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KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(



 
 
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  #11  
Old September 7th 06, 10:00 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
Sparkle
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 5
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

Bird Janitor® wrote:
Sparkle wrote:
|
| Something like http://www.siig.com/product.asp?catid=103&pid=437
| will take care of that, no?

The add-on card you reference will make no difference.

The BIOS for the KT7A-RAID board has been updated in the most recent
releases to support 48-bit LBA.

The BIOS for the add-on card you have referenced also supports 48-bit LBA.

What's missing here is support from Windows 98SE for 48-bit LBA. FAT32 is
limited to 28-bit LBA in Windows 98SE (and in Windows ME). 28 address bits
only allows for addressability of about 137GB (decimal) of disk space.

48-bit LBA provides additional address bits to break the 137GB barrier.

The problem here is not the motherboard .. it's the operating system.
Microsoft never released updates to Windows 98SE to support 48-bit LBA.
Both the motherboard BIOS *and* the OS must support 48-bit LBA for the 137GB
barrier to be broken.

Jef


The site Jon Hildrum pointed to says
"The drivers provided with controller card will provide 48-bit LBA
support in Windows 98 or Me."
http://www.48bitlba.com/win98.htm

VIA drivers that GlassVial asked about are also mentioned there, plus a
couple of patches at http://www.48bitlba.com/tools.htm
  #12  
Old September 8th 06, 02:09 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
0_Qed
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 8
Default :-) KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

MalcolmO wrote:

The drive was aggressively priced; I had to have it.


Saw a Labor_Day special @ $100USD .

I was fairly certain that my old Win98SE system wouldn't do the 300GB.
But I went to the Abit site and, after a few false starts, I managed to
flash my BIOS up to the 7N version. This is said to recognize drives
over 137GB.


- the "137" barrier : W98 -

....snip...

...................
Follow this 'trail' ... I havent examined much more than the
announcements.

== http://www.48bitlba.com/tools.htm
.. @ the very bottom of the displayed page ... "patches" ...

then, onward to ...

....
== http://members.aol.com/rloew1/
.. a freebie cripple_ware patch for the default OS HD driver
.. , and
.. a full $10USD commercial version patch .
..
.. 'seems' as tho the patch examines the 'OS', proceeds to patch
.. the OS's default HD driver ...
.. no real knowledge, just a 'peep' at the compiled code.


....
== http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=78592
.. freebie drop_in replacement_S_ for the various OS default
drivers ...
.. W95/W98FE&SE/ME
..
.. 'seems' to be a set of free_standing replacements for the
various OS
.. default HD drivers.
..
.. Also noted that W98_FE/SE has complied versions '1.0' and '1.1'
..

'Given' the way(method) =this= above author modded the HD driver ,
I think I'd opt to try this 'one' 1st.

I 'do' think 'Gdisk', and/or 'Diskmanager-4', aughta handle the ptn_bash
& format.
Not =really= sure.

As 'Augie' said ... " Never say Never ".

Qed.
  #13  
Old September 8th 06, 06:37 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
MalcolmO
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 106
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = FULL 300GB JOY :D

Thanks for your reply, Jef. I'll just elaborate this for others in this
situation (and copy it to the web forum as well)....

Windows 98SE will never do 300GB. It'll never do greater
than 137GB.


Well, no, we CAN do the full 300GB. Here's what I did to enable that:

I got the latest BIOS (version A9) from Abit he

http://www.abit-usa.com/downloads/bi...name=KT7A-RAID

Then I got the IDE Miniport Driver from VIA he

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...SubCatID =115

This _worked_. The first BIOS to support 137GB drives is 7N but I
installed the newest one, A9.

The folks who've said it couldn't be done can be forgiven because there
is NO INDICATION that the Miniport driver will deliver this support.
Even when you download it and read the doc file describing features,
there is STILL no indication it'll do drives 137GB.

However, WITH the BIOS update but no driver update, the MaxBlast4
software will do an ATA-6 test and *refuse* to partition beyond 137GB.
AFTER installing the Miniport driver (which drives the VT82C686B South
Bridge that's on the KT7 boards), the ATA-6 test succeeded and MaxBlast
merrily went ahead with the 300GB partition.

