External Hard Drive

[frogman]

I have downloaded a maximus universal mass storage driver that let's my 98 S.E system recognise USB2 sticks.

My question is if I were to purchase an external hard drive say 250GB, would this work and be recognised or be lost in my system.

My motherboard is ASUS A7V, with 256 RAM

My internal desktop hard drive is 80GB.

Edited January 6, 2009 by frogman

[Multibooter]

if I were to purchase an external hard drive say 250GB, would this work

It should work with nusb 3.3 by Maximus Decim. To be on the safe side get one which also has a manufacturer-provided Win98 driver.

I always bought external drive enclosures and then put a HDD into the enclosure myself. My largest external drives are currently 3 Thermaltake enclosures http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx...182&ID=1651 with each 1TB SATA HDDs in it. I partitioned them into 3x240GB logical FAT32 partitions and the remainder a logical NTSF partition for files >2GB. They work fine under Win98SE.

The Thermaltake enclosures (cost here at Frys: $35) are outstanding because you can put both SATA and PATA (IDE) HDDs in them, and you can access the SATA HDD via USB (nusb or manufacturer-provided driver) under Win98. They don't make large-capacity PATA HDDs anymore (max. currently 500GB, the old 750GB PATA HDDs seem to have become rare collectibles, more expensive than 1.5TB SATA), so enclosures which only take PATA HDDs are of limited value. The Thermaltake enclosure can (according to the specs) handle HDDs up to 2TB in size. I unfortunately missed a sale here for the 1.5TB Seagate HDDs at $130+tax, so I cannot report on whether the 1.5TB HDD works Ok under Win98, but the 1TB HDD definitely does.

Maybe you should consider buying/building 2 units, as father-grandfather units for backups, recovering data from a huge HDD is not really feasible because of its size. A buggy Win98 driver made by Microsoft recently damaged a nearly-full 240GB partition on one of my 1TB HDDs (causing 2 different file allocation tables) and the disk recovery software projected 72 hours for just analysing the partition, before recovery, so I just gave up.

When I buy hardware, I also look for Linux-compatibility since I am in the process of making Linux my main workhorse, from Win98.

[frogman]

if I were to purchase an external hard drive say 250GB, would this work

It should work with nusb 3.3 by Maximus Decim. To be on the safe side get one which also has a manufacturer-provided Win98 driver.

I always bought external drive enclosures and then put a HDD into the enclosure myself. My largest external drives are currently 3 Thermaltake enclosures http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx...182&ID=1651 with each 1TB SATA HDDs in it. I partitioned them into 3x240GB logical FAT32 partitions and the remainder a logical NTSF partition for files >2GB. They work fine under Win98SE.

The Thermaltake enclosures (cost here at Frys: $35) are outstanding because you can put both SATA and PATA (IDE) HDDs in them, and you can access the SATA HDD via USB (nusb or manufacturer-provided driver) under Win98. They don't make large-capacity PATA HDDs anymore (max. currently 500GB, the old 750GB PATA HDDs seem to have become rare collectibles, more expensive than 1.5TB SATA), so enclosures which only take PATA HDDs are of limited value. The Thermaltake enclosure can (according to the specs) handle HDDs up to 2TB in size. I unfortunately missed a sale here for the 1.5TB Seagate HDDs at $130+tax, so I cannot report on whether the 1.5TB HDD works Ok under Win98, but the 1TB HDD definitely does.

Maybe you should consider buying/building 2 units, as father-grandfather units for backups, recovering data from a huge HDD is not really feasible because of its size. A buggy Win98 driver made by Microsoft recently damaged a nearly-full 240GB partition on one of my 1TB HDDs (causing 2 different file allocation tables) and the disk recovery software projected 72 hours for just analysing the partition, before recovery, so I just gave up.

When I buy hardware, I also look for Linux-compatibility since I am in the process of making Linux my main workhorse, from Win98.

I would be looking at a 250 GB External Hard Drive, but folks on another forum have said that I would need to partition it, as the maximum size of drive for windows 98 is 127GB, would I really need to partition the 250 GB drive?

My current internal drive is 80GB

[Multibooter]

I would be looking at a 250 GB External Hard Drive, but folks on another forum have said that I would need to partition it, as the maximum size of drive for windows 98 is 127GB, would I really need to partition the 250 GB drive? My current internal drive is 80GB

Internal PATA/SATA drives have this 127GB limitation of disk/partition size, but NOT external USB drives. I don't know about the size limitations of other external connections (Firewire, eSata) under Win98.

I have in one of my external Adaptec ACS-100 3.5" USB enclosures a 250GB PATA HDD, which has actually only 232.9GB and runs fine connected to a 10-year-old laptop with an old BIOS which does not support 48-bit LBA (the internal 120GB HDD is reported by the BIOS as 65535MB, but everything works fine) With an actual disk size <240GB (a size limitation of Norton Disk Doctor under Win98) there is NO compelling need to partition the drive.

