dencorso

I answered that question here. If you wish to have a full view of the history behind the version numbers conundrum, and have time for it, do read the whole original LLXX topic.

What about ATAPI.SYS from NT4SP6? Did you try it? NT4SP6 is still available, and there's a download link for it at MDGx's...

Thanks a lot, jaclaz, you rock!

Hotswapping BIOS chips is not for the faint of heart, though... There is a definite chance of deep frying both BIOS chips during the procedure! YMMV, of course, but I think this warning is warranted. Read well about it before atempting it.

Hi! I'm trying to figure out the correct pins in an old PCChips board. It's a M598. I have the manual but it has a figure describing the J1 (ATX Form Card) Conector but it is the mirror image of the actual connector. With some guesswork and a multimeter I've already found the correct pins for the USB1 and USB2 connectors and +5V and GND for the ps/2 mouse connector. I also know the pair of pins that are CLK and DATA, but I couldn't think of any way to distinguish which is which. So I gambled, and selected one of the possibilities at random and the mouse is working normally. Now I'm thinking is there any way to do it without the gamble if you don't have an oscilloscope at hand? Can the wrong choice damage the mouse (it seems to me that there is not such danger, as both are open-cathode, and very similar in what regards connection and voltages)? Would the mouse behave strangely if connected with DATA and CLK reversed? Please advise. I've already searched the net high and low but found no answer to these questions.

Can you please describe more fully your procedure and tell us if and how you edited the .INF? Would you please upload the files you used somewhere and post a link to them? You are the first, AFAIK, to accomplish that! You rock

Have you been here: Intel Archive?

I guess my posts #3 and #4 in this topic might interest you: hdd size limits? for ME defragger in MDGx' 98SE2ME. BTW, I know I can use fat32format in Win XP to acheive almost any partition-size/cluster-size ratio that I may want. I also know that, theoretically, I should be able to do the same using Win ME format with the undocumented /Z switch, but it almost never works for me, because it refuses to do its magic on removable media. What other programs are there that can be used in Win 98SE to do it, instead of having to go to Win XP to format and then go back? Also, do you know of any formatting utility capable of letting me control cluster-size for FAT-16?

True. And since I, for one, consider that warning nothing more than an annoying nag, I've devised a patch to get rid of it. For those interested, here's the link to my original topic about it. I'm still using the patched Acrobat Reader 6.0.6, and did not yet find a .pdf file it was unable to open OK.

Agreed. I just want to add that imaging periodically each system's partition adds still one more layer to one's ability to recover from any eventuality. Hence, XXCOPY and Ghost (or whatever one's favorite imaging software happens to be) are worthwhile tools to have handy. If the external HDD is big enough, it can accomodate copies and images, as needed. And a DOS-based recovery bootable CD-ROM, and a Bart PE based recovery CD-ROM.

@RetroOS: I guess MsiX.EXE, a fantastic command-line tool, able to extract files from .msi, .msm and .msp installation files is indicated, and may help you at this point. Give it a try! Find it here: Heath Stewart's Patch Files Extractor

"Treiber" is German for "driver". Thanks Qui-Gon, you rock!

Short answer: Yes! Long answer: read Q263044, Petr's thread on Format and Fdisk, and Q280737, in this order. My opinion: Best to use GDISK (not for free) or the Ranish Partition Manager (wonderful, free, does not like SATA).

You'll need RLoew's just released SATA.INF also, for that to work, AFAIK. Contact him. LLXX's ESDI_506.PDR is solid, but MSHDC.INF is not up to the task. HTH

Yes. Paragon NTFS4WIN98.

Hi, Fredledingue! Great news! Maximus-Decim has released BHDD31e, inside the latest MDCU. Find it standalone here: BHDD31.ZIP It contains the appropriate SCANDISK for DOS, so SCANFRAG is no longer needed. It also contains ESDI_506.PDR v. 4.10.0.2230, which IS LLXX's patched ESDI_506.PDR v. 4.10.0.2225, with the version changed to 2230 so as to avoid any doubt that it IS the patched for 48-LBA version. [bTW, this renumbering is a legacy from the time when LLXX developed the patch, as there was a group that defended renumbering and another group favoring not renumbering, and it indicates that MD sides with the former group... No consensus has been arrived at, and probably never will. But it's OK, what matters really is that the patched file works beautifully. ] Hence, your procedure now can be done using just two files: BHDD31e and Q311561! Would you, please, update your post #26 accordingly?

Only one: Rule 12. You gave your thread a cryptic title.

