Another External HDD Help

[PcDrive]

I've been trying to look for some help on a question regarding external hdd with my Win98se. I wanna build one which I see as being cheaper but I'm not sure as to which interface would be compatible with it? and how many Gb would work? I've heard Microsoft has a program for enlarging the hdd on Win98se but I'm not sure how much? I heard 137Gb but a definite answer would help. could I run USB 2.0 with a USB Driver CD? or an ATA 100/133? Also does it matter if I get the 2.5" or 3.5" internal hdd if I get the enclosure to match it? It be really helpful if some1 could answer this for me since not many people have Win98se anymore.

 

[Doughbuy]

Oh my... Win98SE... if you asked this question 6 years ago I might have been able to answer it, now I can just give you some educated guesses...

MS might have a way, but since Win98 support has been discontinued, good luck finding it. Otherwise, stick with a smaller drive.

Don't even know if Win98 supports USB2.0... man.. these are some hard questions... I wouldn't bet on it.

IDE cables will work fine, don't see a problem there. 2.5" and 3.5" should be the same either, disk drives to OS's all the same...

But man... Win98SE... didn't think I'd ever hear that term again.

 

[FireWire2]

Wow 98SE!...

Well as far as i know, for external drive with Win98SE, 1394 is the only one work properly (of course with a down load patch from MS)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUFeatured/1394/Default.asp

USB in Win98SE... Oh no! don't even try

 

[SomeJoe7777]

This is going to be a challenge, but if you're up to it, it can be done.

1. You need to have either a USB 2.0 interface or 1394 interface on a controller card that works under 98SE. If the drivers for that are working properly, then an external hard drive should get recognized. This may require the latest patches/hotfixes from Microsoft as well. As was said above, the 1394 option is probably more reliable under 98SE.

2. The normal limit for drive size under Windows 98SE is 137GB/127GiB. This is because Windows 98SE only supports 28-bit LBA.

There is a guy over at the Microsoft Forum Network (MSFN) who has hacked the Win98SE disk driver stack and put in his own code to enable 48-bit LBA. Several people are using it with success. However, it's completely unsupported code, so who knows if it'll work on your system or not, or kill your data in some spectacular episode later on. 8O

If you want to try it, go here and download the utility to check to see if your system BIOS supports 48-bit LBA. If it doesn't, then you're out of luck and the driver won't work anyway. Find a drive <137GB.

If it does, then go here and download the Enable48bitLBA file for your system. Follow the author's instructions exactly. There are several versions of the hacked driver file, you must download and use the exact one required for your build of Win98SE.

Note: You only need the hacked driver to use a >137GB drive. If your drive is smaller than that, you don't need it.

Be aware that you'll still have to format the drive as FAT32 even if you get the driver working, which will still limit you to the inherent limitations of the FAT32 file system (file size limit 4GB is the primary limit).

 

[darkstar782]

2. The normal limit for drive size under Windows 98SE is 137GB/127GiB. This is because Windows 98SE only supports 28-bit LBA.

My 98SE memories are very vague and blurry now, however....

Back in them days I ran 2*100GB WD Caviar 7200RPM drives in RAID 0 on a Promise Fasttrack TX4 PCI controller. These presented themselves to Windoze as a single 200GB drive.

How come this worked?

Because Windows saw it as SCSI?

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Back in them days I ran 2*100GB WD Caviar 7200RPM drives in RAID 0 on a Promise Fasttrack TX4 PCI controller. These presented themselves to Windoze as a single 200GB drive.

How come this worked?

Because Windows saw it as SCSI?

Correctamundo. 8)

SCSI (and any other storage device that doesn't rely on the standard INT13/ATA driver specification) does not have the limits of 28-bit LBA. This includes most storage controllers that have their own driver.

 

[darkstar782]

So given that, anyone that hits the 28bit LBA issue with a modern drive could just buy a $15 Silicon Image 680A controller and put the HDD on there, and access all of it

 

[PcDrive]

I can't express how thankful I am for this information and all the help. I've been asking for help but none so far has been able to help until now. If I can ask one more question: the hacked driver has me a little scared of loosing all my data, if I run a 250Gb hdd and partitioned the drive into two 125Gb hdd would it eliminate the need to run the hacked driver?

 

[SomeJoe7777]

If I can ask one more question: the hacked driver has me a little scared of loosing all my data, if I run a 250Gb hdd and partitioned the drive into two 125Gb hdd would it eliminate the need to run the hacked driver?

Unfortunately, no. The 28-bit LBA limit is not the partition size, but the device size. 28 bits only allows a INT13 call to access LBA block number 268,435,456 maximum. This is the last block of the 137GB limit. Any blocks beyond that on the device are not accessible, regardless of the partition they sit in or its size.

If you don't want to run the hacked driver, see if there is an inexpensive SATA controller card that has Win98SE drivers and use that to get around the limitation. (Would require an internal SATA drive or eSATA enclosure).