Windows 98SE LBA-48 Scandisk Replacement?

[Roostron]

Hello everyone!

Great forum you have here! This is my first post, which I'm reluctantly making after several hours of searching and browsing.

I'm aware that the LBA-48 barrier of 137GB in Windows 98SE has now been broken with a new user-supported driver that replaces the ESDI506 files. I'm very happy to hear this, after partitioning my large drives in 125GB chunks for many years now!

However... this fix is nearly USELESS to me if I can't do a Scandisk - I have many drives with THOUSANDS of files, and occasional data corruption is just a matter of course... I have to have a way to fix disk data problems when they occur.

Has any progress been made toward creation of a Scandisk version that actually works above 137GB? I'm aware of Tihiy's 32-bit scandisk, but it also seems to have the 137GB limit (as well as being KERNEL32 dependent) so I don't see that as a solution to the problem.

Any feedback? I'm very grateful for any help that can be offered!

Roostron

[dencorso]

NDD v. 10E (from Norton Utilities 2002) will do it OK, in DOS mode;

Win ME Scandisk also works OK in DOS mode. It is findable on MDGx's site. Please try it and the other programs in this package and tell us about your experience afterwards: http://www.mdgx.com/files/BHDD30.ZIP.

NDD32 from Norton System Works 2005 and the ones from NSW 2004 and 2003 work in Win 98SE, but there is controversy about the maximum disk size they actually are able to work with. It seems that 1 TB is too much for them, but they can go up to about 500 GB without problems. HTH.

Edit (in view of the next post):

@RetroOS: Sure! I have now corrected the above text... Thanks a lot!

I guess I should read more carefully what I write...

Edited May 23, 2008 by dencorso

[RetroOS]

...It seems that 1 GB is too much for them, but they can go up to about 500 MB without problems...

Err, you mean 1TB and 500GB, right?

[Marius '95]

Scandisk in DOS mode works fine.

[Roostron]

Hi!

Scandisk in DOS mode works fine.

Thank you - that's GREAT news!

Does anyone know if DOS mode Scandisk will also work in a MS-DOS window from Windows for USB based large hard disks?

Thanks!

[dencorso]

Does anyone know if DOS mode Scandisk will also work in a MS-DOS window from Windows for USB based large hard disks?

Yes, many of us do know, and the answer is *no*: not in a MS-DOS Box (or window, if you like).

Pure, plain, DOS mode only! From Windows, you'll have to "Restart in DOS Mode" to use it. Or run it before starting Windows.

[SlugFiller]

What you need isn't scandisk, but rather dskmaint.dll. The former is simply a front-end for the latter. Updating the latter with the ME version would do the trick.

[marxo]

What you need isn't scandisk, but rather dskmaint.dll. The former is simply a front-end for the latter. Updating the latter with the ME version would do the trick.

Are you sure about this? That the ME would do?

[SlugFiller]

AFAIK the one I'm currently using is 4.90.3000 from ME, and I can testify scandisk works fine on my 250GB partition ever since it was installed.

Unforunately, the need to replace dskmaint.dll is not well documented, so you can imagine my glee and surprise when scandisk suddenly started working on my large drive.

[marxo]

Can you post it here?

[dencorso]

It is findable on MDGx's site. Please try it and the other programs in this package and tell us about your experience afterwards: http://www.mdgx.com/files/BHDD30.ZIP.

The above package I had already indicated before has ME Scandisk for DOS, ME Scandisk for Win and ME dskmaint.dll.

It was created by Maximus-Decim some time ago, but is much less generally known than his other releases... Yet, it rocks, as M-D's releases use to do. HTH.

Edited June 19, 2008 by dencorso

[ricardrosen]

So is the Win98se Scandisk.exe file for DOS safe to run in 'real-mode dos' on data above >137G. I can't use WinME one.

Edited June 1, 2008 by ricardrosen

[dencorso]

So is the Win98se Scandisk.exe file for DOS safe to run in 'real-mode dos' on data above >137G. I can't use WinME one.

Sure you can. Do download BHDD30.ZIP and you'll have all the necessary files. Win ME Scandisk together with Win ME dskmaint.dll will work OK with disks grater than 137 GB, provided the are not bigger than about 500 GB. So, only in case you do have a disk bigger than 500 GB you cannot use it.

Edited June 19, 2008 by dencorso

[Multibooter]

CORRECTION - 6/19/08 - IT DOES WORK - see my posting below

Do download BHDD30.ZIP and you'll have all the necessary files. Win ME Scandisk together with Win ME diskmaint.dll will work OK with disks grater than 137 GB, provided the are not bigger than about 500 GB. So, only in case you do have a disk bigger than 500 GB you cannot use it.

It does NOT work for me. I extracted dskmaint.dll and scandskw.exe, both v4.90.3000, and copied them to \Windows\, replacing scandskw.exe v4.70.1998 (there was no dskmaint.dll before in \Windows\).

This new ScanDisk did work on a 123GB FAT32 partition of a 750GB ext.USB HDD. But on the 3 other partitions of 192GB each, the new ScanDisk produced the err msg "ScanDisk could not continue because your computer does not have enough available memory."

The same err msg with a 232GB FAT32 partition of a 300GB ext.USB HDD. I am using the Genensys USB Storage Driver v1.61

Any suggestions? Maybe a 3rd file is required? I am using regular Win98SE, no additional updates.

Edited June 19, 2008 by Multibooter

[dencorso]

Well, you really need to add at least one update: LLXX's modded ESDI_506.PDR v. 4.10.0.2225 to your system for correct 48-Bit LBA addressing or your data will end up trashed in your disk if it is PATA. Even if you don't have a big PATA disk, it is good to change your original ESDI_506.PDR by this one because you might add a big disk later on and you'll already be on the safe side having it installed now. As for SATA, be sure you're using VIASRAID.MPD v. 2.0.950.220, available from the link I pointed in this post.

But your problem seems not to be related to the above for you also had the same error with a USB drive. So it seems to me that Windows ME Scandisk may be hopless for you, after all. The reason may be that as it is a NE executable, a 16-bit windows program, and so its buffer for the fat-32 entries is limited to 64 kiB, no matter how much RAM is available on your system... For me it seems clear that your partitions cause it to overflow. You just demonstrated that my info about 500 GB is wrong. Sorry about that!

Now, you might try Symantec's NDD (Norton Disk Doctor) from SystemWorks 2003 or, preferably 2005. NDD may work as it's a PE, a true 32-bit executable, thus able, in principle, to work with a FAT-32 of any size. But, as you know, that's not a free program, although it can be found quite cheap on eBay.

Then again, there is DiskMinder, over in MDGx's site, that also might be worth a try.

Good luck!

Edited June 18, 2008 by dencorso