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SAE140

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  1. Just popped in on the off-chance to see if there had been any more posts - and wow, I see we've moved on a bit ... Ok - some feedback in case anyone's interested in what this old duffer is up to: If it appears to anyone that the OP title is misleading - well actually it's not: for the purposes of a data sort-out, I wanted to achieve more IDE slots which would be guaranteed to run without problems under Win98SE, and as such this was both a hardware and software enquiry. As I commented in my OP, I was thinking of using a RAID card in non-RAID mode, but what I didn't say then was that it's been a concern of mine all along that some RAID cards may insist upon a RAID configuration being generated on install. Getting a 'head's-up' on Promise cards was extremely useful, for in the case of the FastTrak 100 series (RAID), the manual doesn't say that a non-RAID configuration isn't permitted, but then it doesn't say that it is, either - and I'd much rather stay with what I know for certain. In contrast, the Promise Ultra133-TX2 card is not only non-RAID, but it's user manual talks about installing the card under Win95/98, NT4 etc., as well as under XP - so we're looking here at hardware from the right (for me) period of history. And that is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. So much so, that I've already bought one and am awaiting delivery. So - many thanks to dencorso for that recommendation. Even if nothing else of interest was to come from this thread, then just identifying this card would have been enough - but having said that, it's always useful to be reminded about the need for a back-up plan. But is running 4 x extra drives energy wasteful ? Not at all - they only generate 6 watts each, and as I'll be wrestling with this mega-sort over the winter months, 24 extra watts from a computer will mean 24 less watts that my heating system will have to supply. But I'll certainly be running the box with it's case off, in order to be kind to it's innards. Thanks for all the info - appreciated.
  2. Thanks - that was exactly what I was looking for - a recommendation from someone who understands these things. Appreciated. Colin (who's living at the trailing edge of technology ...)
  3. Thanks for the reply - yes, 'cheap' I understand ! I've got a few spare 10/100 LAN adapters in the drawer, and I'm sure 100 will prove adequate ... There are two jobs to do - the biggest of them is to sort out the archives, which contain 15+ years of software, webpage, and document collecting (!) Doing this will entail file-comparison and disk-to-disk transfers within the 'NAS box' so LAN speed won't be an issue. Later on though, there will undoubtedly be the usual computer-to-computer data transfers, where speed would certainly be handy, but if it should become an issue, then I can always transfer a whole drive across using one of those cassette jobs - 'mobile racks' I think they're called ? So - regarding chipsets - if I'm staying with non-RAID, would your guess be that these chipsets are pretty similar ? If I manage to clear-out a couple of drives, I'll probably use RAID-1 to store the really important stuff, but for now I just need the extra slots to access as many drives as possible - for the 'mega sort-out'. Thanks for that Gigabit link btw - makes interesting reading. 'best, Colin
  4. This is both a Hardware and Software enquiry - so I thought I'd post here first, just in case anyone else has already been down this route ... I have half a dozen 250Gb hard drives containing archived material, and I'd prefer to install them somewhere safe and be able to access them all together, rather than keep plugging them in one-at-a-time. I have a spare Optiplex GX110 tower, and was thinking of turning it into a Network Storage box - my idea being to buy a cheap pata RAID card and use it in non-RAID mode to access 4 more IDE drives. 6 x IDE (plus a smaller boot drive) should be enough, and I would supplement the 12v supply if necessary. Ok - from a Dell Bios and Win98 point-of-view - is what I'm proposing straightforward ? (I'm aware of the 48-bit LBA stuff - no problems with the 250Gb drives) From a hardware point-of-view, is there anything to choose between the IT8212F, VT6410, or SIL0680A chipsets ? These seem to be the most commonly used in low-end RAID expansion cards ? I could 'suck it and see' of course, but thought it might be more sensible to enquire of those with expertise in this field. Regards Colin
  5. Tried to log-in today - after a long period of absence - and it was a right game. Took me half-a-dozen attempts and some ingenuity to find a workaround .... The problem was that there is a banner advert spread on top of the 'User Name' box, obscuring it. So - no User Name entry, no log-on. Stopping the page before the advert loaded was the only way I could find around the problem, then entering the User Name, then reloading, then entering the password. Bit of a production ... would be useful if this could be sorted. Using Firefox. Ta.
  6. Thanks for the suggestion, but 2.5.3 reports a page fault and 2.5.4 reports one of those "something-or-other is missing in Page Export whatever ..." messages - so no luck. But thanks. I've tried VLC streaming - but that doesn't work either. Weird.
  7. I'm trying to convert the .vob files from a DVD (Girl from Rio - Hugh Laurie & Vanessa Nunes) into .avi format. The DVD has 2 audio tracks - Portugese (default) and English. I've tried using Yasa Video Converter, which does a good job of conversion - except it deletes the English soundtrack in the process ! Before contacting them for advice - I was wondering if anyone here could recommend a Win9X compatible converter which either preserves the sound tracks, or (ideally) would allow the English audio track to be selected as default. Many thanks.
