so the drive you are using isn't attached to the xtide?

I got windows ME working well on a compact flash attached to the xtide card. but whenever the xtide is installed my other drives that aren't attached to the xtide stop working right.

I prefer my promise sata II tx4 it's great for booting and has bootable cd support

XUB works just fine with Win95 if you're using the newest version - not the years outdated shit on the google code website

Hi there! Windows 9x and MS-DOS 7.x do retrieve the drive geometry in different ways.
Windows uses its driver, MS-DOS uses BIOS.

I vaguely remember writing about that in the past.
Re: Windows 95 Boot Failure

Also, which version of Windows 95 are you using?

There used to be different LBA algorithms, also.
Windows 9x ships with some DDO support for Protected-Mode, I believe.
So it won't mess things up if you use some of the popular DDOs of its time.
Of course, someone will disagree now. Can't put into words properly, sorry.
Things like EZ-Drive etc. started shortly before Win95 and old versions for DOS-only were still in circulation.

Edit:

XUB works just fine with Win95 if you're using the newest version - not the years outdated shit on the google code website

I suppose that's a reference to v2.0.0ß3?
If so, that's the version that worked most stable for me.
When I tried the new versions last time, they had all some quirks for some reason. 🤷‍♂️
But that was years ago.

Jo22 wrote on 2022-05-30, 13:08:

I suppose that's a reference to v2.0.0ß3? If so, that's the version that worked most stable for me. When I tried the new version […]
Show full quote

I suppose that's a reference to v2.0.0ß3?
If so, that's the version that worked most stable for me.
When I tried the new versions last time, they had all some quirks for some reason. 🤷‍♂️
But that was years ago.

Unfortunately some super genius decided to label EVERY subsequent release as "v2.0.0ß3" so that's not really a helpful moniker.

The latest is available here:
https://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/binaries/

It's completely stable

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-30, 12:16:

so the drive you are using isn't attached to the xtide?

I got windows ME working well on a compact flash attached to the xtide card. but whenever the xtide is installed my other drives that aren't attached to the xtide stop working right.

I prefer my promise sata II tx4 it's great for booting and has bootable cd support

This could explain it then. So the card I have is just a card with a ROM socket to boot the BIOS itself, but doesn't have any IDE interface on it. I'm using a CF card attached to the motherboard of the 486 I'm running on. The XTIDE BIOS detects the CF card I'm using, sees it as a Sandisk 512, but will only boot from an MS DOS 6.22 install.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-05-30, 13:01:

XUB works just fine with Win95 if you're using the newest version - not the years outdated shit on the google code website

I am running the newest one from the link that was provided on this thread.

Yeah, nothing but issues trying to run a cf flash from the mobo for me. Even without a xt-ide I’m doing socket 7 stuff though.

I’ve tried a tonne of storage combos, the promise tx4 sata II really is a great solution for storage on these old systems. Not only the fastest, but also allows use of modern drives. Highly recommend it. If you need compact, try a sata to sata m.2 adapter and double side tape it to the back of the tx4

A another slower but very nice solution using cf is that sil0680 four cf slot raid card that you can find floating around on several sites.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-31, 03:28:

Yeah, nothing but issues trying to run a cf flash from the mobo for me. Even without a xt-ide I’m doing socket 7 stuff though.

I’ve tried a tonne of storage combos, the promise tx4 sata II really is a great solution for storage on these old systems. Not only the fastest, but also allows use of modern drives. Highly recommend it. If you need compact, try a sata to sata m.2 adapter and double side tape it to the back of the tx4.

Problem is SATA 300 TX4 doesn't have drivers in Win9x system. I use one to boot to DOS on a old P75 and it's very fast, around 73MB/S in speedsys. Win9x doesn't work though, blue screen when loading.

Riikcakirds wrote on 2022-05-31, 13:05:

Problem is SATA 300 TX4 doesn't have drivers in Win9x system. I use one to boot to DOS on a old P75 and it's very fast, around 73MB/S in speedsys. Win9x doesn't work though, blue screen when loading.

Sounds like Win9x is trying to load a driver that is not 100% compatible and it crashes when it switches to 32bit protected mode disk access.

Have you tried starting in safe mode? Have you tried disabling 32bit disk access by starting windows with a command line parameter "win /d:f" or putting "32BitDiskAccess=false" in the System.ini file?

Might not multitask well, but it should get things to start while you troubleshoot the issue more.

Can you see what driver windows wants to load for the SATA 300 TX4 ?

douglar wrote on 2022-05-31, 14:18:

Sounds like Win9x is trying to load a driver that is not 100% compatible and it crashes when it switches to 32bit protected mode […]
Show full quote

Riikcakirds wrote on 2022-05-31, 13:05:

Problem is SATA 300 TX4 doesn't have drivers in Win9x system. I use one to boot to DOS on a old P75 and it's very fast, around 73MB/S in speedsys. Win9x doesn't work though, blue screen when loading.

Sounds like Win9x is trying to load a driver that is not 100% compatible and it crashes when it switches to 32bit protected mode disk access.

