Silicon Image SI680/Other unsupported PCI IDE controller under Windows 95 OSR 2.0

[SweetLow]

Ok, CC_010600 is "Serial ATA controller - vendor-specific interface". It is unusual for PATA controller.

But no matter, use RLoew's ATA0106.INF from Terabyte Plus Pack with patched ESDI_506.PDR.

If you sent me info I asked I could verify that this .INF really will work on your hardware but you continue to ignore some parts of request.

Edited April 20 by SweetLow

[Nokiamies]

13 minutes ago, SweetLow said:

If you sent me info I asked I could verify that this .INF really will work on your hardware but you continue to ignore some parts of request.

Sorry here is the output file from the devtree. devtree.txt

[SweetLow]

http://sweetlow.orgfree.com/download/SiI0680.zip

Take \NEW\ATA0106.INF version for the first.

If it will not work - make new version of devtree.txt WITH INSTALLED driver and resend it.

Edited April 20 by SweetLow

[Nokiamies]

4 hours ago, SweetLow said:

http://sweetlow.orgfree.com/download/SiI0680.zip

Take \NEW\ATA0106.INF version for the first.

If it will not work - make new version of devtree.txt WITH INSTALLED driver and resend it.

I had to remove LayoutFile= entry from inf file because for some reason Windows 95 OSR 2.0/OSR 2.1 will not complete driver install wizard if that line exists. Finish button will not work no matter how many times click. I had same issue with other drivers. I cant explain why it has to be removed, I guess it is feature on 98 and up that 95 cannot do.

 

However after I removed that line it worked perfectly. Driver installed and even DMA mode worked just fine. I no longer have warnings about 16bit hard drive access. Thank you very much for your help! I could have gone easy way and stick either with Windows 95 using buggy stock controller (thanks to compaq bios) and accept 32gb hdd limit or used controller with Windows 98SE, but where is the fun in that? Using that control card and Rloew LBA48 patch I can use bigger drives on this old Apollo MVP4/AMD K6-533 board.

 

[SweetLow]

18 hours ago, Nokiamies said:

Using that control card and Rloew LBA48 patch

I assume no Rloew neither LLXX released ATA 48-bit LBA drivers for 95/98FE/ME, 32-bit only. 48-bit ATA commands used internally of course, but processed LBA in driver restricted to 32 bits.

The real ATA 48-bit LBA drivers are available in Terabyte Plus Pack for 98SE only as RLoew never released generic 48-bit patch (but referenced it in some manuals).

18 hours ago, Nokiamies said:

stick either with Windows 95 using buggy stock controller (thanks to compaq bios) and accept 32gb hdd limit

If there is no hang during boot, only size restriction in BIOS than it can be fixed to view full size under Windows probably. I made very similar patch for fixing problems in BIOSes for >128GiB/2TiB drives like using LBA 28-bit only size or wrap-around the size of >2TiB drives.

[Nokiamies]

17 minutes ago, SweetLow said:

I assume no Rloew neither LLXX released ATA 48-bit LBA drivers for 95/98FE/ME, 32-bit only. 48-bit ATA commands used internally of course, but processed LBA in driver restricted to 32 bits.

The real ATA 48-bit LBA drivers are available in Terabyte Plus Pack for 98SE only as RLoew never released generic 48-bit patch (but referenced it in some manuals).

There was LBA48 patch IF CONTROLLER SUPPORTS LBA48 from rloew: https://www.rloewelectronics.com/distribute/PATCH137/

I have used that before on other systems where control card supports LBA48 to work around issues with hard drives since Windows 9x default driver does not work well with drives over 137gb. Some boards can do IAA, but not all. On manual it says BIOS support for hard drives >137GB (48-Bit LBA) as requirement which I got from controller and verified using 48BITLBA utility from that patch. Terabyte plus pack is not needed for 160gb hard drive I am using. Have not gone that mental yet and tried to use 1tb drives with Windows 9x.

27 minutes ago, SweetLow said:

If there is no hang during boot, only size restriction in BIOS than it can be fixed to view full size under Windows probably. I made very similar patch for fixing problems in BIOSes for >128GiB/2TiB drives like using LBA 28-bit only size or wrap-around the size of >2TiB drives.

