Question about esdi_506.pdr version 4.10.2226 from Microsoft

[MDGx]

I'm gona test that soon.

Please do.

Just in case it doesn't work, there is an uninstall function, which will restore your previous file:

http://www.mdgx.com/files/atadrv98.php

FYI:

This patch was created back in 2006 by a former MSFN member, and has been tested by most of us here [i've been using it for > 3 years with no problems], and it seems to work ok on a wide variety of computer hardware.

HTH

[Prozactive]

Thanks MDGx! I've been using version 4.10.2225 of ESDI_506.PDR without any problem for about 2 years after I ran into major data corruption problems with >137GB HDs. At the time I was not aware of the 48-bit LBA issue with those HDs. Anyway, I didn't realize an updated 4.10.2230 version was available and I guess I'll violate the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and give the new version a test drive.

[Prozactive]

Well I've installed the updated version 4.10.2230 of ESDI_506.PDR and it seems to be working fine so far without any problems as I expected. Just curious though.. do you know what was changed/improved in version 4.10.2230 from 4.10.2225? Both files have the exact same size and date (24,431 bytes, 20 July 2006, 12:38:32pm). Thanks!

[Fredledingue]

Testing the version 4.10.2230:

He, no it's not compatible for all computers.

My computer seems definetely allergical to anything other than v. 4.10.2222

I'm also curious about the difference between the two since there is less than 24 hours between them. Either all these builds were done at the same time, so to speak, or someone intentionaly falsified the filedates.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Fredledingue

[Prozactive]

Testing the version 4.10.2230:

He, no it's not compatible for all computers.

My computer seems definetely allergical to anything other than v. 4.10.2222

I'm also curious about the difference between the two since there is less than 24 hours between them. Either all these builds were done at the same time, so to speak, or someone intentionaly falsified the filedates.

What kind of problems do you experience, Fredledingue?

These builds are *exactly* the same date/time (to the second) and size. I have not run a formal compare program but I did take a close look at both of them with an editor, and visually at least, I see no differences between them except in the description fields at the end. So I'm still very curious what changes and improvements were made in 4.10.2230.

[lightning slinger]

If you want all the background to this and have a few, no I mean many, minutes to spend then read the post at 

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...78592&st=28

although really the complete thread needs to be read to put this post in context. I do not think LLXX published her fixes for the files in question.

I also have been using 4.10.2230 on both my 98SE and 98SE2ME boxes for the past three or four years without any problems.

HTH

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

How do you install this fix on a clean install with a big hard drive without a partition?

[dencorso]

@PROBLEMCHYLD: Read the "Micro How-to" in post #2 of my thread on > 137 GB HDDs for which there is a link to the right of my signature, here below.

Well I've installed the updated version 4.10.2230 of ESDI_506.PDR and it seems to be working fine so far without any problems as I expected. Just curious though.. do you know what was changed/improved in version 4.10.2230 from 4.10.2225? Both files have the exact same size and date (24,431 bytes, 20 July 2006, 12:38:32pm). Thanks!

@Prozactive: That's easy: just the version number! A binary comparison never lies! As for the reasons why, that's a long history... I answered briefly that question here. If you wish to have a full view of the history behind the version numbers conundrum, and have time for it, do read the whole original LLXX topic.

[Prozactive]

Thanks dencorso and lightning slinger. I did read most if not all of the loonnggg Enable48BitLBA LLXX thread back when I was researching the data corruption problem on my >137GB HDs and trying to find a solution. I finally DL'ed and installed an updated ESDI_506.PDR from that thread via MDGx's website I believe. Per advice in that thread, I wanted to find a utility that would write dummy data to the >137GB sectors on my HDs to thoroughly test out the updated ESDI_506.PDR before actually using it with real data, but I was unable to locate one. However, almost 2 years of use without any problems has given me confidence that it works properly.

