USB IDE SATA Hard Disk Case

[Wolfgang16]

Hello,

on ebay there are lots of cheap USB HDD cases offered. See for example here

It is said that Win98 is supported, there is a driver CD. Some say that the chipset JM20337 is inside, others say that the speed is limited to 60MB/s due to the chipset. One should be able to put in any IDE or SATA HD no matter what disk size. (Yes, I have read the complete 48bit discussion and know about the 32bit limit)

I need a disk drive which fits on both my Win98SE desktop and the XP Laptop. It should have one partition as large as possible. Does anybody run a 1TB HDD in such a case? Do you think it can be true what the sellers say? Of course I'll first try a smaller HD.

bye

Wolfgang

[Multibooter]

It is said that Win98 is supported, there is a driver CD.

I am using about 6 or 7 Adaptec ACS-100 (3.5", PATA only, max.1000GB) enclosures, 2 Thermaltake USB-eSata switchable (3.5", SATA & PATA) and about 5-6 fantec DB-25U2 (2.5"), they all work Ok. I had also bought several other makes, which I returned because I couldn't get them to work properly with all my other hardware. The Adaptec & the fantec use the same driver Genesys USB Storage Driver Win98 v1.61, which is also used by my external USB DVD-burner enclosures Genesyslogic GL811E; this genesys (or Genensys?) driver seems to be pretty good. I also had bought 2 USB SDHC card readers (a hama 55310 & a Practica Mini Card Drive II), both compatible with Win98 according to the description on the box, but I only got the hama with a Genesys driver to work with Win98, the one by Praktica only works with Win XP.

The Thermaltake has an annoying blue light illuminating the Thermaltake brand name, the HDD inside does not sit firm, the cables inside are made of bad plastic which tends to come off (bare wires??) when it comes in contact with the sharp metal inside of the the enclosure - but it works under Win98 & Win XP, and the SATA ext.HDD is noticeably faster than the PATA in the Adaptec ACS-100.

When using many different USB devices simultaneously, reducing the number of USB driver makers (i.e. I try to stay with devices using Genensys drivers) may perhaps reduce the risk of incompatibilities.

Some say that the chipset JM20337 is inside, others say that the speed is limited to 60MB/s due to the chipset. One should be able to put in any IDE or SATA HD no matter what disk size. (Yes, I have read the complete 48bit discussion and know about the 32bit limit)

The Thermaltake I bought in February is a JM20338 SATA USB Combo. The JM20337 chip you mentioned may be an older model. The max.drive capacity of the enclosure may be indicated on the box.

It should have one partition as large as possible. Does anybody run a 1TB HDD in such a case?

If you use Win98/FAT32, you'll get lost clusters eventually. I use standalone Norton Disk Doctor, which has a partition size limit of about 239GB. The next limitation is set by your disk recovery software, e.g. when your partition table is corrupt. In any case, you need to partition your huge HDD for Win98. With NTSF/WinXP it's a different story. FAT32 partitions up to 239GB have worked fine for me so far under Win98.

Why do you need such a large partition? The only software package I know of, which requires a huge partition, is the German Digitale Bibliothek. I have currently 255 volumes installed, on an external HDD, & the DigiBib directory is about 126GB (The DigiBib software can only read volumes located in a single directory).

Edited September 10, 2008 by Multibooter

[Wolfgang16]

Hi Multibooter,

thanks for the long replay. I'm collecting maps, for this even a TB drive is too small. The collection grows. If its necessary to have 2 partitions, then I would buy a smaller drive first and a second drive later. I dont like 2 partitions on a data drive, since reorganizing the data involves lots of copying and needs free space.

I did the 48-bit upgrade and use the WinME utilities. Although I don't know whats their limit. I didnt think about how to partition and format the drive. fdisk has a 512MB limit, but the XP people have the same problem.

PATA is outdated. The dealer here has mostly SATA drives. SATA has some important advantages and I have the WD Green in mind which is unfortunately not available as PATA. The JM20337 is an USB to IDE or SATA bridge, this allows me to use new SATA and my old IDE drives in it. I went through the ebay offers and found not yet another chipset than the JM20337. The JM20338 is a SATA or USB to IDE bridge, which is simply another thing. Do you use a SATA HD on it? According to the specs this is not possible.

bye

Wolfgang

[Multibooter]

I didnt think about how to partition and format the drive. fdisk has a 512MB limit, but the XP people have the same problem.

I am using for partitioning (under Win98) Acronis Disk Director Suite v10.0.2160, then I run PartitionMagic v8.01 (PowerQuest build 1274) to check that the created partitions are Ok under Win98, and I finally run Partition Table Doctor v3.5 to make sure that I can lateron make/restore a backup of the partition table.

The JM20338 is a SATA or USB to IDE bridge, which is simply another thing. Do you use a SATA HD on it? According to the specs this is not possible.

I don't know about the specs, it's preliminary & of May, 2004.

I am using three THERMALTAKE 3.5" SATA to USB2.0 & eSATA HARD DRIVE ENCLOSURE - A2395, which I bought from the Frys store in California in Feb.2008. I initially bought 1 to test it, then I bought 2 more because the enclosure worked fine. It allows me to access a SATA HDD under Win98 (on an old Inspiron 7500 USB 1.1 laptop, via a Belkin USB 2.0 PCCard) - without having a SATA PCCard. It's a marvellous device to access SATA HDDs under Win98, even if your computer doesn't understand SATA. Furthermore it has an eSATA connector for connecting to an eSATA/SATA connector at my desktops.

Here a note from the frys website: "IDE [=PATA] hard drives will only work with the USB port. SATA hard drives will work with both USB and eSATA ports". The product description is at https://shop3.frys.com/product/5480749?site...CH:MAIN_RSLT_PG There is a switch at the back of the enclosure for switching between USB & SATA port connections.

Inside the enclosure I couldn't see the markings on the chips, they were all covered up with metal shielding, on the board inside was printed: "Thermaltake USA, designed in California, 3.5"USB&SATA-TO-SATA&IDE REV.1". The Win98 Add New hardware wizard displayed during installation "Windows driver file search for the device JM20338 SATA USB Combo"

I am using in these enclosures 750GB Seagate Barracuda SATA & PATA HDDs.

Edited September 14, 2008 by Multibooter