Installing a Western Digital 250 GB HD into an old Win98 Dell computer (*maybe* without Win98SE)

I have a Dell Dimension XPS T500 running Win98. It *may* not be
Win98SE. Under Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/System
Information it says MicroSoft Windows 98 4.10.1998. Am not sure how to
ascertain exactly what Windows 98 version is installed.

I just received a Western Digital 250 GB hard drive (WD2500JBRTL), and
am eager to install it, but on the side of the box under System
Requirements it says that Windows 98SE/Me may require an Ultra
controller card with support for drives greater than 137 GB.

Have I got a problem here? If so, please recommend some solutions. I
don't want to remove one of my two current hard drives (a 20 GB that
came with it, plus a Western Digital 120 GB hd that I installed a year
ago) only to encounter a problem installing the new one.

Thanks for all suggestions.

"fan" wrote in message
...
I have a Dell Dimension XPS T500 running Win98. It *may* not be
Win98SE. Under Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/System
Information it says MicroSoft Windows 98 4.10.1998. Am not sure how to
ascertain exactly what Windows 98 version is installed.

I just received a Western Digital 250 GB hard drive (WD2500JBRTL), and
am eager to install it, but on the side of the box under System
Requirements it says that Windows 98SE/Me may require an Ultra
controller card with support for drives greater than 137 GB.

Have I got a problem here? If so, please recommend some solutions. I
don't want to remove one of my two current hard drives (a 20 GB that
came with it, plus a Western Digital 120 GB hd that I installed a year
ago) only to encounter a problem installing the new one.

Thanks for all suggestions.

See: http://www.48bitlba.com.

--
Joep

On Fri, 25 Jun 2004 20:50:56 GMT, fan wrote:

ave I got a problem here? If so, please recommend some solutions. I
don't want to remove one of my two current hard drives (a 20 GB that
came with it, plus a Western Digital 120 GB hd that I installed a year
ago) only to encounter a problem installing the new one.

There is an issue with hard drive greater than 137GB (or 128GB
depending on how you calculate the numbers) Older PCs just can't
support them at all as it's the limitation of the BIOS. Even if your
PC is less than a year old, Windows also have issues.

Adding an IDE card with 48 bit support is required on most PCs and
patch or update for most Windows is also needed.
--
To reply, replace digi.mon with tds.net

Your motherboard bios will not support drives greater then 137GBs
and I doubt you can get a bios update for your motherboard.

Installing something like a Promise ATA/133 controller card should allow you
to use the 250GB.
There might be some partition size issues with Win98 and FAT32.
Western Digital drive utilities should be able to partition and format the
drive.

"fan" wrote in message
...
I have a Dell Dimension XPS T500 running Win98. It *may* not be
Win98SE. Under Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/System
Information it says MicroSoft Windows 98 4.10.1998. Am not sure how to
ascertain exactly what Windows 98 version is installed.

I just received a Western Digital 250 GB hard drive (WD2500JBRTL), and
am eager to install it, but on the side of the box under System
Requirements it says that Windows 98SE/Me may require an Ultra
controller card with support for drives greater than 137 GB.

Have I got a problem here? If so, please recommend some solutions. I
don't want to remove one of my two current hard drives (a 20 GB that
came with it, plus a Western Digital 120 GB hd that I installed a year
ago) only to encounter a problem installing the new one.

Thanks for all suggestions.

I finished the 250 GB hard drive installation by using two partitions
of 130GB and 120 GB.

With my original C: hd still in place, and the new 250 GB hd as drive
D:, I typed the following command, in a "DOS" window:

xcopy32 C:\*.* D:\ /h/k/s/r/e/c

When it was finished, I shut windows down, removed the old drive,
re-jumpered the new one as master, stuck it in as the main drive, put
my original 120 GB D: hd back in as D:, and restarted the system. I
stored away my original 20 GB C: drive.

All seemed well, and I rebooted the computer several times with no
problems. The final configuration was C: (labeled "Dr2_vol1". D: is my
original 120 GB drive D:. E: was labeled "Dr2_vol2".

About 6 hours ago all seemed well, so I selected several folders that
contain mp3 files and did a Copy and Paste from drive D: onto drive E:
(which is the second of two partitions on the new 250 GB hd). The
copying seemed to begin OK, so I went to sleep. I awoke 5 hours later
to find the screen dark and no disking happening. The computer was
frozen up. Crtl-Alt-Del had no effect, so I powered down. Upon
powering back up again an error message appeared:

Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a
Windows application. The windows registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to
this device file, but the file no longer exists. If you still want to
use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling
that application to replace the missing file.
C:\PROGRA~1\SYMANTEC\SYMEVNT.386
Press a key to continue.