The updated version of ESDI_506.PDR that I installed back then had an indicated file version of 4.10.2225. I'm convinced that it's identical to the latest "updated" 4.10.2230 version installed by MDGx's Atadrv98.exe update. I've finally run a binary file comparison between the two versions and these were the only differences detected (as I already noted earlier via visual inspection):

00005D86: B1 B6

00005E4D: 32 33

00005E4E: 35 30

The last 2 differences are just the version number changing from 4.10.2225 to 4.10.2230.

(Edit: Okay I just read your first linked thread dencorso and essentially you're confirming what I wrote here about the file versions. Thanks!)

Edited February 2, 2010 by Prozactive

[Multibooter]

Here my personal experience with the official MS update esdi_506.pdr v4.10.2225: This update was necessary on my 10-year-old Inspiron 7500 laptop, for using an internal HDD >30GB, up to 120GB. The Inspiron 7500 has a Phoenix Bios v4.0 Release 6.0, which apparently uses Phoenix BitShift translation instead of LBA.

Without this update, Win98SE has problems with an internal 120GB HDD:

a) a FAT32 partition I: (28GB, located after 4 logical FAT16 partitions altogether about 8GB) is displayed in My Computer, but when clicking on it in My Computer I get the err msg: "I:\ is not accessible"

b ) Control Panel -> System -> Performance tab displays "drive I is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system"

c) problem installing Win98SE: a fresh installation of Win98SE on a 120GB HDD hangs/produces error msgs when ScanDisk starts checking beyond 32GB. Workaround: no scandisk when installing Win98SE on a 120GB HDD with this old BIOS.

After installing this official update 2225, the above problems were gone.

More info about esdi_506.pdr v4.10.2225 (Q243450) is at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...;NoWebContent=1

MS has put this update under the heading ScanDisk, even if it impacts much more.

This old Phoenix BIOS is a nuisance on an otherwise great laptop. At POST, the internal 120GB HDD is reported as 65535 MB (=64GB-1MB). The BIOS reports the internal HDD as having 240 heads to Win98, even if it actually has 255 heads. I have not had any data loss using the internal 120GB HDD, maybe because of the way the HDD is partitioned. 120GB is the maximum which this old laptop takes, an internal 160GB HDD does not work.

Edited February 2, 2010 by Multibooter

[Fredledingue]

Prozactive:

I had this annoyance: Control Panel -> System -> Performance tab displays "drive I is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system" and the copying/moving of files was very slow because of that.

Note that I compare 4.10.2222 to 4.10.2225 and 4.10.2230. There is one day difference in their dates.

Problemchild

When you install w98 for the first time, at some point it will restart. Then you quickely press F8 or Ctrl to force it to restart in DOS mode.

When in DOS mode you run this batch script assuming you have collected all the files necessary and put them in the same location as the batch script.

Many of these files being in an MDGx's distro:

http://www.mdgx.com/files/BHDD31.ZIP

(If you can't find some files I can post them on my website for direct download.)

@echo off
move C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\ESDI_506.PDR C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\ESDI_506.OLD
copy ESDI_506.PDR C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\ESDI_506.PDR

move C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32\IOS.VXD C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32\IOS.old
copy IOS.VXD C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32\IOS.VXD

attrib -s -h -r IO.SYS 
move C:\IO.SYS C:\IO.old
copy IO.SYS C:\IO.SYS
attrib +s +h +r IO.SYS

move C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\SCANDSKW.EXE C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\SCANDSKW.old
copy SCANDSKW.EXE C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\SCANDSKW.EXE
move C:\WINDOWS\SCANDSKW.EXE C:\WINDOWS\SCANDSKW.old
copy SCANDSKW.EXE C:\WINDOWS\SCANDSKW.EXE

move C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\DSKMAINT.DLL C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\DSKMAINT.old
copy DSKMAINT.DLL C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\DSKMAINT.DLL
move C:\WINDOWS\System\DSKMAINT.DLL C:\WINDOWS\System\DSKMAINT.old
copy DSKMAINT.DLL C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\DSKMAINT.DLL

