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Enable48BitLBA | Break the 137Gb barrier!


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I can send you the INFs I use, just send me a PM with your mail or ICQ. ;) External SATA/PATA controllers do always work. ;)

It's not necessary, it's working now! It was caused by my confusion of driver versions. My original esdi_506.pdr was 4.10.2225 and that I used was patched 4.10.2226 and this caused the BSOD. Now I replaced it by correct patched version and everything seems to works OK. I didn't filled FAT32 partitions yet but if LBA48 was not active I cannot see the second partition and now I can.

Here's my volumes

BTW I didn't meant Kouwell adapter as a PCI card but as a small PCB which is attached to PATA drive and have SATA connector on other side (bought in CzechComputer per 250,-Kc). I used it for HDD mobile rack and to have ability to easy handle PATA drives.

>IAA doesnt work od 856PE chipset, look

Sorry I overlookd this. But I want to try some experiment with it :)

BTW what about DOS Scandisk from WinME? Is it safe to run it in >128G partitions? Somebody say yes others no...

I tried it and test succeed but there was not any bugs to fix so cannot say if it can corrupt something. And I don't fill partition over 128G. Should I rather rename/remove scandisk to prevent running it during boot? I have Norton utilities to do the job anyway...

Edited by xrayer
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Motherboard chipsets that have SATA integrated into them, rather than a separate chip, often appear to Windows 98SE as additional IDE controllers. Windows 98SE does not correctly configure these additional controllers causing lockup during boot. So far I have only resolved the problem for the MCP61S Chipset.

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...

Pitty that LLXX got herself banned really, as she could have certainly answered you better than me.

...

I post LLXX (pncw_redir_7031(AT)hotmail.com) Reply: The author has discontinued support of Enable48BitLBA and migrated to Linux.

:angry:

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If there is one file I think definately should be slipstreamed into your Windows 9x cd this would be it!

Forgetting to apply this patch before exceeding the 137GB of your hard disk would be a catastrophe.

So how would one go about replacing the original ESDI_506.PDR file so this new one is installed instead automatically (or preferably slipstreamed into the installation)?

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>Sorry I overlookd this. But I want to try some experiment with it :)

Hm, so I tried to modify INF file from IAA (supports up to ICH4) to add ICH7 support, then it was installed successfully, copied intelata driver to system directory but after reboot it didn't worked. In device manager I can see 82801DG controller with primary and secondary channel with /!\ warning. It seems that limitation is in intelata.mpd driver itself so I give up. Anyway modified esdi_506.pdr seems to work fine.

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>Forgetting to apply this patch before exceeding the 137GB of your hard disk would be a catastrophe.

Not so catastrophe. I booted my win98 before applying this patch (1st I needed to download it from somewhere :) and it didn't caused any damage to

data on other two big FAT32 partitions. One partition was even accessible and fully readable because I didn't filled it up to 128G limit. Other partition was reported as unknown. Of course I didn't try to write anything there before patching.

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Not so catastrophe. I booted my win98 before applying this patch (1st I needed to download it from somewhere and it didn't caused any damage to

data on other two big FAT32 partitions. One partition was even accessible and fully readable because I didn't filled it up to 128G limit. Other partition was reported as unknown. Of course I didn't try to write anything there before patching.

Just because you don't INTENTIONALLY write to a Partition does not mean writes don't occur. Win 9X creates RECYCLE bins, WinME creates restore points, and Win XP writes Disk Management info, without user interaction.

This type of damage can be very localized and not show up unless you test every byte of every file in every Partition. The unpatched ESDI_506.PDR does not simply wraparound when crossing the 137GB boundary but jumps around to different areas in a complex pattern.

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>Forgetting to apply this patch before exceeding the 137GB of your hard disk would be a catastrophe.

Not so catastrophe. I booted my win98 before applying this patch (1st I needed to download it from somewhere :) and it didn't caused any damage to

data on other two big FAT32 partitions. One partition was even accessible and fully readable because I didn't filled it up to 128G limit. Other partition was reported as unknown. Of course I didn't try to write anything there before patching.

