices of $20-30 too much? What's the goal price here? I see a ton of goldstar and other generic 16-bit ISA IDE adapters on there.

The goldstar ones I was seeing didn't have an option rom on them. The ones that did were over $50. But now after doing some research I'm not exactly sure what I need, need to do, or even if I can. Worst part about this project is I've got plenty of time to think and research but only like an hour a day to actually test.

You'd think with time, and now the internet this would be much easier but tbh I'd rather be scanning Computer Shopper and making some phone calls.