One of the main purposes of partitioning is to limit the damage in case of disk corruption: disk corruption due to a buggy program/driver has happened to me many times under Win98, but the damage was always limited to a single partition. The last disk corruption that happened to me under Win98/FAT32 was just a few days ago when I had 2 external 1TB HDDs connected to the USB 2.0 Cardbus card in the PCMCIA slot of my old laptop, and I was copying/moving large files from one external drive to the other. Using Windows Explorer I got a msg on a blue screen: "Disk Write Error. Unable to write or to disk in drive O:. Data or files may be lost." After power off and on again and fixing the HDD with NDD, I repeated the file move with Beyond Compare, with the same Disk Write Error, plus 2 different file allocation tables. I eventually deleted the whole partition. The most likely cause was a buggy Win98 driver for the Texas Instruments Cardbus controller, written by Microsoft.

BTW, I never had a physically damaged disk and this is probably an extremely rare event for home users, unless the disk drops from a table onto a stone floor or you play soccer with it, so the benefit of a RAID for home users is mainly imaginary.

Edited January 7, 2009 by Multibooter

[frogman]

I would be looking at a 250 GB External Hard Drive, but folks on another forum have said that I would need to partition it, as the maximum size of drive for windows 98 is 127GB, would I really need to partition the 250 GB drive? My current internal drive is 80GB

Internal PATA/SATA drives have this 127GB limitation of disk/partition size, but NOT external USB drives. I don't know about the size limitations of other external connections (Firewire, eSata) under Win98.

I have in one of my external Adaptec ACS-100 3.5" USB enclosures a 250GB PATA HDD, which has actually only 232.9GB and runs fine connected to a 10-year-old laptop with an old BIOS which does not support 48-bit LBA (the internal 120GB HDD is reported by the BIOS as 65535MB, but everything works fine) With an actual disk size <240GB (a size limitation of Norton Disk Doctor under Win98) there is NO compelling need to partition the drive.

One of the main purposes of partitioning is to limit the damage in case of disk corruption: disk corruption due to a buggy program/driver has happened to me many times under Win98, but the damage was always limited to a single partition. The last disk corruption that happened to me under Win98/FAT32 was just a few days ago when I had 2 external 1TB HDDs connected to the USB 2.0 Cardbus card in the PCMCIA slot of my old laptop, and I was copying/moving large files from one external drive to the other. Using Windows Explorer I got a msg on a blue screen: "Disk Write Error. Unable to write or to disk in drive O:. Data or files may be lost." After power off and on again and fixing the HDD with NDD, I repeated the file move with Beyond Compare, with the same Disk Write Error, plus 2 different file allocation tables. I eventually deleted the whole partition. The most likely cause was a buggy Win98 driver for the Texas Instruments Cardbus controller, written by Microsoft.

BTW, I never had a physically damaged disk and this is probably an extremely rare event for home users, unless the disk drops from a table onto a stone floor or you play soccer with it, so the benefit of a RAID for home users is mainly imaginary.

Thanks for all of that info.

So you think all I would be required to do is purchase an External Hard Drive say 250GB or 500GB, then add it to my USB hub, it should then be recognised by the nusb 3.3 by Maximus Decim, then I should be able to add files to it, I suppose they will transfer slow as my computer doesn't have a USB2 slot.

Btw, did you install the nusb 3.3 by Maximus Decim too? if so, what are the dates on the driver in device manager? the reason I ask is that I have this bug that when I close a full screen picture I then have an empty minimised rectangle box on the taskbar at the bottem of the screen, and I have been told this is a user/32 bug, it has been like this since I installed the nusb 3.3 by Maximus Decim, so I can only imagine it was this that causes this to occur, so I tried the version nusb 2.4 Maximus Decim, and th problem was still there, unfortunately there is no un-install for the 2.4, so I installed the newer one again3.3, but I want to know if it installed over the 2.4 version, I think it did as I saw a window when the files were being written, I see the 3.3 version is included in the add/remove programs whereby the 2.4 wasn't.

No big problem though with this bug as all I do to get rid of the rectangle box is to left click it, the funny thing is there is the odd time I can close a full screen picture without the minimised empty box showing in the taskbar, oh how strange computers can be, but I still love my Windows 98 S.E

Edited January 7, 2009 by frogman

[Mijzelf]

I suppose they will transfer slow as my computer doesn't have a USB2 slot.

You realize that it will last 500000 seconds ~ 1 week to fill a 500GB disk with USB 1 transfer speed?

BTW, while you can create and use 500GB partitions, W98 scandisk and defrag should not be used on partitions bigger than about 126GB (the FAT size may mot exeed 16MiB minus 64 KiB). I have read somewhere the WinME tools doesn't have this problems. This is a bit imaginary in this case, since you don't want to scandisk a 500GB partition via USB1. It will take days to finish.

[frogman]

I suppose they will transfer slow as my computer doesn't have a USB2 slot.

You realize that it will last 500000 seconds ~ 1 week to fill a 500GB disk with USB 1 transfer speed?

BTW, while you can create and use 500GB partitions, W98 scandisk and defrag should not be used on partitions bigger than about 126GB (the FAT size may mot exeed 16MiB minus 64 KiB). I have read somewhere the WinME tools doesn't have this problems. This is a bit imaginary in this case, since you don't want to scandisk a 500GB partition via USB1. It will take days to finish.

