Multibooter

Internal PATA/SATA drives have this 127GB limitation of disk/partition size, but NOT external USB drives. I don't know about the size limitations of other external connections (Firewire, eSata) under Win98.I have in one of my external Adaptec ACS-100 3.5" USB enclosures a 250GB PATA HDD, which has actually only 232.9GB and runs fine connected to a 10-year-old laptop with an old BIOS which does not support 48-bit LBA (the internal 120GB HDD is reported by the BIOS as 65535MB, but everything works fine) With an actual disk size <240GB (a size limitation of Norton Disk Doctor under Win98) there is NO compelling need to partition the drive. One of the main purposes of partitioning is to limit the damage in case of disk corruption: disk corruption due to a buggy program/driver has happened to me many times under Win98, but the damage was always limited to a single partition. The last disk corruption that happened to me under Win98/FAT32 was just a few days ago when I had 2 external 1TB HDDs connected to the USB 2.0 Cardbus card in the PCMCIA slot of my old laptop, and I was copying/moving large files from one external drive to the other. Using Windows Explorer I got a msg on a blue screen: "Disk Write Error. Unable to write or to disk in drive O:. Data or files may be lost." After power off and on again and fixing the HDD with NDD, I repeated the file move with Beyond Compare, with the same Disk Write Error, plus 2 different file allocation tables. I eventually deleted the whole partition. The most likely cause was a buggy Win98 driver for the Texas Instruments Cardbus controller, written by Microsoft. BTW, I never had a physically damaged disk and this is probably an extremely rare event for home users, unless the disk drops from a table onto a stone floor or you play soccer with it, so the benefit of a RAID for home users is mainly imaginary.

I disagree, NTFS is better: better for Microsoft $$$ since it's proprietary and locks in corporate clients.

With my setup, there is not much need for NTFS read/write support under Win98:1) I am running WinXP on a FAT32 partition (initially installed onto an NTFS partition, then converted under Win98 with PartitionMagic to FAT32), so all WinXP stuff is accessible under Win98 2) I have an NTFS partition exclusively for files >2GB, which cannot be properly accessed anyway under pure Win98. eMule can create files up to 4GB on FAT32 under Win98, but I manipulate/extract these files under WinXP. 3) NTFS is a black box, protected by Microsoft's trade secrets etc. NO software producer, except for Microsoft, has access to the full documentation and details of NTFS, so any non-Microsoft software converting the black box NTFS is inheritantly problematic and probably a nightmare to support. Maybe that's why Paragon made NTFS4WIN98 freeware. PartitionMagic by PowerQuest (I used v8.01 Build 1312) does expressly not guarantee a successful conversion from NTFS-> FAT32, but it worked for me, after fixing the freshly converted partition with ScanDisk, Norton Disk Doctor and then a final check with Partition Table Doctor. Paragon Partition Manager v9.0, on the other hand, did NOT succeed in converting my NTSF partition to FAT32; Paragon Partition Manager v9.0 however CAN export files from an NTFS partition to a FAT/FAT32 partition. 4) I would be afraid to write to an NTFS partition from Win98 with buggy software, eventually the NTFS partition could become corrupted. 5) NTFS is probably past its peak: The manufacturers of SDHC cards have rejected NTFS; the standard file system for SDHC cards is FAT/FAT32 6) I am in the process of upgrading from Win98, not to Vista, but to Linux. And under Linux I don't need NTFS.

I am using 3 Thermaltake enclosures, each with a 1TB SATA HDD inside, they work fine under Win98 (both with nusb and with the manufacturer-provided driver, no special SATA driver is needed). See my posting at http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...st&p=824708I haven't tried a single 1TB FAT32 partition in a USB drive yet. Maybe you should create FAT32 partitions <240GB. 1TB FAT32 partitions are dangerous, how could you fix lost clusters? And when it comes to data recovery, you may be in deep trouble. To make sure that there is no BIOS etc problem on your old computer I would initially set the 1st FAT32 partition on your HDD to <127GB, to see whether the partition gets displayed in My Computer. I have an NTSF partition on the 1TBs, for exceptional files >2GB, but I prefer to have all my other stuff on FAT32 partitions because I am moving gradually to Linux, and FAT32 can be handled properly by Linux, in contrast to NTSF partitions. I even have WinXP on a FAT32 partition, so that my virus scanner can check under Win98 the WinXP partition, e.g. for root kits.

