Ext HDD's greater than 137GB under Win ME

[jaclaz]

May be the reason is insufficient power for this HDD? It's quite an old Intel D815EPE2U motherboard. Or this is a software problem?

Is it a 2.5"?

You haven't a "y-cable"?

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=146241

jaclaz

[M()zart]

Is it a 2.5"?

You haven't a "y-cable"?

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=146241

jaclaz

It is a 2.5", and I have a "y-cable". But I didn't know what is the second connector for until yesterday evening, so I didn't tried it. On my new PC and on two my friends' PCs it worked OK even under stress reading/writing of large volumes of data with ony one connector plugged in. At first, I thought that this connector is used for other HDDs with normal USB port, not miniUSB (I know a man who has such HDD). Windows 98 PC is in suburb, so now I cannot try using both connectors. I just wanted to exclude other reasons. I would probably go there on Wednesday and try using both connector. Or may be it will be much later.

[jaclaz]

[it is a 2.5", and I have a "y-cable". But I didn't know what is the second connector for until yesterday evening, so I didn't tried it. On my new PC and on two my friends' PCs it worked OK even under stress reading/writing of large volumes of data with ony one connector plugged in.

There is another variable that comes into play (and that the use of the Y-cable should prevent).

Theoretically a USB port should supply 500 mA output @ 5V DC.

http://www.usb.org/developers/usbfaq#pow1

Now, it seems like some motherboard manufacturers read these (probably not crystal clear) specifications as:

A USB port should supply a MAXimum of 500 mA output @ 5V DC

and some apparently read them as:

A USB port should supply at least 500 mA output @ 5V DC

You can understand how the same hard disk connected to two different motherboards may behave differently.

The rule of thumb is however:

1. if the USB enclosure was bought "self-standing", it shouls have an "Y-cable", depending on the actual HD you are going to put in it, you decide whether using it or not
   
2. if the thingy was bought with already the HD in it AND it has an "Y-cable" ALWAYS use BOTH of it's connectors
   
3. if the thingy was bought with already the HD in it AND it has NOT an "Y-cable" you won't normally need one for operating the drive correctly (if it doesn't work a problem on the motherboard or on the hard disk is likely)
   

jaclaz

[M()zart]

Thank you for your help. Yes, it came together with the y-cable. I'll try to plug in always both connectors when possible.

[piikea]

Notwithstanding any aversion to Symantec products - does anyone have any idea on getting the 1TB ext HDD to be "seen" in Ghost?

[dencorso]

Yes. From DOS, I suppose.

Try:

(i) ASPIEHCI.SYS (v.13 09-May-2003) + GUEST.EXE (v. 8.5 or later)... the IOMEGA drivers

(ii) USBASPI.EXE (Panasonic, v. 2.28) + DI1000DD.SYS (Novac, v 2.00)... the "Motto-Hairu" drivers.

(iii) ASPIEHCI.SYS (v.13 09-May-2003) + DI1000DD.SYS (Novac, v 2.00)...

(iv) USBASPI.EXE (Panasonic, v. 2.28) + GUEST.EXE (v. 8.5 or later)...

(v) try all the above with previous versions of USBASPI.EXE (v. 2.26) or USBASPI.SYS (v. 2.24, 2.20, 2.15 and 2.06)...

(vi) try DUSE.EXE (I haven't got *any* experience with it).

Google for them and you shall find lots of info about them.

I have used all three combinations at the top of my list, each recognizes some of my USB devices, but none finds them all. With those three I have been able to recognize all of them, even if I have to change from one to the other depending on the USB device. It remains very far from clear to me why some devices will be seen by each of these combinations, but none by all. And both my 500 GB drives, as well as my 1.5 TB drive are seen and work OK with at least one of the first three combinations, but even among just the USB HDDs, none recognizes them all. Go figure!

[piikea]

Yes. From DOS, I suppose.

Try:

(i) ASPIEHCI.SYS (v.13 09-May-2003) + GUEST.EXE (v. 8.5 or later)... the IOMEGA drivers

(ii) USBASPI.EXE (Panasonic, v. 2.28) + DI1000DD.SYS (Novac, v 2.00)... the "Motto-Hairu" drivers.

