Is 'bad_ide' set in the registry?

See post #6 in this thread.

http://asia.cnet.com/itmanager/tech/0,3900640 … 39084405,00.htm If you view the information on the Performance tab (Control Pane […]
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http://asia.cnet.com/itmanager/tech/0,3900640 … 39084405,00.htm
If you view the information on the Performance tab (Control Panel >
System), you may see a message:

Compatibility Mode Paging reduces overall system performance

Some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility

This means that your floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive are operating
in MS-DOS compatibility mode. We'll discuss only hard disks operating
in MS-DOS compatibility mode here.

To force Windows to attempt to reinitialize the protected-mode IDE
driver you'll have to remove the noide entry from the registry:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services
\ VxD \ IOS
3. Delete the NoIDE entry
4. Search your registry for BAD_IDE (You can Search the registry by
pressing F3 while working in the registry editor.
5. Delete any BAD_IDE values you find
Or,
1. Select NOIDE.INF in the \Tools\MTSutil folder on the Windows 98 CD.
2. Right-click NOIDE.INF
-or-
Hold down the Shift key and press the function key F10.
3. Choose Install to remove the NOIDE entry.
From,
http://members.home.net/scotterpops/fixes/fixes8.html

After you update the registry, restart Windows. Windows will then
attempt to initialize the protected-mode driver for the controller.
If no problems are encountered, the file system and virtual memory
will operate in 32-bit mode, and Device Manager will not display an
exclamation point in a yellow circle for the IDE channels.

If the protected-mode driver is not initialized properly, an error
message will be displayed and the NoIDE registry entry will be
re-created.

Bad-Ide gets set during installation if the disk controller does not behave the way windows expects with its generic 32bit IDE controller drivers. It forces windows to stay in in13h disk access mode (all disk calls handled by BIOS routines at software int13h, aka, 'dos compatibility mode') to avoid lockups, data loss, or bluescreens.

It will stay that way no matter which driver is installed.

Back in the day, this would happen when trying to install windows with a Promise Technologies ATA133 controller installed.

In this case, since this is a sata controller, setup may have encountered similar issues and set bad_ide or NoIde keys.

You will need to look for then delete these keys if they exist.

Unfortunately, this solution didn't work in my case.

Post config.sys & autoexec.bat contents. Please.

Well, was worth a shot.

Another thing to check is in the system.ini file. There's options that can be set in there that will disable 32bit disk controllers.

it would be in the [386Enh] section, and would be "32BitDiskAccess=Off"
if that is present, 32bit disk access will be turned off. I dont know why it would get set there automatically, but if it is there, it will cause the symptoms you are seeing.

(EDIT)

Yes, some disk controller drivers loaded from DOS (like CDROM drivers, or disk caching drivers) can force dos compatibility mode to be on as well.

config.sys & autoexec.bat are empty because I only run Windows and I don't have 32BitDiskAccess option in my system.ini.

MBR Virus ?

Nope, no viruses. If I have the SATA controller enabled in the BIOS, Windows always enters MS-DOS compatibility mode, even if the patch and drivers are installed correctly. If I disable the SATA controller in the BIOS, the MS-DOS mode disappears. ¯\(ツ)/¯