Picked up a clean Gateway P4D-66 looking for CF to IDE advice
Posted by Apprehensive-Ice8996@reddit | retrobattlestations | View on Reddit | 8 comments
Just picked up a really clean Gateway P4D-66 with the original monitor and keyboard. It’s in great shape and I’m excited to get it running again. I’ve already ordered a replacement RTC chip with a CR2032 socket, and now I’m looking to replace the original hard drive (a WDAC2540 from 1994) with a CompactFlash card using an IDE adapter. Haven’t done this on a machine this old before, so I’m not sure what CF card sizes it’ll actually take or what adapters tend to work well with these early '90s systems. If anyone here has done a similar swap or has suggestions for a CF + IDE setup that works, I’d really appreciate the help.
Thanks!
techika@reddit
This is 486rx2/66, support up to dx4/120 Max supported hdd is 10gb , but max partition is 2.1 gb as 32 bit. not sure what is max supported hdd in gateway bios
Apprehensive-Ice8996@reddit (OP)
Good to know! The HDD I pulled from it was 540MB, so I figured I’d go the same route. I picked up both a 512MB and a 256MB SanDisk for $15 will see how they do once they arrive.
Thick-Revolution9614@reddit
I have a similar machine and wondering which RTC chip did you order? Its on my eventual list of things to do
Apprehensive-Ice8996@reddit (OP)
Necroware's NW12887
Thick-Revolution9614@reddit
Thanks!
DamienCIsDead@reddit
The adapter is the easiest part. Most of the ones online work just fine.
I usually try to find older, smaller CF cards as there's the possibility that machines from that era don't like the bigger cards. Plus for a 486 DOS machine IMO you don't really need more than 1GB-ish.
But anyway. If your BIOS auto-detects drive geometry, you should be in good shape. Transcend cards have a good reputation for working well with DOS machines. Sandisk has worked well for me.
Even if you get a "big" card (> 2GB) that DOS/Win9x might have an issue with, if you make a small partition or multiple small partitions you should be okay.
Or you could even get a program called a "Dynamic Drive Overlay" and get DOS to recognize big partitions, but that's more of a hassle to me even though they work perfectly.
Apprehensive-Ice8996@reddit (OP)
Thanks so much I really appreciate it! Yeah, I figured the adapter doesn’t really matter. I’m planning to try a 512MB card; I found some SanDisk ones online at a decent price. Hopefully the IDE card isn’t dead. At this point, I’m thinking the issue is either the drive or the battery. If it turns out the card is the problem, I’ll just replace it. I should have it up and running soon.
Everything seems pretty straightforward just standard PC stuff. I actually just remembered while writing this that I might have another old early-90s drive lying around to test with. Still planning to stick with CF long term, though.
gcc-O2@reddit
Hopefully, it will work. If you have problems, it could be related to these, although they usually affect 286/386 era stuff more. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=107640