Dave-H

Hi Rudolph! Sorry, I only just saw your post, I didn't get an e-mail notification about it for some reason. Actually the writing in bursts, with the computer unresponsive in between the bursts, happened when I was writing to the fixed IDE drive, not when using the SATA-USB interface. I didn't try writing any really large files using the interface, because the other problem, with the files apparently not "sticking" on the drive, was more of a concern at the time. Now I know that the Paragon driver does actually work to read and write, I intend over the weekend to do some tests to see if the intermittent writing of very large files happens with the interface as well, and also whether I can fix the other problem, whatever it is, by tweaking caching settings.

Off topic for this forum of course, but I should mention that I'm still using a copy of Trend PC-cillin 2002 on Windows 98SE, and you can still manually download and install current pattern files for it, as I do every Monday!

Well I've done the same test as before using the 50 GB IDE drive in a caddy, and I'm pleased to report that all seems to be working as it should. I tried with small text files first as before and everything was OK, and then tried writing one of the files that had been on the drive when it was FAT32 back to it again in Windows 98. It was a quite large 1.11 GB avi file, and it did eventually write OK, but the system kept freezing while it was writing. The whole screen would freeze (except for the mouse cursor) and the keyboard would become unresponsive. I thought this was permanent the first time it happened, especially when the mouse cursor went on to freeze as well, but to my surprise it then recovered and wrote a bit more of the file, then freezing again, unfreezing and writing a bit more, over and over again. When the write process eventfully completed however, it did seem to have done it properly, and I could read the file in 98 and XP. Glad this proves that the Paragon driver really does work! It looks as if the initial problem was down to the SATA-USB interface, possibly combined with the very large size of the SATA NTFS drive. It does sound reasonable that it could be related to write caching, I will have to investigate that further. Such a shame that I have to use the USB interface at all, I did try with Rudolph Loew's help to see if I could get a driver that worked with my Silicon Image PCI-X SATA card under Windows 98, but eventually drew a complete blank. Rudolph has a generic driver solution, but it didn't work with my card unfortunately. If he can't make it work, I suspect that nobody can!

Thanks guys! I think what I need to do is try this, as already suggested, with a "normal" fixed drive, that doesn't have to rely on a SATA-USB interface. That will at least eliminate the USB connection as the source of the problem and prove whether the driver actually does work properly or not. Also whether the sheer size of the 1TB SATA drive has any bearing on the problem. I have a plug-in cradle on my system for which I have several caddies with various sizes of IDE drive in them. One of them is a 50 GB drive, which has a few files on it that I can quite easily transfer to another drive temporarily. I'll then re-format that IDE drive as NTFS and see if the same problem happens with that. It will take a while, but I'll let you know the outcome!

Interesting schwups, thanks very much. Especially interesting about files getting lost with the Paragon program! I've done some tests now, with very interesting results. I used simple text files, with just the name of the file in the actual file, e.g. "test1.txt" simply contained the data "test1". All the tests were done using the USB interface. Wrote the file "test1.txt" to the drive using XP, all fine as expected. Booted to 98, wrote the file "test2.txt" to the drive. All OK, could read both test1.txt and test2.txt fine in 98. Removed the drive in 98. Re-plugged the drive in 98. The test2.txt file had now disappeared. The test1.txt file was still OK. Renamed test1.txt to test2.txt. Removed and replaced the drive again. The new test2.txt was still there, but was now 0 bytes and not recognised if I tried to open it. Wrote a new file called test3.txt to the drive. Re-booted to XP. The original test1.txt was now back and readable, there was no sign of test2.txt or test3.txt! So, what do we make of that!

Thanks guys, gotta go away for a couple of hours now. I'll start the testing when I get back! @Nomen Thanks for that. The Paragon one is the version I've got, which says it's version 1.7.

I will try that when I get a chance. Firstly I need to go back into 98 (in XP at the moment) and confirm again that there really is a problem. I might have been doing something silly when I apparently had the issue (wouldn't be the first time!) I'll try first just disabling the recycle bin on the drive as recommended, although i doubt that's the problem. Er, how do you actually do that BTW, I thought the recycle bin was created by the OS whether you liked it or not! If the problem really is still there, I will try uninstalling and cleaning the system, and try with just the VXD installed without the partition manager bit. I should at this point specify what the hardware configuration is, just in case it's relevant. (I hope jaclaz doesn't shout at me now for not having mentioned something before which would have revealed what the problem is!) The drive is a 1TB drive in an external enclosure with a switchable eSATA or USB interface. I can use either interface in XP, but despite Rudolph Loew's best efforts, I can find no 98 driver support for the SATA card, so I have to use the USB interface in 98.

Den's version of PNTFS.VXD is the same as I've got installed, from the installation file I downloaded from Paragon, so it looks as if it should indeed be read and write capable. I will need to investigate further why I seemed to be having trouble getting files to "stick" on the drive. The serial numbers that are associated with some of these downloads (there's a text file included in the version here which includes a product key and serial number) are very confusing, as the program that's available now does not seem to need one, which would make sense as it's now a free program! I guess they are just a hangover from when it wasn't free, but it certainly confused the hell out of me!

LOL! I had actually already given up on it, purely because it didn't work! I'm just curious as I always am as to what exactly it is. I know, "curiosity killed the cat"! I suspect you're right, it is malware masquerading as a legitimate piece of software. Had the installer worked, it may have apparently installed what it said it would, but probably another load of crap as well. Bit of a clanger by the malware perpetrators not to make the installer work on Windows 98 though, a bit of a give-away really!

