Maximum size of HD on a Win98SE platform

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William A. Huntley - 17 May 2004 21:12 GMT

What is the maximum size of an IDE HD under Win98SE? I have seen something
about anything above 137 GB requires a controller card. If this is the
case, what make/model of controller card is recommended and also, if there
is an upper limit, does partitioning to <137 GB partitions solve this
problem? I am looking at a 250GB drive but don't want to buy it if I can't
access all of the physical space.

TIA!

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William A. Huntley - 17 May 2004 21:34 GMT

Nevermind...I read below on a related topic. Thanks.

> What is the maximum size of an IDE HD under Win98SE? I have seen something
> about anything above 137 GB requires a controller card. If this is the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> TIA!

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Ron Martell - 17 May 2004 21:46 GMT

>What is the maximum size of an IDE HD under Win98SE? I have seen something
>about anything above 137 GB requires a controller card. If this is the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
>TIA!

Your first concern is with the hardware in your computer. Is it
(specifically the BIOS) capable of recognizing a 200 gb hard drive?

You also need to ensure that your Windows 98 SE is fully up to date
with all of the updates in place.

And finally you need to be aware than the practical limit for a FAT32
partition in Windows 98/98SE/Me is 128 binary gigabytes (137 billion
bytes) because Scandisk and Defrag will not work on partitions that
are larger than this.

So if your hardware is fully capable of accepting the 200 gb drive
then you will have to partition it into at least two partitions in
order for it to be fully usable under Windows 98.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

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