[137GB limit - ESDI_506.PDR and other limits]

One thing is not very clear in your post - you wrote "I booted with a WinME startup disk" - have you booted really to Windows (GUI) or to command prompt only? In fact, command prompt (not DOS box inside the Windows) uses BIOS calls only and no problem appears.

The problem exhibits just and only if you use 32-bit disk access using ESDI_506.PDR driver.

Petr

Thanks for the quick response!

Well I think you just explained it. I never actually loaded windows, and was only running from the command prompt. So the problem only exists with the driver used by the windows GUI - not when running in its true DOS mode. Thanks for the clarification.

I also have an add-in card with a driver. However I'd rather not use this, as my BIOS already supports 48-bit addressing. It would be a shame to install it just to utilize its driver.

Has anyone developed a fix or work-around for this yet?

......gary

[137GB limit - ESDI_506.PDR and other limits]

OK, I've read this entire thread and have been doing some experiments. Perhaps someone can point out what I'm doing wrong or right.

I used the following hardware:

ASUS P5RD1-V (AMI BIOS, ULI M1573 chipset, supports 48-bit addressing)

Seagate ST3160023A (160GB, ATA, UDMA5, supports 48-bit addressing)

I partitioned and formatted the drive with Seagate's software, CHS = 19457x255x63, FAT32. The drive is configured as 2 partitions (C: & D:), each 80 GB. I did NOT install Seagate's "Dynamic Drive Overlay" (DDO).

I then temporarily installed a 2nd hard drive (40 GB WD) and booted with a WinME startup disk. I created 8 directories on each partition and copied approximately 10GB of data from the 2nd drive into all directories of the second partition (and only on the 1st directory of C:). I used the /v to verify the copy operation. After each copy, I ran scandisk and had no errors. While filling the last directory, #8, I ran out of space (as expected).

I did a FC /b of all files, comparing the 1st and 7th directories - no differences found. I then deleted all files in the 8th directory, and again did a FC on the 1st and 7th directories - no differences found.

So it appears that my data is fine. There does not seem to be any sort of "wrap-around" occurring. DIR is reporting the correct drive and directory sizes. After deleting all the files in the 8th directory, I regained the correct amount of space. Everything seems correct.

Is this because I was using WinME instead of Win98? (I did not have a Win98 startup disk handy) Is it because I'm running in DOS mode? Is it because I have partitioned the drive into two 80GB partitions? Are there some other tests I should run? I'd like to install Win98 on this machine/drive and use it, but I do have some concerns and value my data.

Comments appreciated!

......gary