  8. A Google for "clean DVD lens" returns 1,380,000 results. I wonder if you could be wrong ?
  9. Just stumbled on this thread as I've just bought 2x DVD±RW (±R DL) DVD burners - should arrive any day now - and I'm looking ahead. Good to hear that they should work ok on Win98Lite/ Nero. One is a Toshiba SD-R5372 external (Freecom USB2), the other is an LG GSA-H10N with DVD-RAM capability - looking forward to trying that. Couple of points - one reason to use USB-burners is simply a case of limited space. My workaday machines are Dell GX110's (whisper quiet) in low profile cases - easy enough to piggy-back 2 x 250Gb HDD's on the floor of each case, but there's only room for 1 x CD drive. A second point is that no-one has yet mentioned the 2Gb filesize limit of Win98. Not normally a problem, but could well be if you ever wanted to burn DVD videos. (personally, I don't) Lastly - to those whose burners have started to play up after a couple of hundred burns, or after a year or two - it might be worth opening-up the drive and giving the laser lens a wipe-over with a cotton-bud soaked in alcohol. There's certainly nothing to lose.
  10. Thought this might be the best place to post this bug report .... I just installed Win98Lite onto a DELL GX110 without a sound card - so I installed a CT4830 card, using the SB Legacy driver package from the DELL site. All seemed well except when I came to try driving programs from a "Re-Start in MS-DOS mode" mode. Then, anything called from the command line would instantly cause a re-boot. After much hair-pulling, I eventually found that a Dosstart.bat had been created in C:/Windows which called a C:/SBPCI/APINIT (whatever that is) file. Deleting the Dosstart.bat file cured the problem. Hope this info is of use to somebody.
  11. But I didn't - so the rest of your post is redundant. But I didn't need to - for as I said "I've just installed ... without any problems whatsoever." As there were no problems, there was therefore no need to research the matter any further. Had any problems arisen, then I certainly would have looked into the matter further. To elaborate: I've been running 160Gb Hitachi DeskStar HDD's under Win98Lite for some time on Dell GX1's and 110's by creating 4 x 30Gb partitions and ignoring the remainder. I recently bought another 160Gb HDD on eBay but the vendor dropped it whilst packing, and sent me a 250Gb DeskStar instead. As I didn't fancy wasting 130Gb of it's space, I began investigating the possibility of a 48-bit LBA install by reading LLXX's 22-page thread. Coming to this issue for the first time, there is a LOT of information in that thread to absorb, but from a quick preliminary reading it appeared that a) I certainly needed a Bios which supported 48-bit LBA, b) I might need to purchase an additional PCI IDE card, c) there was a need for a replacement EDSI_506, and d) there might be ongoing issues with Scandisk and Defrag. My 250Gb HDD was to be installed in a GX110 tower, so I duly checked Dell's website for a bios upgrade and discovered that Bios revision A08 onwards supports 48-bit LBA. On the same page was a reference to the Intel Application Accelerator - installation of which appeared to be all that was required to successfully install this 250Gb HDD. I duly installed IAA and partitioned (30, 90 and 120Gb) the HDD with Partition Magic, and filled these partitions with 'Swiss Cheese' directories (containing large files with numerous smaller files for subsequent erasing) and then ran the existing ScanDisk and Defrag without a single hiccup being flagged. No need for an IDE card, no replacement EDSI driver, and (touch wood ...) no ScanDisk or Defrag probs. Bearing in mind the complexities being discussed within the LLXX thread and the caveat warning re: possible loss of data on the first page (a responsible caution, of course), my motivation for posting was that as this 250Gb install was in contrast so straightforward and uneventful, that it might possibly be of interest and benefit to those with similar hardware. No problems of any kind at the time of writing, but then - it's still early days. 'best
  12. I've just installed a 250Gb HDD on a 2001 motherboard running Win98(SE)Lite without any problems whatsoever, so thought I'd pass this info on ... I'd read LLXX's 22-page thread (impressive programming skills there !) and duly downloaded the replacement EDSI_506.pdr, but as things turned out I didn't need it. If you have a motherboard based on any of the following Intel® Chipsets: 810/E/E2/L 815/E/EP/G/EG/P 820/E 840 845/E/G/GE/GL/GV/PE 850/E 860 then the Intel® Application Accelerator enables the use of hard drives larger than 137GB (48-bit LBA), under Win98/98SE/Me, providing that the partition(s) are created using suitable 3rd-party partitioning software, such as Partition Magic. What I found even more surprising, was that Win98's Scandisk and Defrag (ex-WinMe) work without throwing up any errors (at least so far ...). More details of the install if anyone's interested. Hope someone finds this info of use. 'best.
  13. IBM's Thinkpad stuff is now located on the Lenovo site. For Thinkpad queries, checkout: http://forum.thinkpads.com
  14. I'm having difficulty installing WMP 7.1 or 9 on a Win98Lite system running Firefox 1.5 The install begins ok, then I get a message from the 'Windows Media Configuration Manager': "The Windows Media Update Notifier is currently unable to detect available updates. Please try again later". Then the install abruptly finishes. Same whether I'm on- or off-line. I checked the command-line switches, but there doesn't seem to be a 'no upgrade' option. I'm now wondering if WMP 7.1/ 9 requires IE to be installed ? Is there a workaround ? Ta. Colin (Same story if I try to install the WMP 6.4 codec pack to my existing WMP 6.4 ...)
  15. You're welcome. I've found a better site - with (UK) prices. http://pctradestore.com/code/ui/main/produ...&subcatid=0 3rd from the bottom: " 3.5" Internal IDE to IDE Mobile Hard drive Rack Caddy with 2 Fans and Key Lock". As you can see these can be sourced quite cheaply now, as USB-caddies have become more fashionable. My only negative criticism of these devices is that they are often fitted with cheap Chinese fans, and as the lubricant dries out they start to vibrate. I've tried re-lubing the fans but eventually settled for disconnecting them completely, and removing the HDD tray top instead to prevent heat build-up. Good luck.
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