[98-Guy]

Cluster size and exploring the limits of FAT-32

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.p...f15325586abfa68

or try this:

http://tinyurl.com/4dxdcz

------------------

Windows 98 large file-count tests on large volume (500 gb hard drive)

http://tinyurl.com/3p285h

[Fredledingue]

Thanks for these valuable informations, 98-Guy!
This confirm and precise what we have been talking or speculating about.

[Fredledingue]

I talked a lot, and it was time to walk the talk...

I installed w98se on a 400Gb had disk, on a 38Gb partition on it, with another 345 Gb partition left for multimedia stuffs.
I still have the old hdd, with the full installation still intact, which is very useful.

The funny thing is that the two partitions/drive letters of the hard disk are saddled on the old disk drive letter:
C :, D:, E
C and E belong to a same physical hard disk and D belongs to another one. Not very important, just to say that it can happen.

First thing I have learned is: Do not use ME Bootdisk-Custom from bootdisk.com: It failed to porperly delete old partitions causing a hell of troubles. (full story here)

After I realised that, I used fdisk and format from BHDD30.zip and it worked.
Maybe other bootdisks from bootdisk.com work, I didn't test them.

Then more problems!
When launching windows setup I got this:

Please wait while Setup initializes
Scanning system registry...
Copying files needed for Windows Setup...

and then nothing happened.

==> I solved this problem by rebooting via floppy boot disk (original) in "Safe mode command prompt only".
Then he accpeted to install windows.

During restart, after the installer had copied all files, I pressed Ctrl and rebooted in dos mode to replace all files for supporting big hard drives, and to edit system.ini to support more than 512 Mb of memory.

For that I used the batch script above.
To my susprise, several files couldn't be copied because the location didn't existed yet or were not present in the directory where the bat file was.
The latter is very surprising, but ok.
Very cool was the edit command to add entries into system.ini.

Unfortunately, Windows didn't want to start:

Windows protection error.

Pffft...!
That's the worse error you can have because you can't load in safe mode.

==> The reason? IO.SYS had not been replaced by the bat script. In fact it cannot be replaced in plain Dos mode. That's maybe the only file on the whole system which can be deleted/replaced under windows but not under Dos.
So, I reset the jumpers and the ribbon cables to get back to the old hardware configuration and restarted on the old hard drive. Then, I replaced IO.sys on the new drive, simply with windows explorer. (full story here)

The question is: How to do without a second drive (<137 Gb) with windows already installed? I don't know, but I'v read that such error is rather rare.
I hope I'v got all the "rare" errors here.

Maybe a bad IO.sys on the boot floppy was also the reason why setup didn't start at first?

Hah! Sometimes I think that XP and Vista users are lucky ones!

[dencorso]

Hi, Fredledingue!
Sorry, it's my bad... I forgot to mention that you need to change IO.SYS attributes before being able to replace it in DOS mode, AND did not recheck your batch file for it. So, let's spell it here:

1) run ATTRIB IO.SYS from the root directory and you'll see:
SHR IO.SYS C:\IO.SYS
...this means that IO.SYS has the System, Hidden and Read-only attributes

2) now run ATTRIB -s -h -r IO.SYS from the root directory

3) run again ATTRIB IO.SYS from the root directory and you'll see:
IO.SYS C:\IO.SYS
...this means that IO.SYS now has no attributes

4) replace IO.SYS

5) now run ATTRIB +s +h +r IO.SYS from the root directory

6) run again ATTRIB IO.SYS from the root directory and you'll see:
SHR IO.SYS C:\IO.SYS
...this means that IO.SYS has again the System, Hidden and Read-only attributes

Of course, you only need to add to the batch file step (2) before replacing IO.SYS and step (5) after it.
It also means that you need to have ATTRIB.EXE present in the directory from which the batch file is run.

Sorry. I've performed the substitution of IO.SYS from plain DOS so many times already that I forgot to mention you need to change the attributes, and then change them back... But it can be done from DOS, and it can be done with a batch file. Windows Explorer doesn't care much about the DOS file-attributes, but DOE does care.

In what regards the attribution of the drive letters, DOS will give C: to the active primary partition in the first physical disk, then D: to the active primary partition in the second physical disk, then give the next letters to all drives in the extended partition of the first physical drive, then to those in the second physical drive (and then give letters to any inactive additonal primary partitions present in the first, then the second physical drives, in this order, when they exist).

This post has been edited by dencorso: 08 July 2008 - 07:14 PM

[Fredledingue]

Hi, denocrso!
I always thought the oposite: that Windos cared more about attributes han dos, that dos can do everything...
All right: I updated the batch script.

Added attrib commands and also changed some "move" into "copy" to avoid the files to disapear in case we neeed them again.
The attrib command should work if you restart from the boot option menu because it uses the windows installed files. Maybe not if you reboot from a floppy.

Do you think tha a wrong IO.SYS could be the cause of a failed setup launch?

This post has been edited by Fredledingue: 09 July 2008 - 09:48 AM

[dencorso]

Sorry to have taken so long to reply. Got far too many chestnuts in my plate to chew...

Fredledingue, on Jul 9 2008, 01:47 PM, said:

The attrib command should work if you restart from the boot option menu because it uses the windows installed files. Maybe not if you reboot from a floppy.

All you need is to make sure you have ATTRIB.EXE (14.89 KiB) present in the floppy.

Quote

Do you think tha a wrong IO.SYS could be the cause of a failed setup launch?

I guess you've just shown it does

I've done some tests with two different 500 MB external USB drives, a SAMSUNG HD501LJ (inside a Conceptronic Grab'n'Go CSM3PL500) and a IOMEGA HDS72505, both formatted as FAT-32, with 32 KiB clusters (15.2 million clusters).

