HoppaLong Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 Without an external drive plugged into my older 98SE Desktop Iwould run out of space real quick! All partitions were createdwith PartitionMagic.I've had one partition on the external drive for a long time. It usesabout two-thirds of the total drive capacity. I decided to create asecond partition with the remaining unallocated space. The new partition is about 8 Gigs. I rebooted a few times but the new partitiondoes not appear in My Computer or in System Information (msinfo32). HoppaLong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 Somewhere, if you have Partition Magic, (which version by the way) you should have a program called Partition Info, file should be PartIn9x.exeTry running it, it should show the partition tables on your hard disks, select the proper one in the "Physical Drive" box.How big is the external disk?Post results.There could be a size limit, don't remember right now which could be.jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoppaLong Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 I'm using PartitionMagic_v8.0.The external disk is 20 Gigs. That actually seemed large when I firststarted using Win98. (My dual boot XP/Linux Desktop has 300 Gigsinternal and 200 Gigs external.)The PartitionInfo table shows the old original partition is solid, as well asthe one I created a few hours ago. It says "no partition errors detected"for the new and old partition.Windows 98SE has always reacted strangely to all USB external drives.Several of my colleagues have had similar problems. For instance, ifyou attempt to defrag the external drive partitions you might end upwith unallocated space! When power is applied to the drive after Windowsstarts the partition loads and a window opens. Its like you have selectedthe partition with your mouse or keyboard. If you power the drive downbefore Windows shuts down you get a "blue screen of death," even if thedrive has been quiescent for a couple of hours!The list of oddball things people have told me about when you plug anexternal USB hard disk into a Win98 system is too long for me to remember.Why do I still use Win98? At least half of my clients still use 98. If it wereup to them, they would stay with 98 permanently. In a way, I don't blamethem. Its true that XP doesn't crash as often, and you can keep it runningmuch longer between reboots. That doesn't mean it isn't loaded with problems,just like the earlier versions of Windows.HoppaLong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 No, Version 8 and 20 Gb are well below limits.Re-check the type of partition, could it be hidden?Is it (the new one) a Primary or an extended?I vaguely recall some problems with multiple primary partitions on non-boot drive..The PartitionInfo table shows the old original partition is solid, as well asthe one I created a few hours ago. It says "no partition errors detected"for the new and old partition.hmmm, have a look at it through Ranish Partition Manager:http://www.ranish.com/part/(get the 2.40 - stable version)Just to make sure, can you not plug the HD in another computer and see if it works there?jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-P Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 No, Version 8 and 20 Gb are well below limits.jaclazSo what are limits?34Gb? Or the 64 or the 137Gb ?Want to fill a W98SE 933MHz PIII with 2x2.5"USB 30Gb and 40Gb (PC=USB1.1) and add ATA-133 card for another (total) of 0.5 to 1Tb, so try to find beforehand what problems I will run into.I've read the 137Gb limit stuff and think I'm out of the woods (correct Intel chipset for the IAA driver on the mainboard and 48bit support on my ATA-133 card).So my question: what problems CAN I run into with external 2.5" drives?Due to W98 and/or limits in the 2.5" housing itself?(read somewhere they sometimes can only handle 30Gb, which means I cannot swap the 30Gb for a 100Gb and use the 30Gb in my W98 4Gb laptop... The 30Gb housing is cheap, but a new 2.5" housing which has no such issues might be cheaper in the long run). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petr Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 No, Version 8 and 20 Gb are well below limits.jaclazSo what are limits?34Gb? Or the 64 or the 137Gb ?Want to fill a W98SE 933MHz PIII with 2x2.5"USB 30Gb and 40Gb (PC=USB1.1) and add ATA-133 card for another (total) of 0.5 to 1Tb, so try to find beforehand what problems I will run into.I've read the 137Gb limit stuff and think I'm out of the woods (correct Intel chipset for the IAA driver on the mainboard and 48bit support on my ATA-133 card).So my question: what problems CAN I run into with external 2.5" drives?Due to W98 and/or limits in the 2.5" housing itself?(read somewhere they sometimes can only handle 30Gb, which means I cannot swap the 30Gb for a 100Gb and use the 30Gb in my W98 4Gb laptop... The 30Gb housing is cheap, but a new 2.5" housing which has no such issues might be cheaper in the long run).I think the biggest problem with USB will be very slow speed. I recommend to buy add-on USB 2.0 card, it is below $10 and can provide you with 20x to 30x (tested) higher speed then USB 1.1. I have the best experience with USB2 cards with VT6212 chip, uPD720101 is not bad too. I use WD Passport Portable 120 GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive with Windows 98 SE and no problem yet.Regarding the size, it seems that the biggest media in Windows 9x could be 2048 GiB (32-bit sector addressing), scandskw and defrag have problems with partitions bigger than 137 GB (128 GiB) but Windows Me versions works well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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