(iii) ASPIEHCI.SYS (v.13 09-May-2003) + DI1000DD.SYS (Novac, v 2.00)...

(iv) USBASPI.EXE (Panasonic, v. 2.28) + GUEST.EXE (v. 8.5 or later)...

(v) try all the above with previous versions of USBASPI.EXE (v. 2.26) or USBASPI.SYS (v. 2.24, 2.20, 2.15 and 2.06)...

(vi) try DUSE.EXE (I haven't got *any* experience with it).

I "think" the set of 2 floppy's I've been using is " (iii) " - although they are the "Panasonic" drivers(?). There only .sys files on them, i.e., no .exe's. It shows as v. 2.06 & Ver 2.00. I switched v. 2.06 with v. 2.20 which didn't work either. Also got an error:

Available ID = 0

Your program caused a divide overflow error.

If the problem persists contact your program vendor.

Rather than complicate matters - suffice to say that version doesn't work. I will have to try some of the other versions & see.

Thanks

[Prozactive]

A "divide overflow" error is usually caused by a HDD that is too large for the driver(s), usually DI1000DD.SYS. I've experienced it when using a 1TB external HDD. As I recall, ASPIDISK.SYS was able to handle the drive but not DI1000DD.SYS or NJ32DISK.SYS.

dencorso gives excellent information. I spent a great deal of time earlier this year developing a Ghost boot disk for USB devices and I did much of what he cited. I didn't realize that GUEST.EXE and DI1000DD.SYS could be interchangeably used with Iomega and Panasonic USB drivers though. I may have to try playing around with that.

[dencorso]

I don't know whether (iv) works. (i), (ii) and (iii) I can vouch for.

Versions are important here... USBASPI.EXE (Panasonic, v. 2.28) is findable at MDGx's.

And any GUEST prior to v. 8.5 is useless (except, perhaps, v. 8.0, if it exists).

NJ32DISK.SYS is, for all I know, just a previous, older version of DI1000DD.SYS (or, at least, is derived from the same common source... the Copiright dates are somewhat confusing as to which is newer, but version number and size point to DI1000DD.SYS as the newer one (see the ASCII comparison attached).

BTW, ASPIDISK.SYS v. 4.01b Copyright 1989-1997 by Adaptec, is that it?

Never have actually used it. Now that you mention it, it opens up still more combinations, right?

In any case, this is a trial and error game, where patience pays, and getting irritated leads one nowhere.

Even my two external Seagates behave differently.

[Prozactive]

@dencorso:

Some quick replies off the top of my head.

- I didn't know option (iii), using DI1000DD.SYS with the Ghost Iomega USB drivers, would work. I'll have to try that and see how it works. Ditto with using GUEST.EXE with the Panasonic USB drivers.

- I don't know my version of GUEST.EXE. It's the one that came with Ghost 2003 (file date 14-Aug-2002).

- I'm using both the MDGx modified version 2.28 and the original 2.27 version of Panasonic USB drivers.

- NJ32DISK.SYS was recommended several times somewhere but so far it hasn't proven very useful at all and it does appear to closely resemble DI1000DD.SYS.

- Yes, ASPIDISK.SYS came from Adaptec but I can't recall the version. I believe it was 4.01. I did so many searches and downloads it's all a muddled chaotic blur in my mind. :/ My limited experience with it so far is that it was the only driver that allowed access to a friend's 1TB external HDD. I don't have any HDDs anywhere near that size.

- And YES, the entire DOS USB access is certainly one big trial and error process!

Edited December 11, 2010 by Prozactive

[dencorso]

So your Guest is v. 8.5! But to have ASPIEHCI.SYS v.13 09-May-2003 you must have at least performed LiveUpdate2 (bumps Ghost up to revision 789) but you've probably done that and LU3, too, so I'd guess you've got it, too. BTW, I've run a quick test and Guest does work with USBASPI.EXE 2.28, so option (iv) also works.

Also BTW, thanks for the heads up on USBASPI.SYS 2.27! It's actually newer than USBASPI.EXE 2.28... I've just got it from the Panasonic Japan site (the English version, of course).