move C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\DEFRAG.EXE C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\DEFRAG.old
copy DEFRAG.EXE C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\DEFRAG.EXE
move C:\WINDOWS\DEFRAG.EXE C:\WINDOWS\DEFRAG.old
copy DEFRAG.EXE C:\WINDOWS\DEFRAG.EXE

move C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\CVTAPLOG.EXE C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\CVTAPLOG.old
copy CVTAPLOG.EXE C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\CVTAPLOG.EXE
move C:\WINDOWS\CVTAPLOG.EXE C:\WINDOWS\CVTAPLOG.old
copy CVTAPLOG.EXE C:\WINDOWS\CVTAPLOG.EXE

move C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FORMAT.COM C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FORMAT.old
copy FORMAT.COM C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FORMAT.COM

move C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\FDISK.EXE C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\FDISK.old
copy FDISK.EXE C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\FDISK.EXE
move C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\fdisk.exe C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\fdisk.old
copy FDISK.EXE C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\fdisk.exe

move C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ADVPACK.DLL C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ADVPACK.old
copy ADVPACK.DLL C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ADVPACK.DLL

move C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\W95INF32.DLL C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\W95INF32.old
copy W95INF32.DLL C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\W95INF32.DLL

move C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SCANDISK.EXE C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SCANDISK.old
copy SCANDISK.EXE C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SCANDISK.EXE
move C:\WINDOWS\SCANDISK.EXE C:\WINDOWS\SCANDISK.old
copy SCANDISK.EXE C:\WINDOWS\SCANDISK.EXE

edit  C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI

Then you fix the 512MB RAM limitation (while we are at it...)

The last line

edit C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI

will open system.ini in a DOS text editor.

Find key [386Enh], and add/modify entries:

MaxPhysPage=40000
MinSPs=16
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
DMABufferSize=64

find [vcache], and add/modify entries:

MinFileCache=100000
MaxFileCache=393216

When done, save and exit the text editor.

Type "exit" to start windows and resume its installation process.

More infos on this here:

install-w98-large-drives-above-137gb-barrier

[rloew]

Microsoft added code to Version 2225 to attempt to read a hard drive using LBA before using CHS.

Most BIOSes automatically process CHS requests using LBA commands to the hard drive, if supported, so the older version generally worked.

Some BIOSes, as noted above, use other methods when handling CHS requests. This caused the older version to assume that the drive was CHS only.

Cylinder numbers overflow after 31GB when using CHS.

LLXX patched all of the available versions to add 48-Bit LBA support. At a later date she bumped the version numbers to distinguish the modified versions.

Version 2230 is her modified 2225.

[dencorso]

LLXX patched all of the available versions to add 48-Bit LBA support. At a later date she bumped the version numbers to distinguish the modified versions.

Version 2230 is her modified 2225.

AFAIK, the version number change is by Maximus-Decim, not LLXX. I don't believe she'd ever do it.

But it's indisputable that version 2230 is her modified 2225.

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

But it's indisputable that version 2230 is her modified 2225.

So are they the same? If so then why not just stick with the old version.

If its not broke don't fix it

[Prozactive]

Thanks for the clarifications on version numbers and technical details, rloew and dencorso. I do recall reading a long discussion/debate on the original LLXX thread on version numbering but I didn't know how things finally sorted out.

@Fredledingue:

That's puzzling. I've only encountered MS-DOS compatibility mode on HDs connected to additional ATA/RAID controllers on which I haven't loaded drivers for yet. Once I load the proper drivers, that problem goes away. Is your I: drive on one of those type controllers? I've never experienced it on HDs connected to my main IDE controllers. There is the possibility that the modified ESDI_506.PDR isn't compatible with your IDE controllers for some reason. I'm assuming your HD is IDE/PATA.

Thanks for the info and batch file code for installing Win98 on >137GB HDs. Just FYI, the referenced URL for "install-w98-large-drives-above-137gb-barrier" in your post doesn't work now that MSFN has changed their URL syntax. The correct URL should be:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=113142

HTH