Is that patch bootloader based like OnTrack DDO, or does it work like Intel Application Accelerator on i810 or other non lba48 chipset where it enables software LBA48 without boot loader.

[SweetLow]

20 hours ago, Nokiamies said:

On manual it says BIOS support for hard drives >137GB (48-Bit LBA) as requirement

Requirement for patch is NOT what patch does, I assume it is obvious. And you continue skipping some parts of information. Take it all.

MANUAL.TXT -> HARD DRIVE SIZE LIMITS

20 hours ago, Nokiamies said:

Is that patch bootloader based like OnTrack DDO, or does it work like Intel Application Accelerator on i810 or other non lba48 chipset where it enables software LBA48 without boot loader.

None of them. And it does not use even one byte of memory after it did its work.

[Nokiamies]

4 hours ago, SweetLow said:

Requirement for patch is NOT what patch does, I assume it is obvious. And you continue skipping some parts of information. Take it all.

MANUAL.TXT -> HARD DRIVE SIZE LIMITS

Quote from the manual part you mentioned:
 

Quote

HARD DRIVE SIZE LIMITS

The High Capacity Disk Patch provides support for Hard Drives up to the
32 Bit Addressing Limit of 2199GB. Possible DOS, BIOS or Windows flaws may
limit support to 1099GB or less. The Patch has been tested with Drives up to
400GB. Raw Disk access tools may have their own limits. Microsoft claims that
FDISK is limited to 512GB.

I am using drive that is under 400gb so it should work. As for that Windows 95 32gb hdd limit it is in my experience due scandisk and fdisk, I ran Windows 95 on i440LX board for few years with bigger hard drive with scandisk and fdisk from the Windows 98 without issues. As for what I meant was this from rloew manual:

Quote

The High Capacity Disk Patch Program patches Windows 98/98SE/ME to provide
direct support for Hard Drives larger than 137GB without requiring a
controller card or the Intel Application Accelerator which can only be
used with some Intel Chipset Motherboards. The Patch installs support for the
48-Bit LBA addressing mode required for Hard Drives larger than 137GB.

Version 5.1 onward also had Windows 95 (untested) support which I am testing here with compatible control card.

Quote

REQUIREMENTS

Windows 95 Release 2 (See Windows 95 Below)
Windows 98, 98SE or ME (See WINDOWS ME Section Below if using Windows ME)
Motherboard IDE and/or SATA Controller recognized by the Default ESDI_506.PDR
 Port Driver. Customized SATA .INF files are required, contact author for
 further information

BIOS support for hard drives >137GB (48-Bit LBA) or
A Windows Compatable Boot Manager that supports hard drives >137GB
A Mini Boot Manager is now available from Rudolph R. Loew

WARNING: Some BIOSes have defective support for 48-Bit LBA. Rearranging
         Drives may cause a previously working system to fail. Verify
         support using 48BITLBA.EXE for all Drive arrangements you plan to
         use. In particular, VIA EPIA BIOSes before 07/05 may claim to
         support 48-Bit LBA, and will show the full size of the Drive, but
         will not actually support the Drive if it is not the Primary Master.
         Users of VIA EPIA motherboards should contact the Author to obtain
         a Patched BIOS if needed.

I got drives hooked to PCI control card that uses it own boot bios that got support for large drives as seen in the product information page. I also verified it using instructions on manual and it shows "48-BIT Support Verified" for the secondary 160gb hard drive. Therefore it should work.

Quote

BIOS SUPPORT VERIFICATION

The 48BITLBA program tests your Computer's support for Large Hard Drives.
You will need at least one Hard Drive larger than 137GB connected to either
of the IDE connectors on your Motherboard.

Run the Program from DOS, not a DOS Box, to verify BIOS, or Boot Manager,
support for Large Hard Drives. A "48-BIT Support Verified" message should be
displayed next to the Large Hard Drive's Number and Size Report. Otherwise
your BIOS may not support Large Hard Drives.

If you get a "Last 28 Bit Sector Unsupported" message, your BIOS or Boot
Manager has a bug making it incompatable with your Hard Drive.

WARNING: Some BIOSes have defective support for 48-Bit LBA. Rearranging
Drives may cause 48-Bit LBA support to fail. Verify support with all Drive
arrangements you plan to use. In particular, there are some BIOSes that only
support 48-Bit LBA on the MASTER Drive on the PRIMARY IDE Bus.

