Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 14:45:00 -0800 (PST)
From: Matt Hanson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [LIB] Starting over: W98 on >8GB HDD w/o EZ-Drive
Are there anny other Librettoratti with Windows 98 on a >8GB HDD not using
EZ-Drive or other drive overlay out there? David, Lee... you guys out
there?
--- Philip Nienhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Can a few people who've set up Win98 their Libbys with >8GB HDDs
confirm
> > that W98 from a partition <8GB can run scandisk on partitions >8GB, and
> > not have scandisk see file/folder problems that it doesn't with drive
> > overly installed?
>
> Yes I can confirm this. It works with 0c type FAT32 logical partitions,
> and *NOT* with 0b type (risk of serious data loss).
I'm wonder what other people who've put W98 on large, >8GB hard drives have
experienced. If you only create >primary< type 0b partitions, and not
logical ones, would you still run into this problem?
> I must say I find Win2K's "scandisk" a lot more rigorous.
It's funny that MS went retro in W2K, and has gone back to calling the
utility 'chkdsk' again from the earlier daze of MS-DOS. But I'm frustrated
with it, as I've yet to have it give me any in-depth report on what errors
it's found when it runs, and what it plans to do to resolve them. But
being new to W2K, perhaps it's logging its corrections somewhere.
> > * Use FDISK to create the biggest partition it can see
> > * Format the partition FAT32
> > * Copy the W98 installation folder \Win98 to C: in a desktop
> > * Put the drive in the Lib and install W98
> > * Put the drive in desktop and make a partition or space for Lib
> > hibernation
>
> How (with what program) would you do that? If you've installed Win98 in
> the Lib, and then run it in a dsektop, it will find lots of new HW.
I just boot from a floppy. From there I can run DOS versions of
partitioning software like Ranish and Partition Magic.
> > * Create whatever number partitions you want >8GB
> > * Put drive back in Lib, and W98 should then be able to handle files &
> > folders on partition >8GB
>
> Theoretically, it should work out like this (but I never tried it this
> way, so YMMV), using a desktop with a BIOS with properly implemented
> int13 extensions.
I'm wondering if I can just fix things on this HDD as they are by
re-installing W98, and if that's not enough, maybe deleting the G: data
drive, creating a new one type 0c, and restoring the data from backup. And
I'm still pondering whether or not the FAT32 file system on G: was in fact
corrupted when W98's scandisk on C: made corrections to files on G:. I
would think W2K's chkdsk would have complained too if that were the fact.
I'm also trying to sort out how to go about backing up W2K boot files now
on C: so that after a fresh W98 installation there, I can copy them back
and have W2K's boot loader start when the system turns on. I guess
Boot.ini, Ntldr, Ntdetect.com, and maybe Ntbootdd.sys are the ones, along
with the \cmdcons folder and the cmdldr file for the Recovery Console. But
I'm not clear yet on whether or not the fresh W98 installation might set
something somewhere that will cause the boot sequence to ignore the W2K
boot files I copy back.
> 1. In the lib, on the empty HD make the biggest *primary* partition
> FDISK can see (it will be almost 8 GB or just more than 8 GB, depending
> on the type of GB you like (base 10.24 or base 10, the latter = SI). To
> be sure, just make it about 7.8 MB (base 10.24) smaller (because Windows
> may create partitions which do not start or end on cylinder boundaries).
>
> 2. Put the HD in a desktop.
>
> 3. Now use FDISK to assign the rest of the HD space to an extended
> partition (will probably be type 0F).
>
> 4. Make a first logical partition with a minimum size of 71 MB, better
> make it 78 or even 100 MB (base 10.24). This will be the hibernation
> space. If needed, you can use PartEd to change the partition type to
> -say- A0 (= IBM hibernation partition, just for a reminder).
>
> 5. Assign other logical partitions as you see fit. (They should be of
> type 0C automatically)
I've been told that FDISK will >not< in fact create a logical partition of
type 0C. That because FDISK doesn't recognize a logical partition as being
bootable. And part of the definiation of a type 0c partition is that it is
bootable.
So if any Libretto folks have created partitions using only FDISK when
installing Windows 98(SE) without drive overlay, they should be seeing the
same problems with scandisk errors on files and folders on >8GB partitions
from what you've described. No?
> 6. If you didn't change the hibernation partition type, simply delete
> the first logical partition which was to be the hibernation space.
>
> 7. Put the HD back in the Lib.
>
> 8. Install W98, don't let it touch the partition layout but simply
> specify it to install in C:\Win98 or C:\WINDOWS at your discretion.
>
> 9. Using W98, format the logical partitions.
>
> 10. Ready.
That sounds pretty close to what I laid out, plus filling in some details.
However I never went the route of making extended and logical partitions
until recently. I'd always just make 2-3 primary partitions after C:. I
wonder if that may have been why I didn't experience problems with
W98/Scandisk when I was experimenting with setting up W98 on >8GB HDDs
without EZ-Drive overlay.
> > I think that's basically what I did at one point, and I don't recall
> > having scandisk run into the problems I've been seeing with my setup
> > now where it finds corrupted files and folders. I know that Partition
> > Magic wouldn't be able to see past 8GB without EZ-Drive.
>
> ...in a Libretto.
> But perhaps, in a desktop it *is* able to see beyond 8 GB.
Oh... absolutely! All I need to do is put the drive in a desktop, boot
from a W98 bootable floppy, and run PM from there. There it has no
problems. But no matter how I tried to tweak W98 and partitions on my >8GB
HHDs, PM was never able to see the entire drive properly without drive
overlay installed. Yes... it does seem to rely on that Int13 extensions
support that the Libbys lack in full.
> It all
> depends on proper implementation of int13 extensions in the BIOS and on
> whether PM can use them. I suspect your PM version uses the BIOS for
> disk access, so it is vulnerable to the Libretto's BIOS disk size bug.
Indeed.
> > But it seems scandisk had no problems with such a setup. Right?
>
> Can't say / do not fully understand what you mean to say.
Well... I'm still wondering if other people have successfully installed W98
on >8GB HDDs by just using FDISK to do their partitioning... Haven't
installed EZ-Drive or other drive overlay... And in the end have never
experienced the problems I'm having with Scandisk seeing problems with
files & folders on partitions >8GB. If what you're saying about those
partitions needing to be type 0c is true, then I would think a lot of
people who relied solely on FDISK for partitioning would be running into
the same problems I'm having. Unless the guys feeding me information on
FDISK only setting type 0b logical partitions are mistaken.
Matt
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