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Old 6th Jan 2021, 6:58 pm   #1
OldTechFan96
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Default Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

Hello,

I have a Prism N9 computer that I have been using to dual boot Windows XP and Windows 98SE. Originally both operating systems were installed on one 40GB HDD. The HDD was a bit small for what I wanted so I decided to install a 120GB HDD for XP and keep the 40GB HDD for Windows 98.

Primary master: 120GB XP HDD
Secondary master: 40GB 98 HDD
Secondary slave: DVD/CD

Before I installed 98 I 'turned off' the XP HDD via the BIOS as not to upset the 98 installation. Everything worked as expected after drivers (video, sound, chipset etc.) were installed.

I 'turned on' the XP HDD and installed XP and drivers with no bother. I installed a bootloader to switch between operating systems.

Here is the issue: When 98 is started up with the XP HDD enabled in BIOS, the CD drive is not seen by the OS. The device manager suggests that something is wrong with the IDE controller.

When the XP HDD is disabled, Windows 98 sees the CD drive and everything is well with the IDE controller.

I'm not sure what is going on here. Maybe a hardware conflict?

Can anybody please help?
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Old 6th Jan 2021, 7:20 pm   #2
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Default Re: Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

Put the CD onto the Primary IDE bus cable and see if it is recognised.

Are the master/slave links set correctly?
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Old 6th Jan 2021, 9:59 pm   #3
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Default Re: Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

I've reorganised drives so that the CD drive is now the primary slave. Windows 98 still does not see the CD drive when the XP HDD is enabled. The drive jumpers are set correctly.
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Old 6th Jan 2021, 10:46 pm   #4
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Default Re: Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

W98 is 22 years old, and native CD support was always a bit flakey. Have you tried loading the DOS CD drivers in CONFIG.SYS?
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Old 9th Jan 2021, 6:13 am   #5
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Default Re: Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

Have you tried making the CD-drive a master on the secondary IDE channel, in case the computer doesn't like a missing master on that channel
(Although odd it works if one HDD is disabled on the Primary channel)

You could also try putting each HDD as a master on each channel, with the CD left as Slave on one f these. Although this could have a slight impact on HDD transfer speed, if the HDD's are ATA/UDMA100/133 etc. and CD only works at original IDE speeds so forcing that channel to use the lower speed.

Also check Boot priority order, in case PC BIOS only looks for 2 devices in total and CD is not listed.

It could also be your Bootloader is disabling other IDE drives, to prevent conflicts.
I tried many of these, about 20years ago when I once made a triple-boot MS-DOS / Win98SE / WinNT4 on a single ) 4GB??) drive. After finding lots that didn't work properly / lost your MBR, I eventually used Boot Magic as that was the most robust and flexible allowing you to assign which partitions became which drive letters. I do recall that DOS / Win98SE couldn't boot from a partition beyond 2GB from start of HDD, and NT4 Installer had a 4GB from start of disk limit, as it started off as FAT, before converting to NTFS. So had to install these in the right order for them to all work together OK.

I've still got Win98SE on one PIII PC (With 80G + 120G 2nd HDD + CD drive, with no issues). And XP on another P4 one, but not tried Multi-booting with XP (other than having 2 copies of XP installed on the same partition, after original one got corrupted and I didn't want to reformat the partition)

Last edited by ortek_service; 9th Jan 2021 at 6:29 am.
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Old 9th Jan 2021, 8:49 am   #6
kellys_eye
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Default Re: Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

I have found, if memory serves, that setting the devices as 'auto detect' was the only way to have them all recognised.

But these days I start to doubt my memory.....
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Old 9th Jan 2021, 4:11 pm   #7
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Default Re: Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

Thanks for the replies, they have been helpful. Especially the point about checking boot priority.

I've made some good progress. I'll update later if all things go to plan.
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Old 10th Jan 2021, 8:02 pm   #8
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Default Re: Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

To make a long story short, making the 40GB W98 the primary master solved the issue. ortek_service's comment about checking the boot order made me try the W98 drive as number one in the boot order.

When I booted into the W98 HDD with the XP HDD enabled I was able to see everything attached to the IDE bus.

After this I swapped the HDDs around, wiped them and installed the versions of Windows I wanted. After XP installed I was happy to see that Windows own bootloader picked up the Windows 98 installation.

I'm pleased to say that everything is working as it should be.

Thanks for the help!
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Old 11th Jan 2021, 7:51 am   #9
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Default Re: Windows 98SE Odd IDE Issue

Good to hear you've managed to get it going.
Yes, the Ntldr that dates back to 2K/Win NT was quite handy in allowing you to boot (NT versions at least) installed on other drives & partitions, as long the Ntldr was on the boot partition.

Although if you installed software with the OS on a C-drive partition, some could get a bit upset if this drive letter changed afterwards - Even though NT onwards was designed to handle this OK (I doubt Win98 would, though)

So I ended-up using Drivequest's (creator of Partition Magic) BootMagic, as that let you configure what drive letters are assigned for each Boot-choice, so you could make sure the selected one was always on C-drive no matter where it actually was.

I knew WinNT installation could detect other previous Windows installations, and not overwrite these, but I can't remember if it could itself boot other versions of Windows - But may have been improved since then.
I believe the Linux LiLo loader is also very versatile, also handling Windows as well.
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