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Win98 HD detection problem NTFS FAT

Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2002 11:30 pm
by Juzaam
I am trying to determine why one of my old comps will not detect my new hard drive. The system runs Win98SE and has a primary HD with FAT partitioning. I put in a 40GB Seagate Barracuda Model # ST340016A with a NTFS partition.

The problem - both HD's show up in BIOS but I cannot "see" the Barracuda in Explorer.
WinDetection"Wizard" (yah right) didnt see it either.
In device manager it shows up as a "Generic IDE Disk Type 02" with the orignal being the same but with an 01 suffix instead of 02.

Is there any way to view this NTFS hard drive in Win98? Would the partion be causing the problem (made it on a Win2k platform)?

I fiddled with master/slave/cable select to no availl.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Juzaam

Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2002 11:38 pm
by Sean
NTFS is a file structure only supported by Windows 2000 or XP. I don't think there is any possible way to view NTFS in Windows 98. That's why most should just stick with FAT32, unless you need the extra security, or want the few features NTFS has to offer. FP (Flying Penguin) will be able to offer loads of help in this area. He will reply soon enough. :)

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 12:00 am
by PreDatoR
98 won't see a NTFS partition at all... Its dead space to Win98. NTFS was designed for NT back in the day and has carried over to Win2k and XP. You can see a NTFS partition with a win98 computer if that partition is on another computer running a NTFS compatible OS but if the HDD is in the Win98 comp it will not see it at all... If your running Dual boot with 98 and wk or XP its best to format all the HDD's as FAT32

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 8:10 am
by Busby
There is some software available that allows for reading and I think writing NTFS in Windows 98. Might want to search Google but formatting in FAT32 is better for sure. Might want to reformat it in FAT32.

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 12:05 pm
by FlyingPenguin
There's a driver that will allow 98 to access NTFS (although I'm not sure it's designed for NTFS partitions created by XP - it was meant for NT and there is a difference unless they've updated it). It's shareware I think - the free download will only read NTFS you need a license to read and write:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freew ... in98.shtml


Easiest thing to do is reformat it as FAT32. If it's full of data and you don't want to lose it and can't copy it somewhere else then you can use Partition Magic 7 or 8 to convert it to FAT32 (but it would still be a good idea to back it up).