fishindude

If you're running IE 6, I'd try getting rid of it (go back to 5.x) and using Firefox instead. I have seen many, many problems running IE 6 on 98.

Hi again, bootless. 1) XP can read and write FAT32. If necessary, you could recover your data from an XP machine. You wouldn't have to format those drives to use them. 2) The NEC disk drive should be checked as removable. Removable refers to the media itself. I don't think it's coincidence. I think if you can find out why it's doing it, you may solve your problem. I would try uninstalling your WD drivers and running autopatcher again. If it works, I would try NUSB and leave the WD drivers alone. As for the registry, the plea goes out once again for the registry wizards. It may solve your problem or it may totally hose your system and force you into a clean reinstall. Be very careful.

Hi, bootless. I agree with dencorso. Your data will be OK as long as the drives actually work, you can read them from an XP (or, 2k or Linux) machine. And I also have had impressive results with NUSB 3.3. I'd give it a try. You have to uninstall all USB storage drivers first, including any 2.0 controllers, and then install NUSB. Don't delete your 2.0 controller drivers, just rename them or move them to a new folder. This may be a dumb question, but I hope it's not insulting. Has your machine ever worked with the new drives attached? If so, it may be a file system problem. If they came pre-formatted from WD, I gotta believe it would be in NTFS, which 98 can't see. That's some unusual stuff you're seeing. If you actually have a USB HP 895C, try unplugging that before you plug in a drive and see what happens. The weird driver reports and registry listings are probably beyond me - I hope some of the kindly, helpful wizards who populate this site will weigh in. In particular I'm concerned with why your machine is rejecting the updates from Autopatcher. My own 98 install is over 3 years old and they went through just fine. As they were specifically USB updates, they could very well be the key to your problem. Soporific would be the one to help with this.

Why not clone your existing 98 onto the new HD, Fredledingue? The patch would already be there, along with your software. Unless you want the benefits of a fresh install. Xclone works great for this.

Hi, Niko. Don't know if this will help or not. I'm running a Radeon X800 on my 98SE system with the Catalyst 6.2 drivers. There were some issues with this at first. The main one was font blurring in a vertical bar pattern, from 1 to 3 bars per boot. This was not severe, I could get by, but it seems to have been cleared up by running Soporific's Autopatcher available on this site. I'd try downloading autopatcher (it's huge, you need broadband), running it, and then seeing if you can install your drivers.

NUSB 3.3 works great! Automatically installed drivers for all devices. These include a PNY 1 GB flash drive, an Xdigital Media variable flash drive, Mitsumi USB 2.0 floppy drive, Sony Mavica camera, and even a new Kodak digital picture frame! Tray disconnect applet still shows up and works for all devices. One tip - when you remove existing drivers for your 2.0 controller and hub, just do it from within device manager and install NUSB. If you delete or rename the driver files, it won't work. NUSB seems to replace the .inf file with it's own .inf, (oem4.inf on my machine), but looks for the original .sys files for the devices.

Hi, RR. I'm using whatever Soporific's Autopatcher installs, which, I believe, is a bunch of hotfixes and not NUSB. I know that they enabled a flash drive that would only work under XP before, and that I had to uninstall my PNY drivers to get the tray disconnect applet. I'm going to try NUSB 3.3 later today, I'll let you know how it goes.

