LIMITS on LBA hdds with w98seSP2

[Molecule]

Any chance anyone might know ...

after a fresh install of w98se on a new LBA hdd (formatted with only 1 partition, an 8G primary in the front for the system), and, after the unofficial SP2 has been installed, then (a) how much of a large LBA HDD can I open up behind the primary partition, after the 98se system has been updated by SP2? (B) within the LBA boundary, is there any limit to the interior partition sizes--would 20G data partitions be ok with w98seSP2?

of course, that assumes I can fresh install to an LBA HDD in the first place ... my Asus 2001 bios seems to recognize a new 120G Maxtor PATA correctly as LBA, so can I use that HDD for a fresh install of w98se onto an 8G primary in anticipation of update to SP2? (The rest of the HDD would be temporarily blank during the install, or would be filled with temporarily hidden 20G extended partitions)?

I seem to remember a confusing array of HDD boundary problems for 98se, at 64G, at 80G, and at 137G ...

--for example, t the original Scandisk that Setup automatically runs, didn't it have an ?-80G boundary-? I'm pretty sure it doesn't work with Int13h HDDs, and it tries to work with the old CHS. Worse, if you run the 98 setup without the turnoff switch, (/im? /ie?) Setup's scandisk.ini launches scandisk with about the meanest set of parameters I could imagine--it's set to automatically "fix-everything-now; ask-no-questions and give-no-reprieve"--which then screws up any existing data on the back partitions of an LBA HDD, if they are left exposed and you forget to set the off switch. (use setup /?)

--Then, I was looking at the SPupdate.inf, and I see that fdisk is one of the first things fixed. The original 98fdisk reportedly screwed things up at a 64G boundary. Of course it probably isn't used to format a new LBA HDD, but it may indicate other internal io.sys parameters for 98se and large HDDs???

Thanks

Edited December 4, 2005 by Molecule

[Petr]

You may want to read detail dicussion here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=46752

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=30809

In short:

Windows 98 FAT-32 file system can work with partitions larger than 137 GB but Windows Scandisk and Defrag have 137 GB limit. You can use commercial tools like Norton Utilities.

The default IDE driver (ESDI_506.PDR without the commercial patch http://members.aol.com/rloew1/Programs/Patch137.htm ) cannot work with IDE disks beyond the 137GB barrier. This is solved by 3rd party drivers, like Intel Application Accelerator for some Intel chipsets.

DOS FDISK and FORMAT have cosmetical errors but work correctly with big disks (tested with 200 GB disk).

SE SP 2.1 does not change much on this - it just adds http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044 updated FDISK for correct recognizing of HDD bigger than 64 GB.

Petr

[randiroo76073]

I've had no problems with partitions as large as 100gb, 20gb is no sweat, I hold my primary at 4.5gb so I can image it to a DVD for backup/reinstall. After that it's what you want to the 137gb limit

[LLXX]

My 98se is installed on a single 120Gb FAT32 partition. It works fine.

However, I would advise strong caution to anyone who seems to be having no problems with disks larger than 128Gb. It may seem to work properly, but only because the disk is not filled near the 128Gb limit. Once it goes past that, the sector address will wrap around and overwrite the first sectors of the disk, corrupting the filesystem and possibly losing data.

This is because the standard ESDI_506.PDR does not use 48-bit LBA methods to access the drive, instead using the older CHS or 28-bit LBA methods. I am currently working on implementing support for 48-bit LBA via a patched ESDI_506.PDR.

However, DOS 7.10 will work correctly up to 2 Tera, since it internally uses 32-bit sector numbering and calls the BIOS Int13x functions which accept 48-bit LBAs. If the BIOS supports it, DOS 7.10 will. Thus, it is safe to work on huge hard disks from within DOS but not in Windows ...

Edited December 12, 2005 by LLXX