MalcolmO wrote:

More specifically, it will bow down to the BIOS and driver but the tools
(fdisk, defrag, scandisk) will still have their limits.
I'm looking for replacements for them now.

Gdisk & Diskmanager-4 aughta work ... ptn bash & format.

XXCLONE essentially "defrags" at it's completion of the clone ...
a file by file clone ...
Theres' also a limited freebie ...
and the 'Pro' version does incremental after the 1st clone ...

Seems to me that theres' also a 3rd party Fat32 'dir' sort
that will also repair fat32 'dir' files, maybe the fat alloc tbls too.

Peek at my "above" current post ...
drop-in W98 default OS drivers ... go beyound the '137' barrier.

Qed.