It should work with nusb 3.3 by Maximus Decim. To be on the safe side get one which also has a manufacturer-provided Win98 driver.I always bought external drive enclosures and then put a HDD into the enclosure myself. My largest external drives are currently 3 Thermaltake enclosures http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx...182&ID=1651 with each 1TB SATA HDDs in it. I partitioned them into 3x240GB logical FAT32 partitions and the remainder a logical NTSF partition for files >2GB. They work fine under Win98SE. The Thermaltake enclosures (cost here at Frys: $35) are outstanding because you can put both SATA and PATA (IDE) HDDs in them, and you can access the SATA HDD via USB (nusb or manufacturer-provided driver) under Win98. They don't make large-capacity PATA HDDs anymore (max. currently 500GB, the old 750GB PATA HDDs seem to have become rare collectibles, more expensive than 1.5TB SATA), so enclosures which only take PATA HDDs are of limited value. The Thermaltake enclosure can (according to the specs) handle HDDs up to 2TB in size. I unfortunately missed a sale here for the 1.5TB Seagate HDDs at $130+tax, so I cannot report on whether the 1.5TB HDD works Ok under Win98, but the 1TB HDD definitely does. Maybe you should consider buying/building 2 units, as father-grandfather units for backups, recovering data from a huge HDD is not really feasible because of its size. A buggy Win98 driver made by Microsoft recently damaged a nearly-full 240GB partition on one of my 1TB HDDs (causing 2 different file allocation tables) and the disk recovery software projected 72 hours for just analysing the partition, before recovery, so I just gave up. When I buy hardware, I also look for Linux-compatibility since I am in the process of making Linux my main workhorse, from Win98.

Definitely not. Perhaps it is the encrypted Windows serial number? Does Win98 still work after deleting this key? What registration info does Control Panel -> System show after deleting this key?

Culprit identified I am back from a long stay in Europe and have connected now several Genesys-driven USB devices to my desktop (Asus P5PE-VM motherboard, dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM) under Win98, and NO multiple-drive-letter problem occurred. The multiple-drive-letter problem has occurred only on my laptop, an old Inspiron 7500 with a Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller (= for the slot where I insert the PCMCIA/CardBus cards). On this laptop, under WinXP, the Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller works fine and I had no problem with devices connected to a USB 2.0 CardBus card inside the PCMCIA/Cardbus slot, only under Win98. The MS Win98SE driver for the Cardbus Controller is in my view the most likely cause of this multiple-drive-letter problem and many others. Microsoft has originally provided the driver for the Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller on its Win98SE opsys CD. The driver consists of the following files: carddrv.exe, cbss.vxd, csmapper.sys, Fls1mtd.vxd, Fls2mtd.vxd, PCCard.vxd, pcmcia.cat, Pcmcia.inf and Srammtd.vxd. Microsoft has provided various driver bugfix files, which have been removed from the Microsoft website, only their description is still left, mainly under http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295629 The original bugfix for the lousy MS Win98 driver for the PCI-1225 can be downloaded from http://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/CPatch/msupdate/.../295629usa8.exe But this bugfix does just as much as the shutdown bugfixes by Microsoft: nothing helpful to me. I followed their instructions to add a registry key to enable the bugfix, but this only causes nusb 3.3 to hang the system when a new device is detected. At http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm there are 2 related bugfixes listed, and after installing them, the original bugfix would not cause nubs 3.3 to hang the system anymore: a ) "Microsoft Windows 98 SE PCMCIA Adapter Code 10 Device Manager Error MSHDC.INF, IOS.VXD 4.10.2224 + PCI.VXD 4.10.2227 Fix:" b ) "Microsoft Windows 98 SE Laptop PCs PCI.VXD 4.10.2228 Fix: MUST install PCMCIA Adapter Code 10 Fix above FIRST!" I have seen mentioned in Google a newer Win98 driver, Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller 5.0.2183.1, release date: 2003-06-19, probably also by Microsoft, but I could not find it anywhere. Does anybody know where to find it?