I understand what you say, however I don't have 500GB of data anyway, it's around 194GB

I have 23 dual layer DVD's of around 7.84 GB on them, plus 14GB of data on my computer, so every time I have some files I would transfer them on a daily basis to stop long time delay's while transferring.

[Multibooter]

So you think all I would be required to do is purchase an External Hard Drive say 250GB or 500GB, then add it to my USB hub, it should then be recognised by the nusb 3.3

YES, but nusb is a difficult topic.

I suppose they will transfer slow as my computer doesn't have a USB2 slot.

nusb 3.3 install devices fine on a USB 1.1 port, but file transfer times are awful under USB 1.1. You should add a USB 2.0 card to your computer.

Btw, did you install the nusb 3.3 by Maximus Decim too? if so, what are the dates on the driver in device manager?

Device Manager -> Storage device -> USB Disk indicates for USBMPHLP.PDR v4.90.300, 10-28-2007

On one computer I have nusb 3.3, on another only manufacturer-provided drivers. I haven't decided in favor of one or the other yet. My main personal criteria is functional: which driver gets along better with huge drives/partitions? nusb and manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers were written before huge drives 1+TB were readily available.

when I close a full screen picture I then have an empty minimised rectangle box on the taskbar at the bottem of the screen, and I have been told this is a user/32 bug, it has been like this since I installed the nusb 3.3 by Maximus Decim, so I can only imagine it was this that causes this to occur, so I tried the version nusb 2.4 Maximus Decim, and th problem was still there, unfortunately there is no un-install for the 2.4, so I installed the newer one again3.3, but I want to know if it installed over the 2.4 version, I think it did as I saw a window when the files were being written, I see the 3.3 version is included in the add/remove programs whereby the 2.4 wasn't.

I can't help you on this one. I don't get empty minimized rectangle boxes on the taskbar, with or without nusb 3.3. I don't know how to uninstall nusb, except by restoring a backed-up \Windows\ and \Program Files\, created before installing nusb.

[MDGx]

I tested 2 external HDs [uSB port] on my PC [1 Maxtor + 1 Western Digital], both worked just fine with Windows 98 SE with NUSB 3.3 installed.

NUSB:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=43605

Linked here:

http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm#NUS

HTH

[thydreamwalker]

Make sure to use a "Belkin2.0-USB"cable on your external Hdd , it'll save time transfering files and acts like a Usb2.0 on a Usb1.0 It may take a day(at least) ,if you are organized with transfers of your files

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Can we get some backup on that claim???

Thats like saying a new paint job will make my '78 pinto do over 100 miles an hour.

Edited January 9, 2009 by Kelsenellenelvian

[dencorso]

I confirm NUSB 3.3 works OK with USB HDDs up to 500GB (I've tested two different drives). Bigger HDDs may also work OK, but I don't have access to any to be able to test it. Win 9x/ME works OK with a single 500GB partition also. But various apps refuse to work with partitions bigger than 250GB. Read this thread and the links therein.

Edited January 10, 2009 by dencorso

[thydreamwalker]

Did ya push it over the hill? the pinto-i mean Seriously i have a 250GB SEAGATE FreeAgent"GO" and it flies with Belkin USB cables and it goes dirt slow with any Usb-Cable of a lesser value???***With 5 Partitions 98SE;win2kAdvSrv,linux(Kubuntu/Xubuntu8.10) and an open drive for storage and lastly an open drive for a new "system from ???;files fly from w2k;win98se or where ever as quickly as the ram allows

[Multibooter]

i have a 250GB SEAGATE FreeAgent"GO" and it flies with Belkin USB cables and it goes dirt slow with any Usb-Cable of a lesser value

My personal experience has been that about 1 out of every 10 USB cables is bad/low quality.

My Thermaltake enclosures, which can take both PATA and SATA HDDs up to 2TB and have switchable USB/eSATA connectors plus a Win98 driver, seem to be particularly susceptible to low quality USB cables, maybe because of the additional circuitry inside (in contrast to my Adaptec ACS-100 enclosures, which only take PATA HDDs and have only a USB connector). About 2 months ago I was fiddling around for hours, trying to identify why copying a partition on a 750GB HDD in a Thermaltake was not finished under WinXP after 10 hours, and why WinXP gave a message that I should use a faster USB connection, even if the enclosure was connected to a USB 2.0 Cardbus card.

Replacing the apparently bad USB cable with another one fixed the problem and restored copying speed. Since then I have looked at gold-plated USB cables, but I haven't decided yet, they are quite expensive.

Edited January 13, 2009 by Multibooter

[thydreamwalker]

"Gold-plated case(with diamonds for writing on the hdd)" would be nice too Is the Usb Hub (powered or not?). As my External UsbFreeAgentGo/250gb is  connected  to my Usb MoBo outlet Direct as possible at Home. *When i'm on the Road; i use a Sturdy Usb2.0BelkinCable and Carry along UsbHub to keep a more Secure and Accurate file transfer