I am still doing more testing with this. I mostly got media files on the drive and boot drive is 80gb. I have read the manual of the patch and what it does. This is to see how much Windows 95 is actually limited aside from the scandisk and fdisk limit.

4 hours ago, SweetLow said:

None of them. And it does not use even one byte of memory after it did its work

Interesting, it is also not tied to single vendor drives?

[LoneCrusader]

PATCH137 does work with Windows 95 (OSR2.x at least, RTM and OSR1 untested); be sure you are using ESDI_506.PDR 4.00.1119, I believe one of the old manuals called for at least 4.00.1118.

In any case 98SE ESDI_506.PDR 4.10.2225 can be used under 95 OSR2 as well.

 

Over the years I was able to get rloew to port most of his patches to 95 OSR2.x. The one glaring exception was TBPLUS, as I never had a need for it. But since I already know the 98SE version of ESDI_506.PDR can be used that would theoretically only leave porting the patches from the other files to the 95 versions in order for it to work...

[Nokiamies]

11 hours ago, LoneCrusader said:

PATCH137 does work with Windows 95 (OSR2.x at least, RTM and OSR1 untested); be sure you are using ESDI_506.PDR 4.00.1119, I believe one of the old manuals called for at least 4.00.1118.

It has worked for few day just fine for me. I got 160gb hard drive hooked up with 140gb worth of video files, mostly clips from finnish tv between 1988-2003 (how so that I got problem hoarding clips ) and so far have not encountered any issues. I used updated ESDI_506.PDR that ms released for OSR2 as base and patched it with sata and lba48 patches on first boot.

11 hours ago, LoneCrusader said:

In any case 98SE ESDI_506.PDR 4.10.2225 can be used under 95 OSR2 as well.

 

Over the years I was able to get rloew to port most of his patches to 95 OSR2.x. The one glaring exception was TBPLUS, as I never had a need for it. But since I already know the 98SE version of ESDI_506.PDR can be used that would theoretically only leave porting the patches from the other files to the 95 versions in order for it to work...

That is good to know. I need try it someday to see how works. I am already using some files from Windows 98. Fdisk from the q263044 update (extracted and renamed fdisk.98s into fdisk) and scandisk from Windows 98 install cd. 95 one do not work well with volumes over 32gb but ones from 98SE works oobe. Also took msconfig from Windows 98 to get UI for adjusting things. Also additional themes, like my favorite space works with 95 Plus! Theme applet.

 

At this point I have reached stage of "too easy" with Windows 98/ME on too many things so I will do 95 to get some challenge and break limits again. Back in the day I used Windows 95 for very little period as new system could not run it because of too fast processor. Even 450mhz processor was enough cause protection error. Back in day there was no cpu speed fix aside from AMD K6 fix (that was needed for any cpu over 350mhz) from ms that needed os to run to apply. Maybe floppy/cd based bootable fix I use these days did exist back then and I was just unaware of it. However that patch makes it much easier get speed related fixes without needing swap boards or cpu:s and makes 95 setup fast on fast machines. I am currently rocking Windows 95 on Compaq Presario 7479 with AMD K6-2 533mhz I got as broken, swapped out psu and it works. Using external control card to get more drive space which is why made this topic. It is running very well so far.

[SweetLow]

On 4/22/2026 at 1:41 PM, Nokiamies said:

The High Capacity Disk Patch provides support for Hard Drives up to the
32 Bit Addressing Limit of 2199GB.

On 4/22/2026 at 1:41 PM, Nokiamies said:

The Patch installs support for the
48-Bit LBA addressing mode required for Hard Drives larger than 137GB.

Now reread my post about what Rloew did and what he didn't.

>Interesting, it is also not tied to single vendor drives?

Yes, it's generic.

Edited April 24 by SweetLow

[SweetLow]

On 4/23/2026 at 7:46 AM, LoneCrusader said:

The one glaring exception was TBPLUS

If you said that 98SE ESDI_506.PDR 4.10.2225 works in 95 OSR2 then it is half of work as ESDI_506.PDR from TBP should work in 95 OSR2 too.

Edited April 24 by SweetLow