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PCDOS3 + COMPAQ3 now support FAT16 partitions up to 32 MiB
(historical correction).
Prior dosforge versions restricted IBM PC-DOS 3.00 and the
Microsoft MS-DOS 3.00 Compaq OEM build to FAT12-only with a
16 MiB cap, citing "FAT16 was added in PC-DOS 3.10."
That comment was historically inaccurate. FAT16 was
introduced in PC-DOS 3.0 (August 1984), and its FORMAT.COM
already picks FAT12 for partitions <=16 MiB and FAT16 for
16-32 MiB partitions automatically. Compaq's OEM MS-DOS 3.00
shipped the same Microsoft kernel and FORMAT.
FAT12 (<=16 MiB) is still the default and remains
1984-authentic for small XT-IDE drives.
32 MiB is the 1984 partition-table addressing cap; >32 MiB
still requires compaq331 (FAT16B) or msdos5 / msdos622.
Fixed
Stale _BOOT_MODE_MEDIA_RULES comments + _validate_create_request
messages now describe the correct PC-DOS 3.0 FORMAT.COM behavior.
Tests
tests/test_size_cap_snap.py splits PCDOS3 + COMPAQ3 cap tests
into FAT12 (16 MiB) + FAT16 (32 MiB) variants. The TestFormDiskCapParity drift-prevention test continues to
enforce that every formlogic._BOOT_MODE_MEDIA_RULESmax_mb
has a matching disk-side cap branch.
Verified
pcdos3 + FAT16 + 32M + IDE -> 33,546,752-byte VHD with
MBR partition type 0x04 (FAT16 <32MiB), COMMAND.COM dated
1984-08-14.
compaq3 + FAT16 + 32M + IDE -> same.
Regression: pcdos3 + FAT12 + 16M + XT-IDE still snaps to (306, 4, 26) = 15.54 MiB.
Over-cap rejection: pcdos3 + FAT16 + 64M -> ValidationError
with the corrected guidance.