I have not experienced this problem with v0.49b under nearly-pure Win98SE. I had uninstalled v0.49a before running the 0.49b installer package. Uninstall deleted all old files, including those in \config\. v0.49b installed a lot of dead servers, my preferred list is at http://www.emule-mods.de/?servermet=show I would check out/try the following: 1) maybe bad servers/hostile download sources, since the exit problem seems to occur randomly - does the exiting problem also occur when you start eMule with an empty Temp directory? - does the problem occur when you are not connected to a server, just to KAD? - re-connect the DSL/cable modem to get a new IP 2) problems caused by the firewall - does the exit problem also occur when the firewall is off? 3) hardware problems, since the exit problem seems to occur randomly - does the exit problem also occur when v0.49b is run on another computer? 4) Win98SE2ME and the updates, which are probably not part of the testing environment of the eMule developers 5) many eMule problems seem to be memory-related or arise when eMule is run together with other programs. Does the exit problem also occur when no other application is running? (anything unnecessary at Win98 startup?) eMule under Win98, for example, gets along well with Opera, but crashes quickly after running Firefox 6) change the TCP/UDP port numbers, in case the internet service provider is doing something fancy 7) run ScanDisk or NDD

Maybe the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine Removal Tool http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/c...525/unmsjvm.exe should be addded to the list of last versions. It deletes about 4MB of deadwood from the HDD, and Win98 and Opera v9.60 seem to run a little crisper afterwards. I at least don't need both Sun Java and dead MS Java.At http://www.mdgx.com/add.htm UNMSJVM.EXE is not listed to remove under Win98 all builds of MS Java VM, it's listed there (and in the MS readme.rtf file) to remove only builds 3802, 3805, 3809 and 3810. When Win98SE is installed and you do NOT select to install MS JVM, build 3167 is installed nevertheless, as displayed by MS System Information -> Explorer category; when you select to install MS JVM, build 3309 gets installed. After running the MS JVM Removal Tool, MS System Information displays in its Explorer category -> Java VM version: Not available

Hi Qui-Gon,The RTS5158 chip inside the CnMemory card reader is listed among the current Top Performers by HJ Reggel http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/info-readers.html so no wonder it's fast. Does the Realtek driver have a safely-remove-icon in the system tray? Is the icon of the card reader in My Computer a 2-state-icon (card inserted/not inserted)? P.S. I have added Hard Disk Drive Low Level Format Tool v2.36 to the Tool Box on the first page. Wiping data from an SDHC card may be much easier than from a HDD, unless there are backdoors built into the chip by the manufacturers/designers of the controller on the SDHC cards.

Nice to hear that the problem is solved and that there is a Win98 driver for Realtek card readers, Reggel's list contains about 6 different models/brands using Realtek chips. If you can find a download location, I will add it to the list of Win98 drivers in the Toolbox on the front page of this topic.Added on 2-Dec-2008: RTUsb.inf of the Realtek driver, dated 27-Jul-2006, lists 13 card reader PIDs, so as a ball-park first guesstimate I would speculate that Reggel's list covers about 50% of the card readers available world-wide.