The FORMAT, FDISK, SCANDISK and SCANDSKW/DISKMAINT recomended in this thread work flawlessly.
So does NDD (2002) for DOS. XXCOPY (32-bit, v. 2.96.5) also did a nice job in copying the contents of one of them (full to the brink) to the other, although it took just over 8h to finish.
On the other hand ndd32.exe (v. 18.0.0.62, from NSW 2005) gives a nasty BSOD quite fast on either. It isn't able to tackle 15.2 millions of clusters. This is to add one more result to the excellent info provided by 98 Guy in the links in post #37.

[grizzlybear]

Using Partition Magic 8 I have had perfect success using a WD-250 My Book essential version. There is a trick to it though. First wipe out any existing partions. Next create a fat32 primary partition with a size of 120 gig (or 50%). Next create a second fat32 primary partition for the remaining 120 gigs. You do not want any extended partitions or logical drives. Once you are done Windows will read, write, defrag(oem), and scandisk(oem) each 120 gig partition without error msgs. Even Norton Utilities sees it as a clean drive. You don't need any LBA drivers or patched files. Now you can only have 2 primary partions on a single physical drive in Win98 so this doesn't work with drives larger than 250 gig without wasting a whole bunch of drive space.

Hope this helps.

Grizzly Bear

[dencorso]

Fredledingue, on Jun 21 2008, 06:46 PM, said:

Before gathering all the files from theirs Windows locations you must have applied all these patches (already mentioned above):
Q311561
BHDD30
48BitLBA
SCANFRAG
[...]
Any comment?

Hi, Fredledingue!
Great news! Maximus-Decim has released BHDD31e, inside the latest MDCU.
Find it standalone here: BHDD31.ZIP
It contains the appropriate SCANDISK for DOS, so SCANFRAG is no longer needed.
It also contains ESDI_506.PDR v. 4.10.0.2230, which IS LLXX's patched ESDI_506.PDR v. 4.10.0.2225, with the version changed to 2230 so as to avoid any doubt that it IS the patched for 48-LBA version. [BTW, this renumbering is a legacy from the time when LLXX developed the patch, as there was a group that defended renumbering and another group favoring not renumbering, and it indicates that MD sides with the former group... No consensus has been arrived at, and probably never will. But it's OK, what matters really is that the patched file works beautifully. ]
Hence, your procedure now can be done using just two files: BHDD31e and Q311561!
Would you, please, update your post #26 accordingly?

This post has been edited by dencorso: 01 December 2008 - 08:13 PM

[sp193]

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but does the unpatched Win98 FDISK does not only have a cosmetic defect, but that incorrect figure it displays also limits your operations? For example, I tried to FDISK a 80GB drive, but it showed my drive @ 100% to only have much less than the correct 76317MB capacity (Which is displayed in the patched FDISK), and does not allow me to partition my disk beyond that.

I DO know that the cosmetic defect in format.com does not affect it's function...

[dencorso]

sp193, on Nov 29 2008, 04:22 AM, said:

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but does the unpatched Win98 FDISK does not only have a cosmetic defect, but that incorrect figure it displays also limits your operations? For example, I tried to FDISK a 80GB drive, but it showed my drive @ 100% to only have much less than the correct 76317MB capacity (Which is displayed in the patched FDISK), and does not allow me to partition my disk beyond that.

I DO know that the cosmetic defect in format.com does not affect it's function...

Short answer: Yes!

Long answer: read Q263044, Petr's thread on Format and Fdisk, and Q280737, in this order.

My opinion: Best to use GDISK (not for free) or the Ranish Partition Manager (wonderful, free, does not like SATA).

This post has been edited by dencorso: 23 February 2010 - 09:12 AM

[affter333]

I installed BHDD31.ZIP on my win98se

Scandisk now works on >137G partitions

but when trying to fix crosslinks, it hangs,
had to reset the machine, tried a few times
,the same result.

[aqcww]

hello
ummm,does bighdd patch support win me? i decide to change a new hdd.
thanks

[dencorso]

Most of the files inside BHDD31.ZIP are from ME. For ME, all you need is this fix: ME48BLBA.EXE. Now, the pointer I've given you is for the English version of the file, which probably works also with the chinese versions. Check the properties of your present C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\ESDI_506.PDR: I suspect it already is an English language file. And even if it's not, the English file should work. Do back up first. Then try to apply this patch. If the patcher fails for any reason, restore your back-up and I'll help you install the patched ESDI_506.PDR from true DOS. But be sure to do it now, before you add a BIG HDD. Good luck!

[aqcww]

dencorso, on Jul 7 2009, 10:30 AM, said:

Most of the files inside bighdd are from ME. For ME, all you need is this fix: ME48BLBA.EXE. Now, the pointer I've given you is for the English version of the file, which probably works also with the chinese versions. Check the properties of your present C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\ESDI_506.PDR: I suspect it already is an English language file. And even if it's not, the English file should work. Do back up first. Then try to apply this patch. If the patcher fails for any reason, restore your back-up and I'll help you install the patched ESDI_506.PDR from true DOS. But be sure to do it now, before you add a BIG HDD. Good luck!

Thanks for replying.do you mean that i don't need bhh patch for winme,just need the lba patch?

[dencorso]

aqcww, on Jul 8 2009, 02:17 AM, said:

Thanks for replying.do you mean that i don't need bhh patch for winme,just need the lba patch?

Yes! Moreover BHDD31.ZIP is intended for Win 98SE, not for ME.