Hi, Sop, and thanks. Yes, I get that, and I've done something similar. I packed the drive with 180 GB of data. After a lot of rooting around, I didn't see any evidence of corruption. Every file, of various types, that I tried to open did without fault. But what about ongoing maintenance? I'd like an easier way of verifying that the drive is operating correctly. With that in mind, I tried a lot of stuff in the last few days and I'm going to relate it here for the benefit of any other poor slob who finds himself on my path. For a lot of reasons, I don't like to be in XP. So I wanted a solution that would run from 98. Unfortunately, I didn't find one that was really great. First, the obvious. I downloaded MDGx's Diskminder version. This did not work. It looks like older software, and I don't think it's set up for larger drives. It identified virtually every file as corrupt. So I went Googling, with the depressing but expected result that there just ain't much out there that will run on 98 anymore. I avoided obvious spyware, at least Spybot says I did, and tried out a bunch of stuff. 1) DiskChecker - a shareware prog. Says it runs on 98. Would not run in direct access mode (says disk is too large for FAT checking), only file access mode. Reported no errors in file access mode. 2) Tune Up Utilites. These are interesting, but only 2007 or below run in 98. The "Disk Doctor" and defragmenter don't even show up when installed in 98, although they did under XP. Strange. Extremely annoying, too - nothing is said on their site about this. 2 emails went unanswered. More later. 3) Iolo System Mechanic. Said 2006 would run on 98, but I had to install IE6 first. Grrr. Went back to your 98 Autopatcher and installed IE6 and all patches. I hate IE6! Installed System Mechanic, fired it up, and... it crashed. Undaunted, started it again, told it to scan the drive and not do anything, just report to me. and waited. And waited. Finally fell asleep waiting for scan to finish. Woke up, no HD activity light, touched mouse, system crash. Re-started. DANGER, DANGER!!! All icons show as shared web, icons evaporate on mouse over! Quick, add/remove. IT'S NOT EVEN THERE!!! I had to use System Mechanic to uninstall System Mechanic. Somehow, this worked, thankfully. Nothing else in this program did. 4) Emsa Disk Checker. This actually worked but was painfully slow - 6 hours for 200 GB drive. So, I'm looking at Norton Systemworks, to the tune of 70 bucks with no trial. No, I can't do it, Norton is just too bloated and intrusive to pay that kind of money and not even know if it will work. Disk checking in XP reports no errors. Of course, it doesn't report anything, which is not gonna make me happy. Installed Tune Up Utilities on XP, ran the "Disk Doctor", it reported no errors. So, I guess I'm gonna go with it. If I have to check it from XP, well, that's the breaks.

Fredledingue, I had frequent blue screens when removing my PNY 1 GB stick, which I bought specifically because it had 98 drivers. This would happen whether I "ejected" it in Explorer or not. The blue screens informed of "open files" on the device, and would sometimes even result in a system crash. I have not had this problem since installing the universal USB driver.

Try AVG Free, CC. You'll be amazed at how much of your machine Norton was gobbling up. They may be ending support later this year, but the upside is a lot of code, including virii, won't run on 98 anymore. Avast is supposed to be another good free one.

I dunno, Somewan. My site stats indicate almost as many 98 users as Vista. Linux is about even; there are more MacOS hits. This is over a year after launch, even with OEM's cutting off driver support for XP. Maybe Microsoft won't get away with it this time.

Hi, R_R. I can't answer your question about the Corsair driver, but I can tell you that the 98 universal USB driver available on this site gives a tray disconnect applet similar to XP. I have found it extremely useful. You would have to uninstall your Corsair drivers for it to work.

Hi, Sop. My sincere apologies. Thank you for not telling me to RTFM, although I richly deserve it. Your program is fine, and a great timesaver. As usual, operator error. My greatest coding achievement was the flying bird on a C64, so I have profound respect for those who know how to do it. I wrote my last post at the end of a long and frustrating day of fighting with my computer. I'm used to fighting with other people's computers; me and my machine are actually on very good terms. I figured that as long as someone was taking the time to read this long sob story with my benefit in mind, I would at least try to be entertaining. It didn't occur to me then (it does now) that I might be demeaning to something that obviously took a lot of effort on your part. I also hadn't had the time to see some of the other stuff it installed. The universal USB driver is the bomb!!! Any of you out there running 98, you MUST have this! No more disconnect crashes - true hot swapping with an XP like manager applet. And that flash drive that would only work under XP before is no problem now. I also got one of my critical programs working, the one that''s really kept me tied to Windows. It only worked with XP before, I could never get it to work in 98. So, again, my apologies. So, yes, my problem is that scandisk gives a "not enough memory" error as soon as I try to run it. The partition is 186 GB, FAT32. Defrag runs OK on it, at least it says it does. I'm not seeing any data corruption. The time stamp on scandisk.exe says created 2/11, which is when I installed it. I'm currently trying out other disk utilities.