I had bought and then returned this card reader. ChipGenius had identified this card reader as follows:PnP Device ID: VID = 0BDA [=Realtek Semiconductor Corp.] PID = 0158 Serial Number: 20060413092100000 Revision: 1.00 Chip Vendor: Realtek Chip Part-Number: RTS5158 The Win98 driver which I downloaded from http://www.cnmemory.de/seite_84ger-0-a0.html installed a file OCREADER.inf which was for a different VID [=Vendor ID] 0EA0 [=Ours Tech Inc], PIDs 2126,2136, 2118, 2153, 2156. Probably cnmemory put into the card reader a newer chip from another manufacturer, but continued to use the same packaging and didn't update their website accordingly. I don't know of a Win98 driver provided by Realtek Semiconductor Corp. for this chip, but this does not necessarily mean that there is none, only that looking for one may be quite time-consuming. I myself had returned this card reader because I didn't want a big headache for an item costing $10. Look at the 1st page of this topic for suggestions about buying an SDHC card reader for Win98. You may also look at Reggel's list of card readers http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/info-readers.html In his list look for "Genesys Logic" in the column "Vendor", there are about 25 card reader models under various brand names, maybe you can identify one which is available in your area. The Genesys driver (from the Toolbox on the 1st page of this topic) should work in most cases for readers with the VID 05E3 [=Genesys Logic], maybe you have to add 2 lines to Geneuide.inf for a new Product ID (PID) after installing the driver and before inserting the card reader for the first time under Win98. Under WinXP you can find out with ChipGenius the exact VID/PID of the specific card reader you buy, which you may need for updating Geneuide.inf, it's not printed on the box. Good luck.

I wonder if it or XP will still work after you installed Vista.

I should have expressed myself better, it should read instead: after having uninstalled the boot manager, getting the other 5 opsys to work again, including an opsys with a quite different code page Arabic/Farsi, looks to me like a major operationBTW, a mini-project of test-installing Farsi Vista on a 2nd(!) internal 1TB HDD, while keeping on the 1st internal HDD all other opsys operational (e.g. partition C: as FAT16) and unaffected (e.g. XP), took only 2 hours with System Commander 9, from reading the System Commander instructions to running it for the first time. No fiddling around.

Hi jaclaz, I looked at the docu . Maybe strong language, but System Commander has worked fine for me, and equally important, I'm kind of stuck, getting rid of a boot manager looks to me like a major operation, it's the basis of all my installed operating systems. I once tried out PowerQuest Bootmagic, with System Commander still installed (which I should have uninstalled before but didn't dare to), never again, it was a big mess, that's why I said I wouldn't touch any other boot manager. How easy/difficult would it be for an expert to migrate from one boot manager to another, if you have already 6 opsys installed? BTW I have seen somewhere that System Commander can also boot into CP/M, any comments on that?

Use a good tool like System Commander. I have been using it for the past 13 years and have purchased 4 versions over the years. I wouldn't touch any other boot manager.

Be careful when you use Partition Table Doctor, it's one of the 20 programs most useful to me, but you have to know what you are doing. Here a quote from the System Commander user manual, maybe it helps:"Limitations of DOS: When your system has more than one primary FAT partition, the inactive primary partitions might not be visible. This DOS bug will occur when either: - an extended partition exists without any logical drives defined - the extended partition has no FAT logical partitions defined."

I've been using Kaspersky for the past 12 years. Even in 1996 Avast was a close 2nd choice. Too bad that one can't have 2 virus scannning software packages installed under the same operating system selection. One reason for multibooting into a 2nd opsys selection with another virus scanner.

I have further tested PassingBy's generic USB ejector. Except for a bug in its device selection menu, it works fine for SDHC card readers with US Best chips in them (e.g. single-slot card reader hama 55310 v3, multi-card reader hama 55350 SN 32822630800 [sN 02822630600 has a Genesys chip inside]). http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...st&p=813314 After using PassingBy's generic USB ejector for a longer time, I may include it in my Toolbox for SDHC cards I hope PassingBy will still actively participate here.

This program looks interesting. I have posted my comment at http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry813314

