First post, by PoulpSquad
- Rank
- Member
Greetings,
I've made some progress with my retro box, but I'm having a hard time solving the issue I now submit to the sagacity of VOGONS' dwellers.
I'm trying to build a computer to run DOS and Windows software from 1991 to 2001 time frame.
It consists of:
AOpen AX63 Pro motherboard (VIA 693A/596B, AGP x2, 5x PCI, 2x ISA, 2x USB 1.1)
Intel Pentium III 1 GHz (1000 MHz, 133 MHz FSB, 7.5 multiplier, 256 L2 cache)
2X 256 MB RAM sticks (Kingston KVR13364C3/256 3.3V)
Hercules Terminator/128 3D "GLH" (S3 Trio3D 365 with 8 MB SRAM)
Orchid Righteous 3D (Voodoo Graphics)
Sound Blaster AWE32 (CT3900 ISA, 2x 16 MB)
Roland MPU-401AT
Intel PRO/100 S Server Adapter (Fast Ethernet 100BASE-TX)
Wester Digital Caviar SE 160 GB ATA (WD1600AAJB, master on primary channel)
Sony CDU5212 (52x ATAPI CD-ROM, master on secondary channel)
Gotek floppy disk emulator
Corsair HX1200i PSU
I'm trying to play games on Windows 98 Second Edition (English US).
I have about 140 GB worth of CD images in BIN/CUE format I'd like to mount with DAEMON Tools 3.47.
I can't fit all of these images and install the games on the same disk, as space is limited.
I don't have access to biggers ATA hard disks. I dislike the idea of buying second (third?) hand hard disks.
So far, I tried:
-storing them on a SD card plugged to an SD to USB adater, but it is much too slow to be usable (audio skips/game pauses for 1-2 seconds everytime the image is accessed).
-storing them on an external hard disk plugged through the same USB 1.1 interface. It was better, but still way too slow (same symptoms as with the SD card).
-adding a second hard disk, but because of the way DOS works, it automatically becomes disk D:, and breaks audio on many games that expect the optical drive to be D:.
-adding on of those VIA USB 2.0 PCI adapters. So far this has not worked at all. I ordered a different model just for kicks, but I'm not very optimistic...
-connecting to my main Windows computer (Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB without domain). Both computers are in the same Workgroup. I couldn't manage to access a shared folder so far.
-replacing the IDE hard disk with a SCSI320 300 GB. hard disk. It's fast enough, but the controller's BIOS eats too much upper memory and I can't share files with my main PC.
-compressing the images, but I have yet to find a compressed format that works with DAEMON Tools 3.47.
-using an ATA to SATA adapter. These things are from hell and don't work (for me) at all.
-adding a PCI SATA controller (Adaptec with Sillicon Image chip). Had random read errors.
-plugging an external hard disk to my router. The router sees the hard disk and shares its content ok, but my Windows 98 box doesn't see it.
-setting up an FTP server on my main computer and download images as I need them. That was pretty desperate...
-looking for an ATA SSD on eBay/Amazon. I couldn't find any big enough.
Please post your suggestions, as I'm running out of ideas...
Thanks a bunch for your patience.
Cheers!
*edited for typos