I've done even more tests, and here are the results: I've created a 4 GB (3.7 GiB; 4,000,672,256 bytes) partition, with 512 B clusters, which has about 7.8 million clusters (7,813,813 clusters) and 61,046 sectors per fat and a 16 GB (15 GiB; 16,177,115,136 bytes) partition, with 2 kiB clusters, which has about 7.9 million clusters (7,898,982 clusters) and 61,711 sectors per fat. NDD32.EXE (v. 18.0.0.62, from NSW 2005) works OK with the former, but gives a BSOD with Fatal Exception 0E (Page Fault) with the latter. So it seems that the limit for NDD32.EXE is somewhere between 7.8 and 7.9 million clusters, or somewhere between 61.0 and 61.7 thousand sectors per fat.

Simple, but not very fast to save, although quite fast (and problem-free) to restore: 1)Isolate your data in a partition and each of your OS in its individual partition. 2)Image each regularly (while working properly). Regularly, I said, not once every century. 3)When things get ugly, redeploy a previously saved, known-to-be-good, image. After having good images you may install whatever you fancy, or otherwise devise a new way every day to thrash your OSes seven ways to Sunday, knowing that you're fully covered, and 15-30 minutes away from getting everything working properly again, no matter what. I use Ghost. But there are other choices that are for free.

You didn't ever mention it... what drivers exactly are you using? You should be using: USBASPI.EXE 21,322 bytes, the Panasonic "ASPI Manager for USB mass-storage", Version 2.26 and DI1000DD.SYS 16,368 bytes, NOVAC's ASPI DISK Driver, Version 2.00, the "Motto Hairu Driver" These are the latest existing versions.

It also rolls back browselc.dll to version 6.0.2800.1106, but the most updated version of this file known to work in Win 9x/ME is v. 6.0.2800.1146, from KB331485... Nonetheless, this is a minor problem. Thanks a lot for the update, MDGx! You rock!

I've done some more tests, and here are the results: I've created a 20 GB (19 GiB; 20,464,464,384 bytes) partition, with 2 kiB clusters, which has about 10 million clusters (9,953,525 clusters) and 77,762 sectors per fat (by using Ridgecrop's fat32format.exe v. 1.04, under Win XP)... NDD.EXE for DOS (2002 ..10E), SCANDISK.EXE from Win ME and SCANDSKW.EXE (4.90.0.3000) work OK with it. NDD32.EXE (v. 18.0.0.62, from NSW 2005), on the other hand, gives a BSOD with Fatal Exception 0E (Page Fault) with it. On the other hand, as I had reported in the post above, all four programs work flawlessy with my 250 GB (233 GiB; 250,056,705,024 bytes) partitions, which has 32 kiB clusters, about 7.6 million clusters (7,629,261 clusters) and 59,604 sectors per fat... So it seems that the limit for NDD32.EXE (v. 18.0.0.62, from NSW 2005) is somewhere between 7.6 and 10 million clusters, or, it dawned on me while I was doing these tests, somewhere between 59.6 and 77.7 thousand sectors per fat (as I now believe it crashes when reading the FATs to a buffer in memory). As for the limit for SCANDSKW.EXE (4.90.0.3000), it is between 15.2 and 30.4 million clusters, because it worked with my former 500 GB partition but crashed with Marius '95 1 TB raid single partition (link), although 98-Guy has reported it works up to 31.2 million clusters (follow the links inside this post). NDD.EXE for DOS (2002 ..10E) and SCANDISK.EXE from Win ME work, at least, up to 1 TB, according to Marius '95, and to 31.2 million clusters, according to 98-Guy (both these limits are about the same, for a 1 TB partition, using 32 kiB clusters, has about 31 million clusters). FORMAT.EXE wasn't able to format Marius '95 1 TB raid, but works up to 500 GB. And the limit of Petr's fixed FDISK (based on this update: KB263044, which has a numerical display bug) is 512 GB, according to Microsoft (KB280737).

@Multibooter: Here is a link to PassingBy's generic USB ejector... (link) I think I've mentioned it before... Maybe it'll help you with those third-party drivers without an ejector solution. Extra care in testing it, though, for it's an initial beta. HTH.

I run the current version of eMule. And adobe reader 6.0.6 (with my anti-nag patch). Nowadays I don't have any issues with either of them. But, at first, e-Mule kept crashing and freezing the system after less than 2h. Turns out that the problem was my board's BIOS poor implementation of ACPI. After I removed both ACPI and APM, I have had no more troubles whatever and have used e-Mule for as long as the files I have been downloading required for their download to complete, without any crashes. Then again, I never needed to let it go beyond 40h, up to now. But I do believe it can, if I ever need it to.

The great Dietmar has found the way to do it. Find it here: How to install Windows Vista on a Fat32 partition. Enjoy!