XP scan was OK. So I'm thinking my best move is an updated version of Norton Utilities to manage this drive. Thanks again.

Well, this has been an interesting day, in the Chinese sense. "A) Probably. But testing your partitions along the lines described by LLXX wouldn't hurt. See the theads on 48bit LBA (one started by LLXX, the other by Petr) here on MSFN." I went back and read these again (oh no, Hex Hornets!), and tried to test as LLXX recommended. I filled the 200 GB drive (I already had some stuff on it) by copying the contents of my boot drive to it, then re-copying those contents to new folders repeatedly. This took a loooooooong time, and I did get 1 file copy error for an invalid file name. When I got it up to 180 GB, I checked my original files. According to LLXX, these are the ones that should be trashed when those 0's and 1's start wrapping around. They appeared to be OK - no gibberish, I opened a few documents, played a couple mp3's, everything seemed just dandy. Then I tried to run a scandisk. No dice. It stopped dead in it's tracks with a "you don't have enough memory" slap. I have 512, and a 1024 swap file. Sooo... "You could try using soporific's Auto-Patcher 98 to update all the system files: http://www.msfn.org/board/Auto-Patcher-Win...ish-t80800.html It's a fairly big download though... Got DSL/Cable?" Yes, I do, and I did. Autopatcher is a cool program - the BUT will come momentarily. Anyway, it identified 147 patches for my system. I told it to install everything except IE6 and WMP, because the only MS software I use is the OS and a few things that come with it. About 35 minutes and a ton of re-boots later, it told me I was now clean and could take my place among decent folk. I got the cute little XP networking applet winking at me from the tray (useful) and something called Power Menu that will be leaving soon. Scandisk, however, still mocked me. So I went back to soporific's site and discovered a couple things. One was the suggestion that I should run Autopatcher again because, apparently, there are patches for the patches that it can't patch on the first run because I didn't have enough patches. So, I did run it again, and it again identified 147 patches for my system - the same ones that it said it had already patched. This goes against one of my Basic Rules for Not Screwing Up Your Computer (right behind "if it ain't broke don't fix it") which is "if you're gonna re-install, make sure you uninstall first". So, I didn't do it. Another bit of info on his site was a recent post from a guy saying that the latest version of Autopatcher did not enable the ME scandisk and defrag updates. AHA!!! So, I went to the projects area, found MDGX's scanfrag (scary name, that) which is supposed to do the same thing. AND....NADA. Scandisk says no. Defrag, however, works. ????????? My system, if it will help matters, is: Abit NF7-S r2 board - nForce 2 ultra chipset, Soundstorm audio, SIL 3112 SATARaid controller Mobile Barton Athlon XP 2400+ (OC'd to 2.4 GHZ, 400 FSB). Yes, it's very stable. 512 MB dual channel DDR, 400 mhz Radeon X800 256 MB AGP card 2 DVD drives, each master of their own IDE Floppy drive 60 GB Seagate, 200 GB Samsung hard drives on the SATA controller. Seagate has 98/XP/Linux partitions. 18" LCD, a couple printers on a print server, pretty good Altec 2/1 stereo speakers. I'm going to try a scan from XP and see what that does. Thanks again in advance for any and all ideas.