Have you tried starting in safe mode? Have you tried disabling 32bit disk access by starting windows with a command line parameter "win /d:f" or putting "32BitDiskAccess=false" in the System.ini file?

Might not multitask well, but it should get things to start while you troubleshoot the issue more.

Can you see what driver windows wants to load for the SATA 300 TX4 ?

It doesn't boot in safe mode. I edited system.ini from dos with the above, didn't help. I was hoping it would at least boot with ms-dos compatibilty mode in windows. I though in was common knowledge that the TX4 didn't boot in to win9x.

Riikcakirds wrote on 2022-05-31, 14:42:

It doesn't boot in safe mode. I edited system.ini from dos with the above, didn't help. I was hoping it would at least boot with ms-dos compatibilty mode in windows. I though in was common knowledge that the TX4 didn't boot in to win9x.

Sorry to hear that. This seems painful. But Some people seem to have been able to get the card to work in windows 98 with a bit of effort--

https://msfn.org/board/topic/92265-can-we-get … &comment=704727

For me, it's fully 9x compatable, Promise just ripped 9x support off...
I'm not sure of it since I looked very quickly but I think your best shot is to mod the SATA150 TX2plus drivers.
Add lines in the .inf to support your card and see how it works. Since the SATA150 TX2plus is listed in the XP drivers, they share the same base so that might do the trick.

douglar wrote on 2022-05-31, 14:18:

Sounds like Win9x is trying to load a driver that is not 100% compatible and it crashes when it switches to 32bit protected mode […]
Show full quote

Riikcakirds wrote on 2022-05-31, 13:05:

Problem is SATA 300 TX4 doesn't have drivers in Win9x system. I use one to boot to DOS on a old P75 and it's very fast, around 73MB/S in speedsys. Win9x doesn't work though, blue screen when loading.

Sounds like Win9x is trying to load a driver that is not 100% compatible and it crashes when it switches to 32bit protected mode disk access.

Have you tried starting in safe mode? Have you tried disabling 32bit disk access by starting windows with a command line parameter "win /d:f" or putting "32BitDiskAccess=false" in the System.ini file?

Might not multitask well, but it should get things to start while you troubleshoot the issue more.

Can you see what driver windows wants to load for the SATA 300 TX4 ?

I once updated an Windows 3.11 installation (with the MicroHouse FastDisk driver installed) to Windows 95.
After the upgrade, the 32-Bit Protected Mode driver from MicroHouse was still working!
However, it had an 8GB HDD limit, just like DOS 6.2x!
Anyway, I just wanted to mention this. Maybe it's helpful somehow. 🤷‍♂️

Riikcakirds wrote on 2022-05-31, 13:05:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-31, 03:28:

Yeah, nothing but issues trying to run a cf flash from the mobo for me. Even without a xt-ide I’m doing socket 7 stuff though.

I’ve tried a tonne of storage combos, the promise tx4 sata II really is a great solution for storage on these old systems. Not only the fastest, but also allows use of modern drives. Highly recommend it. If you need compact, try a sata to sata m.2 adapter and double side tape it to the back of the tx4.

Problem is SATA 300 TX4 doesn't have drivers in Win9x system. I use one to boot to DOS on a old P75 and it's very fast, around 73MB/S in speedsys. Win9x doesn't work though, blue screen when loading.

It does. I have used it with 9x though it’s been a while, I recall there being a driver.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-31, 21:55:

It does. I have used it with 9x though it’s been a while, I recall there being a driver.

After poking around on waybackmachine, it looks like the TX2 cards had windows 9x drivers, but the Tx4 didn't.
Seems like some people got the Win9x TX2 drivers work with the Tx4 by editing the driver inf files in the TX2 drivers to include the Tx4 device strings.

Jo22 wrote on 2022-05-31, 19:08:

I once updated an Windows 3.11 installation (with the MicroHouse FastDisk driver installed) to Windows 95. After the upgrade, th […]
Show full quote

I once updated an Windows 3.11 installation (with the MicroHouse FastDisk driver installed) to Windows 95.
After the upgrade, the 32-Bit Protected Mode driver from MicroHouse was still working!
However, it had an 8GB HDD limit, just like DOS 6.2x!
Anyway, I just wanted to mention this. Maybe it's helpful somehow. 🤷‍♂️

Maybe the original poster needs to install support for LBA48 on windows 98 before he can get the card to work with a large drive. Could be that the issue isn't lack of drivers, but lack of LBA48 support.

