aha2940 wrote on 2020-06-28, 16:17:
jaZz_KCS wrote on 2020-06-27, 12:20:
I recommend going with the DDO (Direct Drive Overlay) route and can wholeheartedly recommend EZ-Drive v9.09w
It isnt always necessary to go the XT-IDE route if the only problem is the size of the drive in question.
Thanks for the idea, however it is my understanding that this overlay software will render the drive unusable under other modern PCs (some times I put the drive on a newer PC to copy big stuff faster). Is that correct? also, how would this software work on a dual boot (DOS 6.22/win98) environment?
I cannot tell anything definitive, albeit I can tell about my experience, as I have used EZ-Drive (and sometimes Ontrack) myself extensively. There will be no problem with Windows 98 for starters, I have used it on many laptops/PCs of the same era when using SD cards as HDD replacements (that were most of the time too big for the BIOS to handle). Never have I encountered any problems. EZ-Drive that is.
When it comes to reading the cards/HDDs with EZ-Drive on modern machines to send stuff over, I had no problems whatsoever up until Win7 (I do not use any Windows past Win7.....yet.) This is only true for EZ-Drive as ppl have reported numerous problems with newer (or only different) machines and OnTrack (Win10 for example) but I have yet to see someone complain about EZ-Drivespecifically in this regard, neither have I tried myself. But I had never any problems connecting said drives/cards with EZ-Drive to a newer machine.
This is the main reason I have favoured EZ-BIOS over Ontrack so far as well as the fact that it has a few other tricks up it's sleeve (telling you in the beginning of the Full Auto Setup whether your BIOS actually needs it, among other things) compared to Ontrack. It does - however - miss one function that OnTrack has, but that I have never missed. OnTrack enables you to boot from CD. But as I said, I have never used that as I always have a spare DATA partition for backup purposes, where a folder with the Win9x install files reside (as in: I install from HDD, always.)
Said install files I have either loaded from CD beforehand or shoved them overby connecting the HDD/card to another, more modern computer, as you described.