[Prozactive]

Ah. You have to use a hex editor to determine the file version as it's not shown in File Properties. Actually, my version of Ghost 2003 is build .793 and yes, I had to run LiveUpdate several times to update it to that build. There were some tricks involved too like manually typing in server names or something like that.. I can't remember the details now. I thought it only updated the Ghost executable but perhaps it also updated the Iomega USB drivers. My version of ASPIEHCI.SYS has a file date of 28-May-2003.

That's good to know that option (iv) works.. thanks! I've created a custom CONFIG.SYS file with multiple menu items for the various driver combinations and I'd like to edit it to add the additional options but I'm not sure if there's a limit for the number of menu items. I'll have to do some research into that.

I'm glad to have helped in a minor way with version 2.27 of the Panasonic USB driver. I did wonder whether it was newer than the MDGx modified version. In my experience so far, the Iomega USB drivers are considerably faster for USB 1.1 than the Panasonic drivers. I'm not sure about USB 2.0 yet since I haven't had it until just recently. The Panasonic drivers do have a much wider hardware compatibility though. The Iomega drivers don't seem to detect many USB devices for some reason. I'll be curious if the new driver combinations will increase their hardware compatibility.

Have you run into the "divide overflow" error cited earlier? The only time I've encountered that was trying to access a 1.0 TB external HDD. Every driver gave that error except ASPIDISK.SYS as I recall. I think you said you've successfully accessed a 1.5 TB external HDD?

[dencorso]

Yes. My External USB 2.0 Seagate Expansion 1500 GB (with a Seagate Barracuda LP ST31500541AS (5900 rmm) 1500 GB HDD inside) is correctly detected with ASPIEHCI.SYS (v.13 09-May-2003) + GUEST.EXE (v. 8.5)... and I can run Win ME DOS SCANDISK on it too! It's divided in 3 patitions: a primary FAT-32 LBA and two logical FAT-32 LBA inside an extended LBA partition. But DOS 7.10 (from Win 98SE) gets somewhat less stable with so many clusters (or so many sectors) around it, so crashes happen, after some time. DOS CHKDSK doesn't work with it too, giving "wrong media byte" error, but SCANDISK finds nothing wrong. I didn't try a surface scan, though, because that would take ages to finish. Better do it under XP SP3, using chkdsk /r, of course. It's great to be able to read from or copy to such a huge disk in DOS, but that's about all I dare to do with it in DOS. DOS wasn't really meant to handle those huge storage media. Perhaps FreeDOS, now that it's getting mature, may be a good option, when push comes to shove...

No, I don't recall ever having faced that particular "divide overflow" error.

And yes, the best way to ascertain the versions of all those DOS drivers we've been talking about is to use your favorite hexeditor, for sure!

[rloew]

But DOS 7.10 (from Win 98SE) gets somewhat less stable with so many clusters (or so many sectors) around it, so crashes happen, after some time. DOS CHKDSK doesn't work with it too, giving "wrong media byte" error, but SCANDISK finds nothing wrong. I didn't try a surface scan, though, because that would take ages to finish. Better do it under XP SP3, using chkdsk /r, of course. It's great to be able to read from or copy to such a huge disk in DOS, but that's about all I dare to do with it in DOS. DOS wasn't really meant to handle those huge storage media. Perhaps FreeDOS, now that it's getting mature, may be a good option, when push comes to shove...

DOS itself is not the problem. It is more than capable of handling Drives and Partitions of 2TiB (more with Patches). CHKDSK doesn't do much and SCANDISK begins to choke on very large Partitions. I haven't experimented much with DOS USB Drivers, but I suspect there may be issues with them.

[piikea]

A "divide overflow" error is usually caused by a HDD that is too large for the driver(s), usually DI1000DD.SYS. I've experienced it when using a 1TB external HDD. As I recall, ASPIDISK.SYS was able to handle the drive but not DI1000DD.SYS or NJ32DISK.SYS.

Given this is dealing w/ the same size drive.....& potentially a shortcut to try before resorting to the more involved trial & error ones. Problem is I can't anywhere to download APIDISK.SYS. I've found it discussed alot but no one ever mentions where to get it & if they do the link is outdated, etc.