I have made some preliminary tests of the safely-remove-utility EjectUSB_0108b with SDHC card readers and have up to now a positive impression. I have tested EjectUSB_0108b together with 4 manufacturer-provided Win98SE drivers for SDHC card readers (for Genesys, Myson Century, Alcor and US Best chips). 2 of these drivers (Genesys and Myson Century) come with their own safely-eject-utilities, and 2 don't (Alcor and US Best). EjectUSB_0108b works fine (except for Bug 2, see below) under Win98SE as safely-remove-utility for SDHC card readers with US Best chips. EjectUSB_0108b works fine together with other safely-remove-icons in the system tray (i.e. with safely-remove-utilities of drivers of USB mass storage devices which install their own safely-remove-utility): EjectUSB_0108b only added a USB mass storage device to its menu list if that device didn't have its own safely-remove-utility. I have tested this with altogether 4 safely-remove-icons in the system tray: the Genesys icon (USB card reader, USB HDD and USB CD/DVD drive), the Systray.exe icon (used by a Myson Century card reader), the JMicron icon (used by a switchable eSATA-USB enclosure for external 750GB HDD with 4 partitions) and the icon of EjectUSB_0108b (used by a US Best single-card reader and a US Best multi-card reader at the same time). BUG 1: EjectUSB_0108b did not work for an SDHC card reader with an Alcor chip inside, EjectUSB_0108b just didn't add the Alcor card reader to its removal menu. Whether this is the fault of EjectUSB_0108b or of the Alcor driver, I don't know. BUG 2: When a multi-card reader (4 slots) with a US Best chip inside is connected, the removal menu of the icon in the system tray displays 4 selectable entries: Disconnect [i.e. without a drive letter] Disconnect Disconnect N: [=last slot/drive letter of multi-card reader] Disconnect while an SDHC card was inserted into L:, for example. No cards were inserted in the other slots K,M,N. Clicking on one of the 3 selections without a drive letter will produce the msg: "Usb storage device cannot be removed". Clicking on the selection "Disconnect N:" works ok, with the msg: "Usb storage device successfully removed". For multi-card readers there should be only a single menu selection, like "Disconnect K,L,M,N", as the Genesys safely-remove-utility has (but Genesys has a problem of multiple-drive-letters with multi-card readers). nusb 3.3 has a very inconvenient menu for multi-card readers: there are 4 entries, one for each slot, and you have to go thru the remove cycle 4 times before you can safely remove a multi-card reader. BUG 3: EjectUSB_0108b does not work properly when an SDHC card with multiple partitions is inserted in the card reader: The partitions of the SDHC appear, for example, as K: and L: in My Computer, but the removal menu of EjectUSB_0108b only displays one partition (Disconnect K:) [Disconnect K:,L: would have been correct]. Upon trying to safely-remove K: a msg appears: "Usb storage device cannot be removed" I hope PassingBy will continue to develop this program ; this is the only detached safely-remove-utility for Win98 I know of, for WinXP there are lots.

I would start with checking the USB HDD with Partition Table Doctor v3.5.

Before you get going make a good backup of your system (at least of \Windows\ and \Program Files\) and keep it for 3 months. This is a system update, not just a driver installation, without a backup it is difficult to go back where your system was before the installation of nusb.I am using a USB WLAN stick, and followed the instructions and uninstalled Orangeware. BTW could someone explain how exactly Orangeware can be uninstalled? I just renamed all files/directories of Orangeware and removed USB controllers from Device Manager, but are there still entries related to Orangeware left behind in the registry? Is there an uninstaller for Orangeware? After removing Orangeware I got scared, when the Internet and local network access were gone, so I quickly restored my system backup. nusb 3.3 worked fine on my machine WITHOUT uninstalling the Orangeware USB controller and hub driver. You should uninstall, however, all your USB mass storage device drivers (e.g. ext.HDD, ext.CD/DVD, other sticks/ card readers, camera, mp3 player) before installing nusb.

Hi Rick, Perhaps you had already a generic USB driver like nusb 3.3 installed. A previous installation of nusb 3.3, for example, adds the key [HKLM]\Enum\USBREADER to the registry. Also, the picture http://www.sakar.com/p-1966.aspx?categoryid=141 does not show that the reader is SDHC compatible (cards >=4GB). Another description at http://www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com/catalog/69/5394/ doesn't show SDHC compatibility either, although some devices not described as SDHC-compatible may contain firmware/newer chips which work with SDHC cards. The multi-card reader by MSI can also read SIM cards, is SDHC-compatible and uses up only 1 drive letter.

Thanks dencorso, I'll check it out, maybe it helps to increase eMule uptime also with my hardware.