the 'ASPI Layer' must be

[GeminiAlpha]

Now that I see more users experiencing problems with large hard disks I will attempt to accelerate progress on a project I have been working on, to completely rewrite the ESDI_506.PDR to work with large disks properly. I will release it to the public when I'm finished. The problem becomes more and more urgent as disks become bigger and bigger...

For LLXX and Eck,

Although I read your reactions with pleasure, like I told, I have moved to the XP platform with no intentions to get back to the win98se platform again.

When you, LLXX, finish your HD driver it will surely benefit other win98se users. Success in the final stage of developing.

Again, thanks for reacting!

Bye, Rudolf.

[RJARRRPCGP]

d) use add-on IDE controller board.

Where can you get those? It appears that they likely stopped making those. They may only be available in SCSI! SCSI HDDs are notoriously expensive!

[charles__]

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/overController-c.html

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/ca...c.asp?CatId=508

[Petr]

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/overController-c.html

Warning! AFAIK Promise Ultra66 does not support 48-bit LBA, as well as controllers based on PCI-0649 and some other chips.

Petr

[Eck]

I got my Adaptec one from CompUSA. It's the ASH-1233CS Ultra ATA High-speed dual channel Ultra ATA/133 controller card.

I couldn't install 98SE on it, but that's not saying it doesn't work. The reason I failed is likely that the driver needs to be installed before 98SE will work with it. The initial copying of files worked when the startup floppy was in control, then when 98SE's install rebooted itself (the first boot from the HD) a dos screen asked for a bootable disk. The Adaptec literature states it breaks the 137GB barrier. I probably just would need to install first on the normal IDE, partitioned to 120GB, install the driver, switch the drive to the PCI card (pray), and use Partition Magic to expand to the rest of the drive.

I have so far successfully installed 98SE onto the SATA 250GB Maxtor HD using the whole drive partitioned by the updated 98SE FDISK copyed to the 98SE startup floppy. So I won't be experimenting with the PCI card for a while unless this fails. If it's built in to the board (the SATA controller) and it works, that's better than using a seperate PCI port.

Apparently the Via SATA drivers run things, rather than the ESID Windows driver that messes up with drives bigger than 137GB. I set ScanDisk to not run at startup in MSCONFIG advanced, and installed Norton Utilities. Disk Doctor, WinDoctor, and Speed Disk have successfully ran.

The system's fully updated and working fine so far.

[GeminiAlpha]

... my win98se SP project has come to an end and I'm installing Windows XP Pro on my 200 Gb now.

This for 2 reasons: 1) I finally found a XP driver for my old Mustek scanner and 2) Windows XP can drive my new 200Gb harddisk flawlessly ...

Once again...

It may be possible that I reinstall Windows 98se, as I have found a way to do it AFTER installing Windows XP on a FAT32 partitioned drive (which I did). I have read it at Dougknox' site: http://dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm and it seems worth while trying it.

But first I have to wait for the replacement of ESDI_506.PDR of which LLXX wrote some notes before.

It's not my intention to buy a new interface board for 48-bit LBA HD access.

I'll keep reading this thread, hoping LLXX comes up with a HD driver replacement.

Bye, Rudolf.