run memtest86

Any overclock?

Can also be a bad cable, but you definitely want to do some memtest.

- Memtest comes back OK
- No overclock
- Cables I doubt (only since i've seen this happen on my Dell C600 laptop)

If you restore your image to a different HDD, does that get corrupted too after a while? Just trying to figure out if the HDD itself is at fault here or not.

Otoh the HDD may be fine but the disk image is "pre-corrupted" in a way that only shows after x amount has been written (or some other way to hit certain broken sectors/fat entries/whatever... I don't know much about FAT access patterns). In that case a good old reformat-reinstall instead of an image restore would take care of it. Worth a try since OP didn't mention having reinstalled at any point.

No - If stick to playing games it will run forever.
It occurs after reinstalls, hence why i started making images (reinstalling each time it happened was killing me)

Def not the HDD, since it happens across differnt systems and using real IDE spinning rust, CF cards, SD to IDE adapters, etc. so i don't think the storage medium is the problem, which i initially thought it was.

arizonapalms wrote on 2024-03-05, 02:54:

across differnt systems

Alrighty then. It's getting weirder. Any shared (reused) components between those at all? No matter how unlikely they are to be the cause of this.

Also, what's the software side look like? Any third party "service" packs or other shit like that installed (protip: don't.)? Antivirus or other stuff running in the background, doing their own thing? Maybe even tried different install media, or compared the checksum of yours to a known good one?

Is it happening on stuff between 600MB and 2GB or are you blowing the normal file size limit?

elszgensa wrote on 2024-03-05, 03:20:

arizonapalms wrote on 2024-03-05, 02:54:

across differnt systems

Alrighty then. It's getting weirder. Any shared (reused) components between those at all? No matter how unlikely they are to be the cause of this.

Also, what's the software side look like? Any third party "service" packs or other shit like that installed (protip: don't.)? Antivirus or other stuff running in the background, doing their own thing? Maybe even tried different install media, or compared the checksum of yours to a known good one?

Right? So weird! Nope, totally different components across the board.
As for the software side - I initially thought it was the "Redtoast" modified installer I was using, but I've tried with newly burnt REMOVED downloaded Win98SE OEM iso, my original factory OEM disc too with the same issue being triggered.
I don't use service packs, I agree they are mainly useless but I do install the usual USB Mass storage driver+DX8/9

I keep things pretty plain nowadays, only patch if I absolutely have to.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-05, 03:48:

Is it happening on stuff between 600MB and 2GB or are you blowing the normal file size limit?

Nah not blowing the fat32 filesize limit

A common denominator is that they are connected to my network - It's pretty locked down (running a Fortigate firewall, have seperate VLAN's for retro network, etc) and have not seen any weird packets floating around.

One thing I usually do is adjust MTU for faster and more reliable network speed - but since I managed to replicate the issue whilst unzipping something, i think this was somewhat of a red herring:

1REGEDIT4
2
3[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP]
4"DefaultRcvWindow"="372300"
5"DefaultTTL"="64"
6"PMTUDiscovery"=dword:00000000
7"PMTUBlackHoleDetect"=dword:00000000
8
9[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0000]
10"MaxMTU"="1500"
11
12[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0001]
13"MaxMTU"="1500"
14
15[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0002]
16"MaxMTU"="1500"
17
18[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0003]
19"MaxMTU"="1500"
20
21[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0004]
22"MaxMTU"="1500"
23
24[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0005]
25"MaxMTU"="1500"
26
27[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0006]
28"MaxMTU"="1500"
29
30[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0007]
31"MaxMTU"="1500"
32
33[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0008]
34"MaxMTU"="1500"
35
36[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0009]
37"MaxMTU"="1500"
38
39[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP]
40"Tcp1323Opts"="3"
41
42[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\Parameters]
43"SackOpts"="1"
44"MaxDupAcks"=dword:00000003

OK another idea, what size HDDs you are using? Does the corruption also happen with drives <128GB?

When you find the time, plz try again with a fresh, bare bones install - untouched disc straight from Microsoft, no network at all, no USB mass storage driver, only on disc drivers unless you absolutely need them to get storage working (if you do, make a note of that) (and no, at this point it doesn't matter if your graphics are stuck at 640x480 16 colors, deal with it), no tweaks, no zip tool (try making a few copies of some large-ish file instead or something). Start adding bits one by one until you can reproduce the issue. You know, basic, structured process-of-elimination troubleshooting. When it happens, describe that configuration for us, and the last change you did. Be as detailed as possible - so far you haven't given us a lot of hard data to work with ("Unspecified versions of 98se in non-default states on unspecified drives of varying storage types and unspecified sizes, possibly - but not necessarily in all instances - connected through IDE; WinRAR and/or 7-Zip likely, but not guaranteed, to be installed.").