I pressed the space bar, and it then said:

Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a
Windows application. The windows registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to
this device file, but the file no longer exists. If you still want to
use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling
that application to replace the missing file.
C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\SAVRT.VXD
Press a key to continue.

I pressed the space bar, and it then said:

Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a
Windows application. The windows registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to
this device file, but the file no longer exists. If you still want to
use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling
that application to replace the missing file.
C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\SAVRTPEL.VXD
Press a key to continue.

I pressed the space bar, and it then said:

Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a
Windows application. The windows registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to
this device file, but the file no longer exists. If you still want to
use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling
that application to replace the missing file.
C:\PROGRA~1\EFFIC~1\ENTERN~1\BIN\NTSPPP3.VXD
Press a key to continue.

I pressed the space bar to continue, and it finished booted to the
desktop. Some of the program icons on the desktop had changed. A
couple of error messages immediately appeared, one saying:

Symantec CCApp
A necessary component for this function is missing or damaged
(NAVProd). Click here to go to Symantec Technical Support Knowledge
Base. 1002,1

I tried clicking on the Symantec Technical Support Knowledge Base link
but nothing happened.

I closed that window and another Symantec CCApp window appeared,
saying:
Symantec CCApp
A necessary component for this function is missing or damaged
(NisProd). Click here to go to Symantec Technical Support Knowledge
Base. 1002,1

Also, another window opened saying:
Problem with Shortcut
The drive or network connection that the shortcut 'Microsoft
Office.Ink' refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is
properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try
again.

I closed that window and another appeared, saying:
Problem with Shortcut
The drive or network connection that the shortcut 'WinZip Quick
Pick.Ink' refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is
properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try
again.

I closed that window and another appeared, saying:
Problem with Shortcut
The drive or network connection that the shortcut 'Office Startup.Ink'
refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted
or the network resource is available, and then try again.

I closed that window and clicked on my browser's shortcut icon
(Netscape). The icon had changed, and a window appeared saying:
Problem with Shortcut
The drive or network connection that the shortcut 'Netscape 7.0.Ink'

refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted
or the network resource is available, and then try again.

I then double-clicked on My Computer, and C:, D:, and E: drives all
appeared, but C: used to show its label as "Dr2_vol1", but now has no
label, only "C:". Note that E: stil is labeled "Dr2_vol2".

Also, of the five folders containing mp3 files that were being copied
when the problem occured, the first folder and its contents seem to
have been successfully copied from D: onto E:. However none of the
other folders to have been Copy/Pasted appear on E:.

At this point I completely shut down the computer, removed the new 250
GB hd, replaced it with the original 20 GB hard drive that had been
C:, and restarted the computer. It booted withut any problem, and the
desktop icons appear fine. This allowed me to start my browser and to
type this long explanation of my computer's symptoms.

What has happened, and what is the solution? Thanks!

On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 20:52:14 GMT, "Tod"
wrote:

Your motherboard bios will not support drives greater then 137GBs
and I doubt you can get a bios update for your motherboard.

Installing something like a Promise ATA/133 controller card should allow you
to use the 250GB.
There might be some partition size issues with Win98 and FAT32.
Western Digital drive utilities should be able to partition and format the
drive.

"fan" wrote in message
.. .
I have a Dell Dimension XPS T500 running Win98. It *may* not be
Win98SE. Under Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/System
Information it says MicroSoft Windows 98 4.10.1998. Am not sure how to
ascertain exactly what Windows 98 version is installed.

I just received a Western Digital 250 GB hard drive (WD2500JBRTL), and
am eager to install it, but on the side of the box under System
Requirements it says that Windows 98SE/Me may require an Ultra
controller card with support for drives greater than 137 GB.

Have I got a problem here? If so, please recommend some solutions. I
don't want to remove one of my two current hard drives (a 20 GB that
came with it, plus a Western Digital 120 GB hd that I installed a year
ago) only to encounter a problem installing the new one.

Thanks for all suggestions.

Also see http://support.intel.com/support/chi.../CS-009319.htm

--
Joep