Win95 OSR2 was the earliest Windows that came with FAT32 support.

yup deleted the non-dos partition that was there. the bios settings are set to auto, but the settings are exactly the same as the ones on the hard drive itself, including the size of drive. (if you want the actual specs i can get them) i have also tried putting in the cylinders etc myself and it still aint working.
It'd be nice to see the exact values, although I'm more certain now that it is a BIOS limit you're seeing, and you need to upgrade/flash your BIOS to get around this (not for the faint-hearted - if it fails, goodbye motherboard ). You'll have to go to the manufacturer's website for the motherboard and choose the appropriate flashing tools and BIOS image.