Yes, it's all a bit strange! One very important thing I completely forgot to mention about that torrent file is that it won't install on Windows 98! It complains of missing winhttp.dll, and if that file is provided, it complains of missing functions in kernel32.dll. It does try to install on Windows XP, and looks good until it crashes with the CRC error. It does say it's Paragon NTFS for Win 98 on the installer screen, but is it really?! If it's what it claims to be, surely it should install on Windows 98!

Did you download the file from the torrent? I'd be interested to know whether your experience with it is the same as mine, and whether you think it's the genuine article!

Simply supposition, because the torrent I found here that appears to be the program is a 12 MB file. The installer looks to be correct when you run it, although it doesn't say what version it is. Unfortunately it fails when unpacking the files with a CRC error. Of course it could be some nasty masquerading as the Paragon program, but it doesn't get far enough to find out! I've tried extracting the files from it, but haven't got anywhere with that either.

Thanks schwups, but I'm afraid that's the version I've already got! There should be a full version somewhere, which will be a much larger file.

I realise this is an old thread, but just hoping for some advice. I wanted to get access to an external NTFS drive under Windows 98, and found the Paragon software that supports this. It is free now, but when I downloaded it from Paragon and installed it, it seems to work fine but it appears to be read only. I can write files to the NTFS drive under Windows 98 OK with it and seem to be able to use them OK, but on reboot, they have disappeared! Is this a limitation of the Paragon program? I gather that there was originally a free read only version, and a paid for full version. Paragon tell me that the full version is no longer available, and they no longer support Windows 98 in any way shape or form! They also don't support their free software anyway, so that was the end of that! When I downloaded the "free" version, I was sent an e-mail with a registration code, which the software didn't ask for, which makes me think that there must be a fuller version still out there somewhere. Try as I might I cannot find it though, all there is is the version I've got, an about 2 GB file. I did find a torrent that was 12 GB, which claimed to be the full version, but it wouldn't install, with an "Installer CRC Error". Presumably it's corrupted. Anyone any idea where I can still get the full version, as I assume the registration code they gave me will unlock it. Thanks, Dave.

Thanks Rudolph. What should I do now? You should have my e-mail address from when we've done business before, will you e-mail me the test program or give me a link to download it? Cheers, Dave.

Thanks! I've looked at your catalogue, and I assume what I need is the item simply called "SATA", which is in the "Prerelease and Beta Software" section. It says to contact you about it, so what do I do next? It also says "This file is not for use with separate SATA Motherboard Controllers or SATA Cards. Does not support RAID or AHCI." Is that OK, as I'm proposing using it with an add-on card? It is a four port RAID card, two SATA and two eSATA, although I'm only intending to use it for single drives. Thanks, Dave.

Thanks Rudolph! That's good to know, and I'll happily buy the patch of course. The card I have is actually a PCI-X card. Does that make any difference?

Just got a card to use SATA drives on my system. It's a Silicon Image 3124 card. Works fine in XP of course, but the driver doesn't actually work in 98SE. It appears to install OK, and appears normally in Device Manager, but no driver files are loaded and needless to say it doesn't work! I've combed the web but can find no evidence that a Windows 98 driver was ever issued for the card. Does anyone know of any generic SATA interface card driver that might work with it? Thanks, Dave.

I have a pen drive I can boot from into Windows 98SE, but as with rloew earlier, I can't use any other USB devices in that configuration. I have to use a PS/2 keyboard and mouse for instance.

That's interesting to know. In fact by chance I had already re-ordered the options to make them more logically arranged in the list offered. "Windows 98SE SP" is in fact number 3 in my list, and "NOHEAP" is number 11.

Sorry I'm not sure what you mean by "comp. mode". If you mean the download completion message that pops up bottom right, as I said it doesn't work at all for me in the "Windows 98SE SP" KernelEx mode. Also a lot of menu entries are missing for me. Some of them are just missing their text, but in some places the menu structure seems to be corrupted too. All this comes good if I revert to Windows 2000 KernelEx mode. I'm sorry but I really don't think Opera is usable like that, especially if you're a power user as I am.

I've done some more tests, and I'm afraid the notification at the bottom right of frame for when downloads end is definitely not working for me with that configuration. I assume this applies to all these notifications, e.g. for blocked pop-ups. If I set the KernelEx mode back to Windows 2000 it starts working again. I certainly can't use Opera without access to the settings menus!

Great, and it does what it says on the tin schwups, but I'm afraid I immediately saw problems with Opera 12.02 using this setup. The first thing I noticed was that the pop-up at the bottom right of frame when downloads completed was not appearing. I then looked more closely, and found that large chunks of the Opera tools menu were missing, including all the settings options! Setting the opera.exe KernelEx compatibility mode back to Windows 2000 put all this right again.

Opera 12.02 works fine on Windows 98SE (and I assume Windows ME) using KernelEx. There are a few anomalies, for instance you can't drag bookmarks around on the personal bar to re-order them as you should be able to do, but they are mainly cosmetic.

Welcome to the forum! Firstly, you haven't "fried" your video card. If it works OK under Windows 2000 the hardware must still be OK. You may well have corrupted the Windows 98 drivers though. Have you tried removing it in Device Manager and just rebooting and letting it reinstall itself? If that doesn't work, and assuming you have the driver disk for the card, or can download it, try removing it and cleaning the driver completely off the machine in Safe Mode. Remove the driver in the Add/Remove Programs list if it's there. If it's an ATI card or a nVidia card, you can use Driver Cleaner Pro to completely clean the system of all references to the driver. Then do a fresh install from the disks. Don't ignore warning messages in future, they're there for a reason! Hope this helps.