Here's the deal: I have TWO hard drives one is SATA and 160 gigs and another is PATA and 300 gigs. XP is on the SATA disk, so i wanna install 98SE on the PATA drive. I ran FDISK and made a 4.3 gig FAT32 there, but when i run setup i get SU0013 error. I searched the web for solutions, but NONE have worked so far. I thought it's because the partition is NOT active, i tried to set it active in FDISK, but it says "Only partitions on Drive 1 can be made active" WHY? So, i used Ranish Partition Manager to set the partition active, but i STILL get SU0013 error. What's the problem? Is it because 98SE will ONLY setup on 'Drive 1?' How can i change it so FDISK and 98SE setup will see the PATA drive as 'Drive 1' and NOT Drive 2?

Specs:
Chipset: Intel Grantsdale-G i915G/GL/GV
Processor: Pentium 4 Prescott @ 2.8 GHz w/ HT (HT is Disabled in BIOS)
Memory: 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM (2 x 256 MB 240-pin DIMM sticks)
Display: Intel 82915G/GV/GL Express Fanily Chipset (GMA 900)
SATA Drive: Seagate ST3160828AS
PATA Drive: Seagate ST3300620A


Thanks.

Place the FAT32 partition at the begining of the drive. Make sure that it is a primary partition and is active.
Disconnect the other drive until you're done installing.
Re-connect the other drive.
Use XOSL as a boot loader and set the "Swap drives" , "Activate partition" and "Fix drive nuimber" options for the Win98 entry.

P.S. you'll probably have driver problems on this chipset.

HTH

Does changing in Bios so that you boot from PATA instead not help ?

The most important information you can provide is any info from your motherboard manual about what OSes it supports. Even though some boards provide support for PATA (IDE) drives it doesn't necessarily mean it will run DOS 7 (Win98) properly. If i am right, somewhere it will say it only supports Windows 2000 and up. If there is no reference at all then it is inconclusive. If it actually says it supports Windows 98se then we can rule this out. For me this is the first question.

Well, changing the PATA drive to boot BEFORE the SATA drive via BIOS made FDISK recognize it as 'Drive 1.' NO more Su0013 error when i run setup. However, i got a SU0015 & SU0012 error, but BOTH of these errors let me 'Continue' to setup. Unfortunately, setup will NOT finish, it copies files fine, but the SECOND screen that detects hardware NEVER comes up instead i get this BSOD:

Disk Write Error

Unable to write to disk in drive C:
Data or files may be lost


What's the deal? Here's what i've tried: I disabled the SATA drive in BIOS (NOT disconnected it, though) and RE-installed (this time, NO SU0015, SU0012, or ANY SU errors, by the way) BUT the end result is EXACTLY the same as before. I partitioned the drive in FDISK (it took a long time to "Verify Integrity", too) It's Primary and set active, and the first and ONLY partition on the drive. I formatted it as FAT32 using the DOS FORMAT C: command. Could it be that my CD Drive, which happens to be a DVD burner (AND also where i'm installing 98SE from) is NOT being detected by setup? The model is HP DVD Writer 840x. Or is it something to do with the IDE drive? I'll try to disable the on-board sound (maybe video card, too) and see what happens. I think my chipset supports 98SE, because there is a thread here on this forum by someone with a similar chipset who got 98SE working on it.

Well, you could try copy the Win98 folder on the install CD to your FAT drive, then boot from C: and install this way.
You probably have to disable ACPI mode ( SETUP.EXE /P I )

HTH

I just copied the D:/WIN98 folder to C:\ and installed from there using 'setup /p i'. I'm afraid to say that it did NOT help. I get the exact same BSOD error at the same time as before.

Disk Write Error

Unable to write to disk in drive C:
Data or files may be lost

Is there anything else i can do now

Not much that i can think of, sorry.
You could try to tweak your BIOS settings and see if this helps.
Maybe installing on the SATA drive in PATA emulation mode would work.
Other thing to try is, if you have another PC or VMWare/VirtualPC/etc. , to copy an already installed Win98 system from there.
You could also see if Safe mode works on your half-installed setup and mess a bit with it. Once i had to delete some INF files just before the hardware detection in order to avoid a BSOD caused by the detection routines.

Actually, i'm thinking of installing 98se on the SATA drive instead, since i may install Linux on the PATA. But what is "PATA emulation mode" and how do i enable it? Copying a 98se installation rarely works, but i may give it a try. Well, i have a glimmer of hope, Safe Mode is working! However, i don't know what to do there. What INF file could cause the 'Disk Write Error' i'd like to know?