Yeah, I know it sounds weird, that's why I'm worried. I've partitioned hundreds of drives and never seen this behavior. But I'm a 98SE diehard (we old farts are set in our ways, dontcha know), and the thought of having to use XP all the time makes me physically ill. Thank God you guys are around, 'cause there's precious little 98 hardware info anywhere else these days. 30? Was I ever 30? I must have been sometime, I, I, can't really remember... OK, here goes - the connection tree is as follows: 1) PCI standard PCI to PCI Bridge (standard MS driver - "no driver files are required for this device...") 2) Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller General tab - device type = scsi controllers; driver tab = Provider - Silicon Image; Date - 5/14/2004 drivers = C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SI3112R.MPD (SI 2001) C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32\IOS.VXD (MS 1999) C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SILSUPP.CPL (SI 2003) C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\SIISUPP.VXD (SI 2003) C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\SI3112R.MPD (SI 2004) There is also a settings tab for command line parameters for an SCSI device. 3) Samsung SP2004C (200 GB Samsung HD, SATA, driver = standard MS - "no driver files....") 4) ST360020A (Seagate 60 GB IDE HD, on SATA adapter, driver = standard MS - "no driver files....") The SI driver on the Abit site has a release date of 5/28/05, but the version and file dates on the extracted files appear to be what I've reported. I don't have (don't think I could) a RAID set. Thanks again, for trying to help, and thanks in advance for any ideas you may have.

But first: try uninstalling that last driver you installed for the externel HD.

It ("driver association"), does make sense, but it's more like a conflict. First, let me say that we all reach a point where trying to fix a broken OS gets to be a lot more work than just wiping it out and starting over. Usually, the grimly determined are faced with data loss that is unacceptable. You have all your stuff backed up, so you're in good shape. You can actually choose whether you want to fix it or re-install. It's your time. Now, that being said, it's starting to sound like just maybe there's a hardware problem. Your boot problem could be developing bad sectors on your hard drive. Or, with the Nero crashes you're having, the logic card could be going on your optical drive. But, to troubleshoot, do this: Start in safe mode and go to device manager. Disable everything non-essential to working on your computer - leave your keyboard, mouse, display adapter, IDE controllers, primary hard disk, monitor, and system devices ON. Disable all ports, cd roms, usb controllers, modems, network devices, etc. While you're in there, remove any devices no longer present on your system - these show up in safe mode. When you're done, re-boot. Hopefully, the machine starts. If it does, go back to device manager and enable 1 device. Reboot. Keep following this procedure until Windows doesn't boot - at that point, the last device you enabled is causing the problem, whether it's a driver conflict or actual bad hardware. If you can't access a device in safe mode, do your registry fix to get your machine running, but follow the same procedure.

Update: 1) Used fdisk in a DOS window to delete all partitions, and created a primary and an extended DOS partition, each equal size. Fdisk demanded that I create a logical drive in the extended partition, so I did. Fdisk appeared to see both partitions correctly (93 GB). Rebooted. No phantom drive, no Norton errors! Formatted first partition from Windows - yeehah! No problem! Second partition WOULD NOT FORMAT. Bummer. Norton Disk Doctor still refusing to run. 2) Gave up on the multiple partition attempt, went to fdisk from DOS window and made the whole drive one large primary DOS partition. Rebooted. Formatted drive from Windows - no errors. Windows also sees the drive as 186 GB (same as BIOS reports), so apparently the driver IS translating 48 bit LBA. Not so, Norton. It refused to run until I added a NOLBACHECK dword value to the registry. Runs fine now. It looks like 48 bit LBA is working in Windows 98SE, but Norton Disk Doctor 2001 doesn't support it. So, I have 2 remaining questions: A) Is it safe??? Before I transfer years worth of business data slumbering safely on an 80 GB IDE drive, I'd like to be a little more assured that I'm not really just flushing it. B) Will running Norton Disk Doctor on it damage it? Thanks to all who posted. In case you're wondering "why is this fool going through all this", I have to blame my loving spouse. She gets me a new tech toy every Christmas. This year's was a USB turntable to digitize our substantial collection of wax. Yes, that's right, we're old farts. Anyway, I should be able to fit it into 120 GB.

