Will98\98SE Recognize Extremely large Hard Drives.

Hello Guys, & Gals,

I have read, & heard many contradicting statements about this.

Will Windows 98\98SE recognize a hard drive over 32GB. Say an 80GB, without using the software overlay program that comes with the hard drive.

I am considering buying an 80GB, and need to know the absolute facts from those who are using either one or both 98\98SE, and have a hard drive operating on them that is that big. I am pretty sure my MoBo BIOS will see it, but am not real sure if 98\98SE will or not.

Thanks for your input.

 

Hi Deloris,

As long as your BIOS will accept that large of a drive, you shouldn't have a problem. I run Win98 on one of my systems and installed a 120GB drive without a problem. The whole drive is recognized without any special software. The overlay software should just be used if your BIOS can not handle that size of drive.

Hope that helps!

Mike

 

Thank you Mike.

M$ has put out so-called hotfixes for both 98 & 98SE for large hard drive recognition. If neither one has a problem, as long as the MoBo BIOS recognizes these drives, why did M$ put out hot fixes for it? What do those hot fixes actually do then?

The specs on my motherboard would seem to be enough to see a drive as large as 128GB. However Tyan does not specify how large of a hard drive mine will see, but I don't think it would have a problem with it. I wish MoBo makers would tell you such vital imformation, but they don't ever seem to.

I kind of figured it might be more of a BIOS issue than a Windows issue, but have read so many differing quotes on the subject. Asking people who are actually doing it is usually a better barometer.

I don't partition mine off in DOS. I use Partition Magic to do that. The lazy man's way. Would that pose a problem?

 

The only thing I have heard about it is the Fdisk not recognizing disks larger than 64gb. There is an updated Fdisk available.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;263044&
There is also a note on that page.

 

Deloris,

I also heard about the fix for large drives, but I went ahead and tried things any ways. Like I mentioned, not a problem. Not sure what the fixes do exactly. My system is almost 5 years old now. So, if your's is newer, you should be fine.

I have heard alot of people use Partition Magic, so I see no problem with it. I, on the other hand, used FDISK to partition my drive. Either way should do the trick.

Mike

 

Thanks guys.

So the M$ hotfix, if I should need it, would work on my system, right?

My original computer was built in January of 1999, but I upgraded it to a different Motherboard, CPU & etc., about a year or so later. The first MoBo upgrade died in about six months or so, but was still under warranty. They put another MoBo back in exactly like the one that died. My BIOS should be plenty good enough then.

My Chipset is: VIA Apollo Pro 133A.

My BIOS is: Award BIOS on 2MB flash EEPROM, Plug and Play, APM 1.2/ACPI 1.0/PC99 compliant, IDE drive auto configure, Soft power-down, Multiple boot options, DMI 2.0 compliant.

Whatever all of that means. It's all kind of like greek to me.

To me, Partition Magic is the "cats meow." I occasionally change the partitions to match the amount of data stored, or to accomadate some other necessity. Having to do it in FDisk would be a problem under those circumstances.

 

Deloris,

You're welcome and the hot fix should work on for you, if needed.

I can understand that. When I had a smaller drive (6GB) in there, I set a partition big enough for Win98 a few things and the larger partition held everything else. Looking back, I should have had only one partition.

Mike

 

Not if you want more dependable data protection. Or use excellent alternatives for MS software.

One good alternative for MS is Eudora e-mail set up on a partition other then C: saves a tremendous amount of grief if the OS goes haywire. Especially with Eudora as everything is stored in its own folder.

Also in Win95 & 98 things like Favorites, My Documents, can also be stored on another partition. Just takes a few minutes of Regediting if the OS needs to re-installed clean to change it so it points to the right place. And just a few minutes of Reg checking if an overtop re-install is done.

In 9x things like the Start Menu can be copied to another partiton and copied back if the OS is wiped out. Then you will know what you had and where it was so a re-install can go back in the same place.

Program Data files can be backed up to another partition for safety.

I know some users think partitioning is a waste. But I myself 100% disagree. I put data and program saving first.

Deloris

After the HD is once set up and contains data, Partition Magic is the only way to go for resizing etc.