Yeah not a catastrophe straight away, but if you still forget to apply the patch then fill the primary partition beyond 137GB or split a large hard disk into multiple partitions then try to use a part of the drive beyond 137GB you could be in for a nasty shock.

I never use my original Win98 disk to install Win98SE. I always use a backup disk I've created as I can add all my drivers and utilities to it that I always install. Slipstreaming ESDI_506.PDR would be rather reassuring. Can it be done?

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Just because you don't INTENTIONALLY write to a Partition does not mean writes don't occur. Win 9X creates RECYCLE bins, WinME creates restore points, and Win XP writes Disk Management info, without user interaction.

Oh sure, I don't support this kind of hazards and agree that integrating patch into installation is a good idea. Just wanted to say that it should't be catastrophic if you know what you are doing. About recycled - I have disabled it and when use my favorite file manager to delete fiels even recycle.bin directories are not created. And I didn't try to delete anything from those partitions anyway.

BTW does anybody know why Win98 don't like (hang at boot) SATA enhanced mode (enabled in BIOS to use more than 4 IDE drives [2 on PATA, 2 on SATA]). It works fine in DOS and safemode because then BIOS int 13h extension is used and take care about it.

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If there is one file I think definately should be slipstreamed into your Windows 9x cd this would be it!

Forgetting to apply this patch before exceeding the 137GB of your hard disk would be a catastrophe.

So how would one go about replacing the original ESDI_506.PDR file so this new one is installed instead automatically (or preferably slipstreamed into the installation)?

The point about not applying it before using the disk is that if the system attempts to write even one byte to above the limit, it will be written at the start of the disk and possibly mess up something you can't fix. (If you are installing Win98 in a partition which starts above 137GB you won't have any trouble - the installation process won't reboot into Win98 so you HAVE to replace the file at/before the appropriate moment!)

Two easy ways to get the file in place:

  1. One is to put it in the cab file in the Win98SE installation CD. It would be a good idea to make sure the original file exists there too in case it is needed later (rename it to ESDI_506.ORIG.PDR or something) and also to make sure there is a note in the readme file or on the CD itself. That's effectively a slipstream although you get no choice to avoid replacing it that way. (On my Win98SE CD it is in WIN98_51.CAB - I don't know if this varies for different versions.)
  2. The other is to replace it from DOS (not a DOS windows obviously). You can do this from a boot to DOS (from diskette, CD, USB stick etc), but it is also safe to do this by attending the Win98SE installation and stopping it rebooting into Win98SE the first time. At that stage, the Win98 OS has not accessed the disk. To do it from DOS, obviously you need to put the file somewhere where DOS can access it so that you can copy/move it into the ..\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS directory.

Hope that helps!

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Can you just unpack a .cab file then recreate the .cab file with the new file in it?

What program do you use?

Also, I notice Gapes Unofficial SP2 & SP3 says it supports semi slipstreaming, and all you have to do is copy your Win98 file from your Windows98 cd to your hard disk, then extract the files in the SP2.cab file into your Win98 folder that you copied earlier. These updated files will replace the existing files on the cd. Does that mean Windows 98 has a type of slipstreaming support built into Win98's installation process?

Edited by galahs
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Can you just unpack a .cab file then recreate the .cab file with the new file in it?

What program do you use?

I think there are extract.exe and makecab.exe (not sure of 2nd name) freely available allows you to extract and rebuild CAB files. But I did only extraction not rebuilding new cab.

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The unpatched ESDI_506.PDR driver checks if the sector number is within the 28-Bit range. Whoever designed the driver never wrote the code to handle higher sector numbers, or reject them. The code falls through to the older CHS algorithm. The CHS code does the math using unintialized geometry and 16-Bit cylinders to come up with settings that are sent to a drive which has never been initialized for CHS. The end result is a complex pattern of accesses over a portion of the 137GB range, intermixed with disk errors.

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