I just created a RAID 0 logical drive using HPT372 and 2 WD5000AAJB. I have 1TB of free space and no way to format it!

I just created a FAT32 partition with Ranish Partition Manager, saved it and rebooted. I was planning to format it form Windows, (Rightclick-Format...) but there is a problem. Windows tries to format it as a 98GB partition. FORMAT.COM - same problem.

I could format it with Ranish Partition Manager, but it creates 16KB clusters. 16KB clusters on a 1TB partition means a VERY big FAT.

I really don't want to abandon Win98. It have been my primary OS for 6 years.

Edited January 22, 200818 yr by Marius '95

Try formatting it using fixed tools:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Corrected-FDISK-FORMAT-t85573.html

or other tools, from FreeDOS or other partition managers.

FreeDOS format:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/...ormat-0.91v.zip

Edited January 22, 200818 yr by Tihiy

Fixed FORMAT.COM

FreeDOS FORMAT.EXE

Another question: how do I check for errors? I don't expect scandisk or norton to work...

Edited January 22, 200818 yr by Marius '95

Another question: how do I check for errors? I don't expect scandisk or norton to work...

Norton Disk Doctor (from Norton Utilities 2002 rev 10E) should work, as well as ndd32, from within Win98SE.

To format it I'd use GDISK or GDISK32 from Symantec Ghost. When RPM can't do the job, it's my preferred

alternative. But there's plenty of free altenatives to it, that I never tried...

Try fat32format, available here: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

AFAIK, it works on win98. It should fully support your 1TB drive, with no problems.

Too late. I already did it with Acronis tools from XP. I am now using the disc space, so I can't format it again to test other format utilities.

I tried to check for errors. Results:

Scandisk from DOS - works!

NDD (NU 2001) from DOS - works, but it is very slow.

Scandisk from Windows - doesn't work - out of memory.

NDD (NU 2001) from Windows - doesn't work - BSOD, crash, reset needed. Same problem with Speed Disk.

ScandiskW from ME (and Defrag from ME) could also be able to handle this.

More fdisk + formatting tools here [mostly free(ware)]:

http://www.mdgx.com/secrets.htm#FDPT

And if you use Scandskw + Defrag in Win9x, make sure you use the ones from WinME:

http://www.mdgx.com/add.htm#TLS

http://www.mdgx.com/98-5.htm#WDIW

HTH

I just tried scandisk v4.90 from ME. It doesn't work. It's the same error - not enough memory.

So far I could not find a tool that can scan for errors a 1TB FAT32 partition from Windows. ...or defragment it.

Only Scandisk from DOS works.

I also tried DiskMinder for Windows. It freezes after lost cluster scan.

I just tried scandisk v4.90 from ME. It doesn't work. It's the same error - not enough memory.

So far I could not find a tool that can scan for errors a 1TB FAT32 partition from Windows. ...or defragment it.

Only Scandisk from DOS works.

I also tried DiskMinder for Windows. It freezes after lost cluster scan.

I also had problems running scandisk (not enough memory) but on a smaller partition - 80GB, created with ranish, big FAT, too.

The ME scandisk from MGDx seems to be either incomplete or there are wrong files because it doesn't work any faster and even though I installed english files (from MGDx's scanfrag.exe package) scandskw was still in polish .

No offence MGDx.

Anyway - you might give Diskeeper Lite 7.0 Build 418 a try.

Also you might try to play with options in DiskMinder because it worked for me very well.

Anyway - you might give Diskeeper Lite 7.0 Build 418 a try.

Also you might try to play with options in DiskMinder because it worked for me very well.

DK Lite results: a dir was corrupted.

Edited February 4, 200818 yr by Marius '95

I just tried scandisk v4.90 from ME. It doesn't work. It's the same error - not enough memory.

So far I could not find a tool that can scan for errors a 1TB FAT32 partition from Windows. ...or defragment it.

Only Scandisk from DOS works.

I also tried DiskMinder for Windows. It freezes after lost cluster scan.

Hi Marius '95!

It seems that Xeno86 is right, and dskmaint.dll from ME is also needed for things to work right using Scandskw and/or Defrag from WinME...

Please try this package and tell us how it fares on your RAID: http://www.mdgx.com/files/BHDD30.ZIP.

And also please do give us an update on how are you managing your RAID, which I believe is the biggest FAT32 disk ever used with Win 9x/ME.

Best wishes.

Edited April 22, 200818 yr by dencorso

Short answer: It doesn't work.

Long answer:

I replaced scandskw.exe and dskmaint.dll. I didn't run the installer because right now I don't have time to test if the installer works properly. This Win98 is the OS I use every day and I don't want to risk anything.

I tried to start scandskw.exe and I got an error saying that my disk is not properly formatted. This is because my C: is compressed with DriveSpace.

I tried "scandskw e:" (my RAID partition) and it didn't work either. Same error as old Scandisk: not enough memory.

Scandisk (my old version, and this new one) does work on a partition 100 GB in size formatted with 32K clusters. I advise everyone not to format large FAT partitions with <32K cluster sizes and not to use Ranish to format partitions - it usually uses 8K clusters . RPM is a great tool for partitioning, but not for formatting.

About my 1TB partition and Win98:

- Format - impossible in DOS/Win98

- Check with Scandisk/NDD in real DOS, impossible in Win98. Note: NDD is very slow. Scandisk takes about 4 min if there are no errors.

- Defragment - impossible in DOS/Win98

Edited April 25, 200818 yr by Marius '95

Diskeeper can defragment that.

Short answer: It doesn't work.

[...]

About my 1TB partition and Win98:

- Format - impossible in DOS/Win98

- Check with Scandisk/NDD in real DOS, impossible in Win98. Note: NDD is very slow. Scandisk takes about 4 min if there are no errors.

- Defragment - impossible in DOS/Win98

Did you try NDD (2002) or just NDD (2001)? The 2002 version is better and faster.