A bit more info: The non-existent E drive is using compatibility mode. Fdisk (from a 98 DOS window) sees and lists both D & F partitions correctly, but lists the non-existent E as a logical drive.

Oh, sorry, on a Dell press F2 at the Dell splash to access BIOS.

Will your machine boot in safe mode? You said the new drive contains "drivers". Did you install new drivers for it when you first installed it? If you can't disable "boot from other device", can you change it to another device, say, floppy or cd rom? Although if 98 isn't booting with no other drives attached, this is probably not the problem. There are a number of DOS commands you might try to fix this, I just want to make sure it's not a device or driver conflict first. I gotta tell ya, though, if you've had the same Win 98 on there for 10 years with no re-installs, you've done very, very well.

Thanks, Mijzelf. The 48 bit thing may not be my problem at all, as I'll try to explain. The new drive arrived today, a Samsung SP2004C, 200 GB. I installed it on SATA channel 1 with an new version of Disk Manager, told Disk Manager I was using XP w/sp1 (I lied) and created and formatted 2 fat 32 partitions. 98SE now sees 4 hard drive partitions in explorer - C: (60 GB Seagate IDE with a SATA adapter on SATA channel 0 - this is my OS drive, with 98, XP, and Linux partitions); D: (93 GB partition on new drive); E: - DOES NOT EXIST; and F: (93 GB partition on new drive). It's the E: that's got me baffled. As I said, it does not exist. At boot, it drives my Norton Utilities nuts - Norton flashes a red warning box at me and says it can't scan the drive E:, that it's not configured correctly. Norton Disk Doctor also refuses to scan D: or F:, with the same message. None of this stuff happens when I boot into XP - everything is just fine. I don't use Norton on XP, but XP utilities work on the new drive. I can read and write to the D: & F: partitions in 98, but I'm terrified of data corruption if 98 isn't reading the drive info correctly. Does anyone have any ideas?

Hi, bootless. A number of things to try: 1) Does your machine boot without the USB drives attached? If it does, shut down, plug in the known good, turn it on, and fire up your machine. Does it still boot? If so, you may have a defective new drive or #2, below. 2) Does your BIOS have a setting called "boot other device" or similar? If so, disable it. If this helps, it sounds like your new drive may be flagged as active. What does the new drive contain? Is it another OS? 3) Your IE problem is just what you thought it was, especially if it's IE6. The more IE windows you open, the more unstable it becomes. In my personal experience, and this may be fixed by some of the wonderful patches on this site, IE6 does not play well with 98. I think IE 5.5 SP2 is the best version for 98. Better still is to use Firefox - tabbed browsing will solve the problem, you only need 1 Firefox window open. If it's starting to look like "defective drive" be very careful. A defective USB device can take out your motherboard. Also, the entries in your autoexec.bat and what you see on the start screen are commands that enable your sound card in DOS. If it was working before, these shouldn't be a problem, although Aureal cards can be a pain in 98.

Hi, Retro, thanks for the links! 1) I know that the controller supports 48 bit LBA. 2) I know that Windows 98SE is supported with drivers. What I don't know is whether the drivers enable 48 bit support under 98SE. It may seem like I'm splitting hairs here, but I've run into a lot of cases where there is driver support for an older OS but the actual functionality is limited. I ask this because I tried to install a 200 GB Samsung SATA drive on it about a week ago. I started out with Samsung (Ontrack) Disk Manager and wanted 2 fat32 partitions. Part way through it occurred to me: this thing is going to plant a DDO on there. I don't need no stinkin' DDO!!! So I stopped and wound up completing the job with Gparted. 98 saw and wrote to both partitions just fine, but also created a 3rd partition with no access that was driving my Norton Utilities nuts on every boot because it couldn't index it. XP, on the other hand, appeared normal. I thought that I had wound up with a DDO anyway, and in trying to correct this the drive ummm, died. I'll know (I hope) next week when the new drive arrives. I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks again!