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Win98SE and a 48LBA disk drive.

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  • Windows
  • Disk Drive
Last response: in Windows 95/98/ME
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May 23, 2013 11:25:54 AM

(Kind of a follow up of my other thread)

Hi all.

I have a 160GB disk that I want to put into my 98 PC.

I am aware that you have to format it with tools and other stuff because of 48bit LBA problems. I have a PartedMagic disk on my desk ready to go.

Now. I popped in the disk, and the disk drive. Booted PM and formatted it properly. The BIOS supports LBA and it sports the 845G chipset, which is capable of using the IAA program.

However, on running 98 setup, Scandisk throws an error.
(This isn't the whole message)

"Scandisk cannot read from the last cluster of Drive C:..." blah blah 48bit LBA blah blah.

The disk is fine, the disk was scanned with a 48 LBA capable scanner and reported no errors.

Can I continue through setup and ignore the error, and follow what is says on 48lba.com? Or do I have to go and find or buy an old 80GB disk?

Thanks for all your help.

More about : win98se 48lba disk drive

May 23, 2013 11:45:00 AM

Option#1
There is a program that has a speed penalty that you download from the hdd site.
It is not worth it because it will be about 50% slower. What it does is uses about 2gb in a hidden partition and tricks windows into thinking its only a 2gb drive. So that 2gb is a cache and gets copied later to the rest of the drive.

Option #2
On most drives there is a "limit size to 128gb" Jumper or something like that. It will format as a smaller drive and part of the drive is unusable or "wasted". Look for the jumper on the drive.

Option #3 Fdisk it in windows xp to fat32 and the first partition is 120gigs and do not enable the last partition. Win98 will use the 120gig fat32 partition. If you enable the remaining 40 gigs later win98 will "wrap around" and copying files to the last partition will erase files on the first partition.
You can use manage in windows xp, later versions of windows should work as well.
MAKE SURE IT IS FAT32 NOT NTFS AND A PRIMARY PARTITION.

It should work with a 120 gig partition, oddly enough if you enabled the second partition in winxp to a extended partition and format it in something win98 can't read, it's ok. So you can even put linux on that part of the drive or winxp after win98 is installed first so you get the boot up screen for dual boot. As long as windows98 cant see that 40 gig partition it should be ok.
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May 23, 2013 11:53:44 AM

It is fairly common for drives of that vintage to have errors too on the last gig or so of the drive, so if you make a second partition in ntfs or a linux partition, do not use all of the drive, waste the last couple of gigs. That was common practice on ide drives.

You might want to also not enable the 1st gig as well, partition the 1st one but don't enable it, often the errors are on the 1st and last gig of the platters.
I am assuming this drive is old, has bad bearings, funny vibrations, and a noisy drive head, right?

If all else fails, make a fat32 partition in the middle of the drive, waste the first 20 gigs and last 20 gigs.
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May 23, 2013 1:31:40 PM

need4speeds said:
It is fairly common for drives of that vintage to have errors too on the last gig or so of the drive, so if you make a second partition in ntfs or a linux partition, do not use all of the drive, waste the last couple of gigs. That was common practice on ide drives.

You might want to also not enable the 1st gig as well, partition the 1st one but don't enable it, often the errors are on the 1st and last gig of the platters.
I am assuming this drive is old, has bad bearings, funny vibrations, and a noisy drive head, right?

If all else fails, make a fat32 partition in the middle of the drive, waste the first 20 gigs and last 20 gigs.


Thanks for the quick answers!

The 160GB disk I want to replace to is from around 1st of November 2008, the disk is very quiet and runs great.
The original old 20GB disk is from the 29th of November 2002, it is a little noisy, and you can hear a couple of "starting clicks", as in it's clicking to say that the drive is active.

I am thinking of having it half and half. If that's not possible, I'll give XP the larger partition.
If push comes to shove, and getting the damn thing working is a massive pain, I'll grab one from eBay.

Still, I'd like to use this drive.

Again, thanks for the fast replies. :) 
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