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issues with replacement 40 GB hard drive in Win Me



 
 
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Old February 6th 17, 08:47 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
Lee
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Posts: 196
Default issues with replacement 40 GB hard drive in Win Me

On Sunday, February 5, 2017 at 8:57:25 AM UTC-7, William Bell wrote:
On 02/05/2017 12:18 AM, Lee wrote:
On Saturday, February 4, 2017 at 2:22:25 PM UTC-7, William Bell wrote:

I updated to ver. 8 yesterday, but I don't see any differences. The
drive still shows as 7.8 GB and that's it.

I would think you need to start over entirely though. With updated IO.SYS, using 48 bit LBA, etc. It won't just magically fix itself, the old data needs to be overwritten with more better data. If you don't use the fixed for 48 bit LBA windows drivers as well again I wouldn't think much could change.

You could start with a test for 48 bit LBA BIOS capabilities, if they are there then earlier issues should have been slain as well.
Intel used to host this, can't find it there anymore but did find it here.
http://89.223.54.240/Driver/HDD/Test...S/48lbachk.exe

Run it in boot to DOS mode.


Ok, Lee, since you're kind enough to continue trying to help, I can't
just ignore . For this, you may have to refresh my memory. When you
say to boot to DOS, will the .exe file automatically start up from the
CD/floppy or do I have to use a command to get it going?

You'll have to use a command to invoke it and that is the filename itself :
48lbachk.exe or 48lbachk for short if you like. You may need to
change to the directory where the file is located too. And all these files will do their best if they are moved first to the hard drive and run from there.
copy a:\48lbachk.exe c:\windows\temp\
c:\windows\temp\48lbachk

results may not be conclusive, I don't recall seeing a passing grade here while I know the system is capable. If you want to try another program to be sure, there is aefdisk /info which will indicate if LBA is usable.

Instructions...
https://github.com/nagydjol/aefdisk/...er/aefdisk.txt

Download link - find it, get it. AEFDISK.ZIP
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/1741...omment=1103886

Bottom of that message has a download link for the version that shows INT 13h use in Enhanced BIOS (EBIOS) or in other words 48 bit LBA mode. I am not sure if earlier version of aefdisk had this feature or not. Invoke it as follows:
aefdisk /info


Use a better FDISK from here
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ger-than-64-gb


Ok, I could try this, but I'm not quite sure how to implement it. From
DOS, or in Win? Does it matter than I'm using Win Me instead of '98?


Yep it sure does matter -- you don't need the new FDISK at all, it was fixed before ME came out so yours is already fixed.

BUT your io.sys is still broken and does need both MS replacement by the MS knowledge base article below and R Loew's patch after the MS replacement has happened.


IO.SYS fix starts here and is modified by rloew PATCHPAR
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ardware-errors

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/1181...-9xme/?page=11
Last message there, bottom of page.


After reading these two links, I don't have a clue how they're supposed
to work, where they're supposed to be placed, when to use, etc... any
step by step insight here would be welcome.


It gets complicated quickly due to the use of a compressed io.sys in ME only which requires that before you patch it with R Loew's PATCHPAR, you need to uncompress it first with another file from R Loew.



So after the above has been done be sure to write out a new partition scheme with your new FDISK, reboot to allow it be re-mounted properly and see if the proper size shows up then?
I think you've quit too early, but you can quit anytime you want to.


Right. I get the part about using new FDISK (if I could figure out when
and where to use that .exe file) and then rechecking the partition
afterwards, and I think I understand the part about checking out now by
auto? or manually executing 48lbachk.exe in DOS first, but as far as
PATCHPAR and the other, I'm not sure when they are to be used.


So back at the MS Knowledge Base article
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ardware-errors
scroll half way down the page to the ME files section and get your language version, I assume it will be the very first one offered under the ME files section being USA english - 311561usam.exe

Boot to Win ME, move the 311561usam.exe to the temp folder and double click it to install the MS update, then reboot to Win ME. It may take more than one boot, it's a critical file best to just get it over with and do it twice.


So a better source for R Loew files is his free files link.
http://rloew.x10host.com/free.htm

download IO8DCOMP and PATCHPAR, unzip them to windows\temp folder.

Both IO8DCOMP and PATCHPAR will run from a DOS box in Win ME but their use still requires some low level DOS operations for example, in order to even
access io.sys one must first run attrib.exe on it to remove system, hidden, and read only attributes of the file. These same attributes MUST be back in place when rebooting or Windows will literally make you reinstall Windows.

Loew's instructions are rather incomplete at best. But you do want to make a backup file of your current io.sys file, c:\windows\command folder is one folder where it can be kept and not get used when renamed to io.bak. There will then be an uncompressed version of the io.sys file and then also a patched version of that uncompressed version of the io.sys file. Kinda complicated so here is a batch file you can use to do this with.

cd \
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
cd windows\command
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
attrib -r -s -h c:\io.sys
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
copy c:\io.sys io.bak
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
c:\windows\temp\io8dcomp io.bak dcompio.bak
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
c:\windows\temp\patchpar dcompio.bak patchio.bak
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
del c:\io.sys
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
copy patchio.bak c:\io.sys
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
attrib +r +s +h c:\io.sys
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul
echo DONE ###########

-------------------
copy and paste the above into notepad.

The line:
choice /c~ /t~,3 nul

is a time delay of 3 seconds to allow DOS to do it's thing, write files, update directories etc. so the next step is not borked by the batch file running too fast. So if you want to, you can just type in those instructions minus the 'choice' lines and do the same thing manually. All Loew's unzipped files should be in the windows\temp folder for that batch file to work correctly. The saved notepad text file can be placed there too and renamed to iopatch.bat. To run it just double click it in Windows ME and it's best to rename it back to a text file when done.

To insure your system won't revert to a broken io.sys if ever there were serious troubles or a reinstall attempt, c:\windows\options\Cabs\winboot.sys should be overwritten with c:\windows\command\patchio.bak. The file named winboot.sys in the options\cabs folder will become the new io.sys at the first opportunity, it's how the system keeps itself healthy in a perfect world.

So after everything seems to be working fine you can do this:
copy /Y c:\windows\command\patchio.bak c:\windows\options\cabs\winboot.sys

I don't really blame you if don't even want to go there now... lol
 




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