Win98se and large disks

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

What will happend to a 250GB disk with 4 x 60GB partitions under
Win98se? As long as the disk is connected though USB from an external
USB cabinet Win98se sees all 4 partitions and can read/write as normal

But will this work diffrently when I hook up the disk to the internal
S-ATA controller and boot Win98se (drivers for S-ATA are installed)?

What will happend?

Will it see the disk at all?

Will it see all partitions that are less than 137GB?

Will it see all partitions within the first 137GB of the disk?

What then about partitions that span the 137GB limit
(will it corrupt then if access as it can see whole)?

Are there other limitations (someone mentioned a 64GB limit)?

And do any of these limitations apply to WinXP (non-SP, SP2)?
(lets say I must reinstall XP w/o SP, then apply SP2 afterward)

 

[Bob Harris]

I do not have a complete answer, but here is some related info:

First, before even asking about the operating system, ask how large a disk
can the BIOS support? Modern motherboards can go way above 127Gig. But,
older ones had that as a limit. Even older ones had a limit around 32Gig.
And, further back in time there were limits near 8Gig, etc. One way to use
larger disks with an older PC is to install a separate PCI-IDE controller
(or PCI-to-SCSI, etc). These contain there own mini-BIOS for handling
disks. You motherboard is likely new enough that none of this is an issue,
but I mention it in case you ever deal with an older PC.

As for the intrinsic features of Win98, bear in mind that even the original
release of XP was limited to about 127Gig. XP with SP-2 can handle very
large disks. I forget whether XP with SP-1 could. Some people have had
luck using the original XP on larger disks, so long as they made a partition
under that limit and loaded XP on it. But, in general, using a disk larger
than fully supported by the operating system could eventually lead to
problems. I suppose the key to success and failure might be whether it is
really the disk size or the partiiton size that matters to the operating
system. For example, the old FDISK could not prepare disks with a total
size greater than about 64Gig. But, once prepared by some other means,
win98 could be loaded onto somewhat larger dfisks.

I have also noticed a marked difference in the rules for disk access between
DOS, win98, and XP. DOS seems to use only the BIOS for disk access, that
is, it uses no special drivers. Thus, a win98 (DOS) boot floppy can see and
use my SATA hard drives. But, when I attempted to install XP, it could not
even see the drives, until I loaded special drivers during the XP
installation process. I just took a look at the driver set for my disk
controllers (on an ASUS P4S8X motherboard) and they included separate drives
for win98. Thus, I assume that 98 also requires special drives. However,
unlike XP, I am unsure how one adds these drives to 98 in a clean install.
Adding them after 98 is installed on a plain IDE disk would be fairly easy,
but then 98 would be using the SATA drives for auxilliary storage only.

As for USB and firewire and the newer eSATA (external SATA), I do not know
what really limits disk size: PC BIOS, operating system, BIOS inside of
port controller (USB, firewire, eSATA), ability to parition and format
(FDISK, GDISK, XP disk mgt or XP recovery console), etc.

 

[Don Phillipson]

when I attempted to install XP, it could not
even see the drives, until I loaded special drivers during the XP
installation process. I just took a look at the driver set for my disk
controllers (on an ASUS P4S8X motherboard) and they included separate drives
for win98. Thus, I assume that 98 also requires special drives. However,
unlike XP, I am unsure how one adds these drives to 98 in a clean install.
Adding them after 98 is installed on a plain IDE disk would be fairly easy,
but then 98 would be using the SATA drives for auxilliary storage only.

No: Win98 requires no drivers to see hard drives
connected to either of the two IDE sockets. (So
yes: connecting them is easy: set jumper and plug in.)

 

[Guest]

There are third-parrty patches available for 98, end even for 95B/C.

Not tried them so I can't vouch for their effectiveness/reliability.

In any case you need to make sure you mobo supports 48-bit LBA, or it
matters not, DOS or Vista.

One place of several:
http://www.largeharddrivesupport.windowsreinstall.com/win98.htm
Watch out that there is also a crippleware one around, limited to 137GB.

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

After moving my Win98se and WinXP to a new 250GB disk I can confirm at
Win98se doesn't really have a problem wit hdisk >137GB, it's (as
someone suggested) a limitation in the APAPI-drivers. With my S-ATA
controller (and Win98se drivers for it) all disk is visible in Win98

To be sure I made no partitions larger than 64GB as I read somewere
that some Win98 applications (like "scandisk") will mess up then

 

[Ron Martell]

After moving my Win98se and WinXP to a new 250GB disk I can confirm at
Win98se doesn't really have a problem wit hdisk >137GB, it's (as
someone suggested) a limitation in the APAPI-drivers. With my S-ATA
controller (and Win98se drivers for it) all disk is visible in Win98

To be sure I made no partitions larger than 64GB as I read somewere
that some Win98 applications (like "scandisk") will mess up then

Actually the practical limit for FAT32 partitions is 128 gb (137
billion bytes).

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."