I would avoid sd/cf cards for win98. They are ok for dos, but i would use a ssd or hdd for win98, using a ide/sata adapter.

Remote troubleshooting is always a tiresome guessing game especially with more modern solutions like IDE-SD adaptors in the mix and only vague descriptions of hardware.
Could you please list your exact setup?

I know the following does not answer your question but it is an alternative suggestion that may save you a lot of trouble: Use a CF card or an SSD instead of the IDE-SD adaptor.
CF has a native IDE interface and offerse better compatibility. SSDs are designed as HDD replacements and since the SATA protocol is closely related to IDE a converter is much simpler and less likely to cause issues and incompatibilities.

I have a similar setup working flawlessly.
Which SD->IDE adapter are you using?
Did you also try another SD-Card?
Maybe installing (without cloning) to the SD card does the trick?

This sd adapter:
https://www.google.com/search?q=sd+ide&client … =HiLrWYsIaOUXlM
I used different sd card without any luck. I'm trying to do fresh install...
My setup:
Pentium mmx 233 MHz
64 ram
Virge dx graphics card pci
Ess 1688 isa sound card
Network card pci
Usb ports connected to board
NEC CD ROM
Ali pc chips m560 motherboard

Thank you for posting your setup. Please also tell us your motherboard model (and ideally BIOS version). Has been added.
In your initial post you stated you were using a Pentium MMX 266. Now you list a Pentium MMX 233. Did you overclock or is this just a typo?
Edit: Since your MoBo supports 75MHz FSB and 3,5*75=262,5 This is my first suspicion. 😉

This adapter one looks identical to mine.
I think it's the same Phil used a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWYS5X1wSzU

Did you try another IDE cable and connect it to its own socket to the mainboard (to avoid master/slave configurations on the sd adapter)?

Yes,sorry cpu is overclocked by jumpers from 166 MHz to 233 MHz. I received this computer from a guy which done this overclocking and also did general cleaning of the copmuter. He also installed windows on the orginal HD.
I was trying two ide cables. Adapter was connect to single socket as master

Well, with data corruption and random freezes an unstable overclock is prime suspect.
Not all MMX 166 oc to 233MHz. Try a fresh install at stock speeds. If this fixes it you found the problem.
Edit: You can also try 2.9V core if you haven't already and see wether this makes the overclock run stable.

Ok, will try. Thanks for suggestion.

Let us know how it worked out! 😀

Doornkaat wrote on 2020-06-04, 09:58:

Well, with data corruption and random freezes an unstable overclock is prime suspect.
Not all MMX 166 oc to 233MHz. Try a fresh install at stock speeds. If this fixes it you found the problem.
Edit: You can also try 2.9V core if you haven't already and see wether this makes the overclock run stable.

How to change core to 2.9v?
As i wrote that this guy did this mods i'm having difficulties to find jumpers to change it to stock speed..

I didn't read about the mods before and I can see the post has been edited. If you edit posts after new ones appear, people probably won't notice the changes. It's probably best for clarity to avoid changing posts during a troubleshooting process. I didn't stick to this as well itt but let's start doing so now. 😉

Anyway, I can not say what mods have been made to this board so I'm hesitant to make suggestions.
The manual with jumper settings can be found here but I don#t know what may have been invalisted by the mods.
If you post good closeup images of the modifications we can maybe understand what has been modded and how this changes the board's behaviour.

He changed just the clock - jumpers. I was able to find them and set to 2.5. will update if this helps. Thanks a lot for your help.

You're very welcome, let's hope this works! 😀

Something to watch out for when using SD to IDE adaptors is that the computers BIOS will sometimes "auto detect" or see the wrong settings for your SD card, and then the SD card will seem to work for a short time but you will start having problems, losing files and getting corrupted data, a lot of the SD to IDE adaptors will "fake" what it shows to the BIOS to keep compatibility with older systems.

You need to see the "real" cylinders, heads, and sectors information for your SD card, to do that I use use GParted on my Linux desktop, I then use that information to set the retro-computers BIOS with, BTW if the SD card was formatted in the retro-computer with the bad BIOS information it will have to be re-formatted or you will start having problems with it.

My VIA c3 rig works fine with a 32gb Class 10 sd card.

Czapa wrote on 2020-06-04, 09:24:

Ali pc chips m560 motherboard

Being a PCChips Mobo be ready to face problems.

I tried to install windows with 166 MHz clock and what a result - everything is working fine. It seems that oc was causing all the problems.
I'm so happy. Thank you for all your help,especially @Doornkaat

Czapa wrote on 2020-06-05, 13:13:

I tried to install windows with 166 MHz clock and what a result - everything is working fine. It seems that oc was causing all the problems.
I'm so happy. Thank you for all your help,especially @Doornkaat

My two cents :
As a general rule of thumb, you should not overclock during system setup/installation .
Once system is working well, a backup should be made and you can then try overclocking and running necessary stability tests . This avoids adding unnecessary variables to debugging process if something does go wrong during setup/installation .

You are right however i received this computer from a guy who installed system and did this oc. Everything was fine, i was using it for about 3 weeks. Problems started when i was trying to update drivers.
I'm going to stick with standard 166 MHz.