BillyBob

 

I totally agree with that. Whatever is on your OS partition is vulnerable to a crash. You lose the OS, & you lose the important data too, unless you have it all backed up elsewhere. The really, really important stuff is also backed up on CD's.

Putting Favorites & My Documents off on another partition is what I do. It keeps you from restoring outdated data in them from an image file, and also keeps the current copy relatively safe from a bad situation.

Copying the start menu to a partition is a real time saver if you have to fresh install. Copying the "send to" folder is too, if you have added stuff to that little jewel.

Keeping my important data safe from a possible OS crash is of the utmost importance to me. Especially image files of the OS. That is critical.

I am in complete agreement with that. I would never go back to a hard drive that was not partitioned, or a way to change the sizes, split partitions, & etc., when necessary. I have so many different types of data on mine, that trying to keep it all in one partition was so confusing before I got PM. I couldn't find anything. Now, I know exactly where each type of data resides on my hard drive. Each partition is named according to it's contents, & it really makes it a lot simpler to find stuff. I have 3 OS's on my main drive, & a logical data set up strictly for each of those, plus other logicals for stuff like MP3's, & etc. All logicals are accessible from all OS's too. I am so organized now, it is almost boring.

I think I will get the 80GB. I am about to start some stuff, & will need a lot more room than I have now. Too much stuff & not enough space to put it in. You get a 30GB, and think, boy that's a lot along with the 10GB you already had. NOT!

Thanks guys. I don't feel quite so iffy about the 80 gigger now.

 

Yippeeeee!

Got my 80GB in & it's working fine. Everybody sees it. Of course Partition Magic says there's 78.16GB, and Windoze only sees 76.3 of it, but that's par for the course. That's Windoze for you. It always takes part of it & hides it for it's own purposes.

Hubby decided to buy him an 80GB too, but unfortunately his BIOS didn't want to cooperate. I had not even opened mine yet, so I decided not to, just in case.

I was busy doing some other stuff & decided to go see if he'd gotten his working. He hadn't.

He tried the overlay program, and Boot Magic didn't like that at all. He just removed the hard drive, uninstalled the overlay, & uninstalled Boot Magic, because it didn't work anymore, then re-installed Boot Magic. Everything finally worked again.

We wound up putting the one he'd unpacked in mine, because his BIOS would not see but 32GB of it. So he will take the other one back, never having been opened, & trade it for a 30GB. One consolation is he will get the difference back between the two drives.

We've had a fun day.

 

Deloris,

Great news and thanks for the update!

Mike

 

Deloris - your computer is seeing all the hard drive - the difference between what's on the box and what Windows sees is a sneaky little difference in defining gigabytes used by the HD companies.

A gigabyte defined in the binary system that the computer uses is ~ 1,073,741,824 bytes

HD manufacturers use 1,000,000,000 bytes to define a Gigabyte. This is usually marked on the retail boxes in a corner in small obscure print.

So if you take your 80,000,000,000 byte (80 GB) HD as the HD maker defines it and divide it by 1,073,741,824 (the binaryl definition of a GB) it equals approx 75 GB.

When I first installed a retail drive I too wondered why the advertised size was different than what Windows saw. I must have spent two hours looking for those lost GB Then I found the obscure text. It all comes down to whose defining the GB. The HD makers use a much more liberal defintion of a GB than the binary system does. And as you have found even applications that run within Windows use a different methond of calculation than the OS.

I'm pretty sure your machine is seeing the whole hard drive.

I must just be easier to sell 80 GB Hard drives than 76.3 GB drives

Cheers

ICE

 

Yes, I know dear. I had read about that stuff, & was not even expecting it to be a full 80. It would have been nice if it had been, but I knew in reason it wouldn't be.

What I was referring to mainly was the difference between what Partition Magic sees & what Windows sees. Partition Magic sees 78.16GB, & Windows sees 76.3. A difference of 1.86GB. It's anybody's guess which one is right. I guess windows either took that 1.86 & threw it away, or hid it somewhere for it's own surepticious purposes.

My 30GB actually turned out to be 32.36GB according to FDisk, so I guess it pretty well evened out. They're both made by the same Company. At any rate, I have oodles of room. At least for now anyway.