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Windows 98 / Pentium III /Voodoo5/ SD-IDE adapter / 128GB SD card - questions

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First post, by Scythifuge

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Greetings,

I made some posts a while back about my P3 super-build. I am using an SD-IDE adapter in place of an SSD or mechanical hard drive. This is so I can use the same machine to swap SD cards. For example, emulating a Pentium 166 via Moslo Deluxe with a Windows 95 install on a 32GB SD card, with only Windows 95 and late DOS era games and apps. I also made some posts about slow performance with Deus Ex on this machine, using a Voodoo5 card, despite playing and beating the game on my old Gateway Pentium 3 450 with a Voodoo3 card and remembering it running a lot faster. My questions are:

1. Are there any particular settings I need to worry about when using an SD-IDE adapter drive with Windows 9x?

2. Is TRIM an issue? I think Mr. Loew made an app to deal with this, and I will look that up, but my memory is hazy.

3. Why would Deus Ex run worse on a faster Pentium 3 (almost double the speed of my original Gateway) with a Voodoo5 as opposed to the Voodoo3?

4. Should I use the original 3dfx drivers or the Amigamerlin or other driver package? I think I am using Amigamerlin, currently. I just pulled this system back out and am preparing to set it up with an OSSC on my freesync TV, but haven't been able to use it much, due to the holidays.

5. Is there anything else I should know? This system has an AWE32 PnP for late DOS games, and a Live! for Windows 9x games. It also has a Voodoo1 for the few games which need it, but if I get my hands on a physical Pentium 166 MMX, I will move those cards to that machine. Also, I see a usb card in this machine but recall that I never got it to work, despite various drivers/methods.

Many thanks!
Scythifuge

Reply 1 of 4, by tauro

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One thing I found out the hard way using these adapters is that they only play ball with FAT32 filesystems. I remember having a very frustrating experience trying to install WinXP (NTFS filesystem) and perhaps GNU/Linux too (I don't remember). I only remember that the only compatible filesystem is FAT32 because it's hard coded in the controller. Other than that, they are fantastic for Win98/DOS 7.1 systems. I wouldn't worry about TRIM.

Scythifuge wrote on 2023-12-28, 17:00:

Also, I see a usb card in this machine but recall that I never got it to work, despite various drivers/methods.

Freeing up the proper resources (IRQ), you could try Bret Johnson's DOS drivers if this is a VIA or Intel card, or a Linux Live distro to see to what extent Windows is culprit for it not working. If you are not going to use it, it's probably better to remove it.

Reply 2 of 4, by Scythifuge

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tauro wrote on 2024-01-01, 20:10:

One thing I found out the hard way using these adapters is that they only play ball with FAT32 filesystems. I remember having a very frustrating experience trying to install WinXP (NTFS filesystem) and perhaps GNU/Linux too (I don't remember). I only remember that the only compatible filesystem is FAT32 because it's hard coded in the controller. Other than that, they are fantastic for Win98/DOS 7.1 systems. I wouldn't worry about TRIM.

Scythifuge wrote on 2023-12-28, 17:00:

Also, I see a usb card in this machine but recall that I never got it to work, despite various drivers/methods.

Freeing up the proper resources (IRQ), you could try Bret Johnson's DOS drivers if this is a VIA or Intel card, or a Linux Live distro to see to what extent Windows is culprit for it not working. If you are not going to use it, it's probably better to remove it.

Thank you! I forgot about Bret Johnson's drivers. I will probably end up removing it, though I will try Bret's drivers, first.

Reply 3 of 4, by Jackhead

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Did you think about a icy box? I used it to swap SSDs and run it with a sata pci card.
Win98SE i switch between Amigamerlin 2.9 and raziel-evolution_1.01.16.

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 4 of 4, by Scythifuge

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Jackhead wrote on 2024-01-04, 12:00:

Did you think about a icy box? I used it to swap SSDs and run it with a sata pci card.
Win98SE i switch between Amigamerlin 2.9 and raziel-evolution_1.01.16.

I did consider that as an option, though I haven't seen a beige one. The drive bay adapters I have aren't exactly beige, but they are white and don't look too bad in a beige case. The idea of swapping SSDs, CF cards, or SD cards like old school console cartridges is neat, hehehe... SSDs would definitely be a great option, given SD card weirdness and the cost of large CF cards.

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