External Drive Partition Not Detected

[HoppaLong]

Without an external drive plugged into my older 98SE Desktop I

would run out of space real quick! All partitions were created

with PartitionMagic.

I've had one partition on the external drive for a long time. It uses

about two-thirds of the total drive capacity. I decided to create a

second partition with the remaining unallocated space. The new

partition is about 8 Gigs. I rebooted a few times but the new partition

does not appear in My Computer or in System Information (msinfo32).

HoppaLong

[jaclaz]

Somewhere, if you have Partition Magic, (which version by the way) you should have a program called Partition Info, file should be PartIn9x.exe

Try 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

[HoppaLong]

I'm using PartitionMagic_v8.0.

The external disk is 20 Gigs. That actually seemed large when I first

started using Win98. (My dual boot XP/Linux Desktop has 300 Gigs

internal and 200 Gigs external.)

The PartitionInfo table shows the old original partition is solid, as well as

the 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, if

you attempt to defrag the external drive partitions you might end up

with unallocated space! When power is applied to the drive after Windows

starts the partition loads and a window opens. Its like you have selected

the partition with your mouse or keyboard. If you power the drive down

before Windows shuts down you get a "blue screen of death," even if the

drive has been quiescent for a couple of hours!

The list of oddball things people have told me about when you plug an

external 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 were

up to them, they would stay with 98 permanently. In a way, I don't blame

them. Its true that XP doesn't crash as often, and you can keep it running

much longer between reboots. That doesn't mean it isn't loaded with problems,

just like the earlier versions of Windows.

HoppaLong

[jaclaz]

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 as

the 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

[R-P]

No, Version 8 and 20 Gb are well below limits.

jaclaz

So 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).

[Petr]

No, Version 8 and 20 Gb are well below limits.

jaclaz

So 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.