"PATA emulation mode" is a BIOS/chipset feature that makes the SATA drives be seen as normal PATA drives from the OS. If you have something in your BIOS setup which sounds like this, try to enable it.

Unfortunately, your problem seems to not be caused by detection routines, so simply deleting INF files probably won't help.
Your problem is caused by Win98 not using the IDE hardware in the way your system expects.

Start MSCONFIG and tweak the settings in the "Advanced settings" dialog.

Also, while booting to continue the setup, press F8 to boot to DOS instead, and then try to start WIN.COM with some of the command-line switches it provides.

While in Safe mode, open the Device manager and, if there are any HDD controllers already installed, you could try to change the driver used for them.

HTH

I think i found 'PATA emulation mode' in the BIOS. Under Drives>SATA Operation>'RAID Autodetect/ATA' is selected. The BIOS describes it as "RAID if signed drives, otherwise ATA." So, since i do NOT have a RAID array the drive is PATA mode? (ATA=PATA) How is "Win98 not using the IDE hardware in the way your system expects"? What, in particular, do you suggest i tweak in the Advanced section of MSCONFIG? What driver(s) do you have in mind that i should use to replace the already installed HDD controllers?

RAID and ATA are different stuff. SerialATA and ParallelATA are both... well ATA.
So, SATA=ATA and PATA=ATA, but SATA<>PATA
Look for an option which mentions "emulation" or "compatibility" or "IDE" mode.
About the drivers, just try some of the generic ones. Or you could uninstall them, then remove all HDD related INF files from your \Windows\INF folder and try to finish the instalation this way.
In Msconfig, the first 4 options might be of use. Try these in a few combinations and see what happens.

Then, i do NOT have an option to turned on/off the SATA drive to anything but RAID. Since there is NO mentioned of "IDE, Compatibility, emulation" or the likes anywhere in BIOS setup. Would a BIOS Firmware update give me this option? I believe the problem is "Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller" because Safe Mode says "The device is not using resources because it has a problem." I can remove it, but i can NOT remove 'Primary or Secondary Controllers (dual fifo)." I get a message that "the device is part of a multi-function device to remove it, first remove the Parent Device. Parent Device: NO description available." What does this mean? I also tried ALL WIN / switches and MSCONFIG advanced settings, but NO luck in booting at all. I think i'm gonna try to install 98SE on the SATA drive. My question: Can 98SE co-exist on a separate partition on the same drive where XP is ALREADY installed?

As far I remember the right sequence is: first Win98 SE than Windows XP (probably this is reason for your trouble).

That's right, but i thought this procedure applies ONLY when 98SE is installed on the SAME drive where XP resides, does it not?

The "first Win98 SE then Windows XP" thingie is because Win9x deletes the XP boot loader from the MBR, this is the only reason for that order. Anyways, it can be fixed by using the recovery console option which appears when booting the XP install CD. Or you could use any other boot manager.

To remove the primary and secondary controllers, delete the CHILDxxx registry keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\MF\

Finally, SUCCESS. The problem was NOT the IDE cable, connector, DVD burner, the motherboard, or anything hardware related. Nor was the problem the Hard Disk controller drivers by themselves. The problem was the Hard Disk Controller drivers SETTINGS. Originally, 98SE detected the following under 'Hard Disk Controllers':

2x Primary IDE Controller (SINGLE fifo)

2x Secondary IDE Controller (SINGLE fifo)

2x Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller

First off, the motherboard has ONE IDE channel for a MAX of TWO devices. This is the Primary IDE connector, right? So, why does 98SE detect a Secondary IDE Controller much less a second "Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller", then? Second, so 98SE thinks i can have a MAX of 8 devices connected to my motherboard Or is one of them for the SATA controller? Anyways, in Safe Mode for BOTH the 'Standard Dual PCI IDE Controllers' i went under Settings tab-->'Dual IDE Channel Settings'--> I set the FIRST one listed to "Only Primary IDE Channel Enabled" and the SECOND one listed to "Only SECONDARY IDE Channel Enabled" After rebooting, Voila! 98SE finished in a breeze at long last. Now, the following appears under 'Hard Disk Controllers':

Primary IDE Controller (SINGLE fifo)

Secondary IDE Controller (SINGLE fifo)

2x Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller


As you can see, the other two Primary & Secondary IDE controllers are GONE. However, the DVD burner is NOT detected at all . Also, when i enabled my SATA drive via BIOS, the 'Primary IDE Controller (SINGLE fifo)' gets a yellow excalmation point after it under Device Manger. Why does this happen?