https://msfn.org/board/topic/129027-big-hdd-4 … a-thread-index/

Micro How-To
===========
Case One: One already has Win 9x working, out of a <137GB disk, and simply wants to add another >137GB IDE HDD, as a second disk, not as system disk:
1) Grab and install BHDD31.ZIP.
2) Reboot. Win 9x now has 48-bit LBA support.
3) Add new (Big) HDD. Partition and format it with The Ranish Partition Manager.
4) Get back to Win 9x and enjoy it!
Case Two: One already has Win 9x working, out of a <137GB disk, and simply wants to substitute it for a >137GB IDE HDD, as system disk:
1) Grab and install BHDD31.ZIP.
2) Reboot. Win 9x now has 48-bit LBA support.
3) Clone the boot partition of the old disk to the boot partition of the new one.
3) Swap the disks.
4) Get back to Win 9x and enjoy it!
Case Three: One wishes to do a fresh install on a >137GB IDE HDD, using the original Windows Install CD.
1) Partition and format the HDD with The Ranish Partition Manager.
2) Start windows install and *turn off* the machine at the point when it starts to reboot into Win 9x.
3) Boot to DOS from a diskette and substitute the file ESDI_506.PDR found at C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS by the updated one, grabbed from inside BHDD31.ZIP. Win 9x now has 48-bit LBA support.
4) Resume windows install.
5) After it finishes install BHDD31.ZIP, to update the other programs.
6) Get back to Win 9x and enjoy it!
Case Four: One wishes to do a fresh install on a >137GB IDE HDD, using a modified Windows Install CD.
1) Copy the contents of your Windows 98 install CD to a folder in your HDD.
(Let's use D:\98CD\ as an example.)
2) Extract the contents of BHDD31.ZIP to D:\98CD\Win98.
(Extracting !read.me, _bighdd.inf, _install.bat and xxFiles.txt isn't necessary.)
3) Extract the boot sector from the original install CD using IsoBuster or UltraISO.
4) Burn the contents of D:\98CD\ to CD or CD-R with your favorite CD burning program.
(Don't forget to make your CD bootable with the boot sector you just extracted!)
5) Partition and format the HDD with The Ranish Partition Manager.
6) Install Windows 98 from CD like you would normally do.
7) Get back to Win 9x and enjoy it![/i]

douglar wrote on 2022-06-01, 12:15:

After poking around on waybackmachine, it looks like the TX2 cards had windows 9x drivers, but the Tx4 didn't. Seems like some p […]
Show full quote

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-31, 21:55:

It does. I have used it with 9x though it’s been a while, I recall there being a driver.

After poking around on waybackmachine, it looks like the TX2 cards had windows 9x drivers, but the Tx4 didn't.
Seems like some people got the Win9x TX2 drivers work with the Tx4 by editing the driver inf files in the TX2 drivers to include the Tx4 device strings.

Jo22 wrote on 2022-05-31, 19:08:

I once updated an Windows 3.11 installation (with the MicroHouse FastDisk driver installed) to Windows 95. After the upgrade, th […]
Show full quote

I once updated an Windows 3.11 installation (with the MicroHouse FastDisk driver installed) to Windows 95.
After the upgrade, the 32-Bit Protected Mode driver from MicroHouse was still working!
However, it had an 8GB HDD limit, just like DOS 6.2x!
Anyway, I just wanted to mention this. Maybe it's helpful somehow. 🤷‍♂️

Maybe the original poster needs to install support for LBA48 on windows 98 before he can get the card to work with a large drive. Could be that the issue isn't lack of drivers, but lack of LBA48 support.

---

https://msfn.org/board/topic/129027-big-hdd-4 … a-thread-index/

Micro How-To
===========
Case One: One already has Win 9x working, out of a <137GB disk, and simply wants to add another >137GB IDE HDD, as a second disk, not as system disk:
1) Grab and install BHDD31.ZIP.
2) Reboot. Win 9x now has 48-bit LBA support.
3) Add new (Big) HDD. Partition and format it with The Ranish Partition Manager.
4) Get back to Win 9x and enjoy it!
Case Two: One already has Win 9x working, out of a <137GB disk, and simply wants to substitute it for a >137GB IDE HDD, as system disk:
1) Grab and install BHDD31.ZIP.
2) Reboot. Win 9x now has 48-bit LBA support.
3) Clone the boot partition of the old disk to the boot partition of the new one.
3) Swap the disks.
4) Get back to Win 9x and enjoy it!
Case Three: One wishes to do a fresh install on a >137GB IDE HDD, using the original Windows Install CD.
1) Partition and format the HDD with The Ranish Partition Manager.
2) Start windows install and *turn off* the machine at the point when it starts to reboot into Win 9x.
3) Boot to DOS from a diskette and substitute the file ESDI_506.PDR found at C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS by the updated one, grabbed from inside BHDD31.ZIP. Win 9x now has 48-bit LBA support.
4) Resume windows install.
5) After it finishes install BHDD31.ZIP, to update the other programs.
6) Get back to Win 9x and enjoy it!
Case Four: One wishes to do a fresh install on a >137GB IDE HDD, using a modified Windows Install CD.
1) Copy the contents of your Windows 98 install CD to a folder in your HDD.
(Let's use D:\98CD\ as an example.)
2) Extract the contents of BHDD31.ZIP to D:\98CD\Win98.
(Extracting !read.me, _bighdd.inf, _install.bat and xxFiles.txt isn't necessary.)
3) Extract the boot sector from the original install CD using IsoBuster or UltraISO.
4) Burn the contents of D:\98CD\ to CD or CD-R with your favorite CD burning program.
(Don't forget to make your CD bootable with the boot sector you just extracted!)
5) Partition and format the HDD with The Ranish Partition Manager.
6) Install Windows 98 from CD like you would normally do.
7) Get back to Win 9x and enjoy it![/i]

try these