That is, unless the thread gets nuked first, since you made the smart move of admitting to two instances of piracy, which the mods here are very anal about.

elszgensa wrote on 2024-03-05, 12:26:

When you find the time, plz try again with a fresh, bare bones install - untouched disc straight from Microsoft, no network at all, no USB mass storage driver, only on disc drivers unless you absolutely need them to get storage working (if you do, make a note of that) (and no, at this point it doesn't matter if your graphics are stuck at 640x480 16 colors, deal with it), no tweaks, no zip tool (try making a few copies of some large-ish file instead or something). Start adding bits one by one until you can reproduce the issue. You know, basic, structured process-of-elimination troubleshooting. When it happens, describe that configuration for us, and the last change you did. Be as detailed as possible - so far you haven't given us a lot of hard data to work with ("Unspecified versions of 98se in non-default states on unspecified drives of varying storage types and unspecified sizes, possibly - but not necessarily in all instances - connected through IDE; WinRAR and/or 7-Zip likely, but not guaranteed, to be installed.").

That is, unless the thread gets nuked first, since you made the smart move of admitting to two instances of piracy, which the mods here are very anal about.

I know something like this was inevitable - Will do and report back. You're right in that there are far too many variables involved here.
As for the p*racy, I am within the laws of the country I am in (Australia) if that amounts to anything!

arizonapalms wrote on 2024-03-04, 06:09:

I've been dealing with a weird issue on my Win98SE installs over the last two years or so.. Not sure exactly what causes it but […]
Show full quote

I've been dealing with a weird issue on my Win98SE installs over the last two years or so.. Not sure exactly what causes it but have been pulling my hair out. Curious if anyone else has seen this before.

Happens with all forms of hardware, no SSD or SATA bull either, just IDE spinning rust with DMA enabled.

Here's usually how it goes (how i've been able to replicate it anyway):
- Either copy a large file (600mb or so) over FTP using any client - InternetExplorer, FileZilla, FlashFXP
- At some point during this transfer, I get some kind of error from the FTP client that the drive is full (false) and the entire file system of C: is corrupt, instead of the file/folder structure it's just random files and folders with random characters in their names.
- This also happens if unzipping a large file using 7zip or WinRAR

What I have done:
- Rebooting is futile as the drive is corrupt
- TestDisk shows there are some files there, but the MBR is unrecoverable

At this point, i just keep a second drive in there with a ghost image that i recover from *when* it occurs. I also avoid doing any kind of larger file operations. Anyone seen this kind of behaviour before? I thought it was related to network overloading the HDD write-ahead, but I can trigger this just by unzipping a file.

From this description, I would just guess that your system is unstable.
Especially: "This also happens if unzipping a large file using 7zip or WinRAR"

Zipping and unzipping is a very good stability test for CPU, cache, RAM.
Since you have run memtest already, my first test would be disabling L2 cache in the Bios and then zip / unzip a lot.

EDIT: Sorry, my answer was a bit weird.
You did not specify anything about your system. What is it? Pentium 4, 486? 😁
My answer was related to a 486 system, haha, I guess you have something newer.

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-03-05, 20:54:

From this description, I would just guess that your system is unstable. Especially: "This also happens if unzipping a large file […]
Show full quote

arizonapalms wrote on 2024-03-04, 06:09:

I've been dealing with a weird issue on my Win98SE installs over the last two years or so.. Not sure exactly what causes it but […]
Show full quote

I've been dealing with a weird issue on my Win98SE installs over the last two years or so.. Not sure exactly what causes it but have been pulling my hair out. Curious if anyone else has seen this before.

Happens with all forms of hardware, no SSD or SATA bull either, just IDE spinning rust with DMA enabled.

Here's usually how it goes (how i've been able to replicate it anyway):
- Either copy a large file (600mb or so) over FTP using any client - InternetExplorer, FileZilla, FlashFXP
- At some point during this transfer, I get some kind of error from the FTP client that the drive is full (false) and the entire file system of C: is corrupt, instead of the file/folder structure it's just random files and folders with random characters in their names.
- This also happens if unzipping a large file using 7zip or WinRAR

What I have done:
- Rebooting is futile as the drive is corrupt
- TestDisk shows there are some files there, but the MBR is unrecoverable

At this point, i just keep a second drive in there with a ghost image that i recover from *when* it occurs. I also avoid doing any kind of larger file operations. Anyone seen this kind of behaviour before? I thought it was related to network overloading the HDD write-ahead, but I can trigger this just by unzipping a file.

From this description, I would just guess that your system is unstable.
Especially: "This also happens if unzipping a large file using 7zip or WinRAR"

Zipping and unzipping is a very good stability test for CPU, cache, RAM.
Since you have run memtest already, my first test would be disabling L2 cache in the Bios and then zip / unzip a lot.

EDIT: Sorry, my answer was a bit weird.
You did not specify anything about your system. What is it? Pentium 4, 486? 😁
My answer was related to a 486 system, haha, I guess you have something newer.

I think I have quite a bit more testing and data-gathering to do!