So those of us who chose boards with VIA chipsets (and people with Intel
8xx chipsets) can enjoy phat storage and live large.

The one proviso which I haven't solved yet (but I decided not to wait
any longer to post here) is that SCANDISK will not handle the drives
properly. I _have_ disabled the automatic scandisk launch after bad
shutdown, but it seems to me that what's really needed is a replacement
that will do the job. Ditto for defrag.

One last item: To those who suggested partitioning into 3 100GB
partitions, that is not an option. You get the ONE 137GB partition only
because there aren't enough bits to index into the drive past that point.

I thank all responders for their contributions.
  #14  
Old September 8th 06, 06:47 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
MalcolmO
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 106
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

Flashing to the latest
bios/HPT bios, loading the 3.51 HPT drivers and hanging the drive off
the HPT controller just might do the trick.


As information, I'm not using the HPT at all. In fact, when I went to
the 7N BIOS, I had the drive on the HPT and it _still_ only saw 137GB
but the main IDE controller saw the full drive just fine. So I went with
that and HPT went back burner for me.

I've been told (and Jef has noted) that HPT didn't support it til
v2.something and the recommendation is to pick up the newest one. But
I haven't bothered yet. I'll just have the one HD in that machine.
  #15  
Old September 8th 06, 06:50 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
MalcolmO
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Posts: 106
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

Sorry. I missed out this bit.

Wouldn't the VIA chipset drivers (including the IDE/ATA driver) help
this? The OP didn't mention loading those drivers so, here's the
link:

http://www.viaarena.com/Driver/VIA_4in1_443v.zip


It seems to me that that's a conglomeration of a variety of drivers for
a variety of boards. I believe that the Miniport driver is included but
the other are superfluous.

I just DL'd the Miniport because it's the one that updates the south
bridge VT82C686B. (Which also gets you a fix for a Zip disk
incompatibility.)
  #16  
Old September 8th 06, 06:53 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
Gary S. Terhune
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Posts: 1,846
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

Should be able to do the partitioning with BootIt NG.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"MalcolmO" wrote in message
...
If it's just the partition size W98 doesn't like, partiton the drives

into
3 100GB partions. You should be able to then format them in W98 I would
assume.


No can do, Wes. There's not enough bits in the standard driver to index
far enough into the disk to do the 2nd and 3rd partitions.



  #17  
Old September 8th 06, 06:54 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
MalcolmO
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 106
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

Something like http://www.siig.com/product.asp?catid=103&pid=437 will take care of that, no?

Yes, but it's an unnecessary expense since the BIOS update and driver
update are available free for the downloading. The card would NOT update
and enable the HPT RAID system either.
  #18  
Old September 8th 06, 06:55 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
MalcolmO
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 106
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

If it's just the partition size W98 doesn't like, partiton the drives into
3 100GB partions. You should be able to then format them in W98 I would
assume.


No can do, Wes. There's not enough bits in the standard driver to index
far enough into the disk to do the 2nd and 3rd partitions.
  #19  
Old September 8th 06, 06:58 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
MalcolmO
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 106
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

PS Win98 does not support drives this large

More specifically, it will bow down to the BIOS and driver but the tools
(fdisk, defrag, scandisk) will still have their limits.

I'm looking for replacements for them now.
  #20  
Old September 8th 06, 08:41 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
0_Qed
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 8
Default KT7A-RAID + 300GB Maxtor + Win98SE = no joy :(

MalcolmO wrote:

More specifically, it will bow down to the BIOS and driver but the tools
(fdisk, defrag, scandisk) will still have their limits.
I'm looking for replacements for them now.


Gdisk & Diskmanager-4 aughta work ... ptn bash & format.

XXCLONE essentially "defrags" at it's completion of the clone ...
a file by file clone ...
Theres' also a limited freebie ...
and the 'Pro' version does incremental after the 1st clone ...

Seems to me that theres' also a 3rd party Fat32 'dir' sort
that will also repair fat32 'dir' files, maybe the fat alloc tbls too.

Peek at my "above" current post ...
drop-in W98 default OS drivers ... go beyound the '137' barrier.

Qed.
 




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