My motherboard is an ALBATRON MoBO PX865PE Lite, with P4 and 512MB of RAM. I am using an 80GB Maxtor IDE HDD for boot, and planning to use the Samsung SSD as data drive for accepting games.
I installed a fresh copy of Windows 98SE retail, and I wish I had known about rloew's commercial SATA patch during the installation process.
The issue is I can NOT have access to certain large folders on this SSD drive, whereas Windows 2000 and even DOS 7.1 can see them. (I am using System Commander 2000 to have a mutli-OS setup, comprising of DOS 7.1, Win98SE, and Win2KPro)
The strange thing is that I can vouch that prior to this installation, when I used Voirin's Windows 9x QuickInstall CD to install Windows 98SE, I had no issue accessing the exact same large folders however.
I have consulted ChatGPT, and this is the response that I got:
Perfect! Let’s do a **very easy, step-by-step guide** using **BootIt NG v1.87** to create a FAT32 partition starting at **sector 63** on your 500 GB SSD. I’ll keep it simple, no technical jargon, just clicks and keystrokes.
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## 🧩 What You Need
* **BootIt NG v1.87** bootable USB or CD.
* Backup of any important data on the SSD (it will be erased).
---
## 🧭 Step-by-Step Guide
### 1️⃣ Boot from BootIt NG
1. Insert your BootIt NG USB/CD.
2. Power on the PC.
3. Boot from the USB/CD.
4. You will see the **BootIt NG main menu**.
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### 2️⃣ Enter Maintenance Mode
1. From the main menu, choose **Maintenance Mode**.
2. Press **Enter**.
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### 3️⃣ Open Partition Work
1. Select **Partition Work** from the menu.
2. Press **Enter**.
3. You will see a list of all your drives.
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### 4️⃣ Select Your SSD
1. Use the **arrow keys** to highlight your 500 GB SSD.
2. Press **Enter** to select it.
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### 5️⃣ Delete Old Partition
1. Highlight the existing partition on the SSD.
2. Press **Del** on your keyboard.
3. Confirm deletion.
> ⚠️ This erases all data on the drive.
---
### 6️⃣ Create New Partition
1. Highlight the unallocated space.
2. Press **Ins** (Insert) to create a new partition.
3. Set the following:
* **Start sector:** type `63`
* **End sector:** leave it as default (fills the whole disk)
* **File system:** choose **FAT32 (LBA)**
4. Press **Enter** to confirm.
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### 7️⃣ Save Changes
1. Press **F2** → **Save Changes**.
2. Confirm to write the new partition table.
3. Reboot your PC into Windows 2000.
---
### 8️⃣ Format the Partition (GUIFormat)
1. Download **GUIFormat (guiformat.exe)** if you don’t have it:
[https://ridgecrop.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm](https://ridgecrop.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm)
2. Open **GUIFormat** in Windows 2000.
3. Select your new SSD drive letter.
4. Set **Allocation unit size:** `32768` (32 KB clusters).
5. Click **Start** → confirm formatting.
---
### 9️⃣ Verify Alignment
1. Open **Command Prompt** → type:
```
diskpart
list disk
select disk <n> (your SSD)
list partition
```
2. Check **Offset** → should read ~32 KB (sector 63).
---
### 10️⃣ Test in Windows 98 SE
* Boot Windows 98 (with Loew 48-bit LBA patch).
* You should now be able to see **all folders and large files** without errors.
---
✅ **Result:**
* Partition starts at sector 63
* FAT32 with 32 KB clusters
* Fully compatible with **Win98 SE + Win2000**
PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)
