wierd_w wrote on 2026-03-13, 12:32:

If the old version of ontrack is still on there, the ddo installer will detect it. […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-13, 00:50:

Nope. This isn't happening. The latest version sure is nice and user friendly as it goes through all the different steps, but the Dynamic Drive Overlay options are greyed out. I'm guessing that's what's needed to fool the BIOS...?

If the old version of ontrack is still on there, the ddo installer will detect it.

Try running DM in Manual mode, by running it from the command line with the /m argument.

More knobs will be available, including options to reconfigure, remove, or upgrade the existing ddo data.

Oh. Cool. Had no idea. Thing is, aren't the Ontrack files only added to a RAM disk temporarily? Apart from that it's been loaded either from an image on my Gotek pen drive or a floppy disk. Also, as I mentioned above, I seem to have problems running it from a command line via the image. Particularly 10.46.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-11, 23:24:

I think the BIOSes are upgraded to their latest version. The one for the HighPoint Technologies IDE controller is 1.25 or 1.26. And the BIOS is BEH-70 from 2001, I believe.

Could you post a picture of the HighPoint Technologies IDE controller ?

douglar wrote on 2026-03-13, 13:13:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-11, 23:24:

I think the BIOSes are upgraded to their latest version. The one for the HighPoint Technologies IDE controller is 1.25 or 1.26. And the BIOS is BEH-70 from 2001, I believe.

Could you post a picture of the HighPoint Technologies IDE controller ?

On the motherboard? Ooh, now you're asking... I'll have to see if I can figure out where it is. ^^;

EDIT: Ah, actually, not difficult at all thanks to the diagram on The Retro Web.

wierd_w wrote on 2026-03-13, 12:32:

If the old version of ontrack is still on there, the ddo installer will detect it. […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-13, 00:50:

Nope. This isn't happening. The latest version sure is nice and user friendly as it goes through all the different steps, but the Dynamic Drive Overlay options are greyed out. I'm guessing that's what's needed to fool the BIOS...?

If the old version of ontrack is still on there, the ddo installer will detect it.

Try running DM in Manual mode, by running it from the command line with the /m argument.

More knobs will be available, including options to reconfigure, remove, or upgrade the existing ddo data.

Yeah, I'm having no luck doing this with 10.46. On boot, it extracts the DMZIP1.EXE to a RAM disk. Trying to run or extract it manually, nothing. Can't get it to work. Even with the /m switch. I can try 9.57 and see if it does it, but it's 10.46 I need apparently.

Yep. Nothing doing. 9.57 will let me initialise with the /m switch, but it still won’t let me add or remove any Dynamic Overlay or says none exist. The Hitachi version is the same and 10.46 won’t let me either, but nor will it let me initialise it manually with any switches. I’ve tried /m, /c, and /n. It gets to ‘inflating DM.exe’ but then says ‘disk full’. 🤷🏻‍♂️

'Get creative'.

Modify the autoexec of the floppy.

Let it extract as per normal. Where it calls dm.exe from the ramdisk, throw the flag on the end.

More than one way to skin that cat.

I may create a video on advanced functions of ontrack using a virtual machine this weekend.

In the meantime, I'd just suggest dd-ing 4mb of zeros to the front of the disk then trying again, or something similarly brutal.

wierd_w wrote on 2026-03-13, 20:30:

'Get creative'. […]
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'Get creative'.

Modify the autoexec of the floppy.

Let it extract as per normal. Where it calls dm.exe from the ramdisk, throw the flag on the end.

More than one way to skin that cat.

I may create a video on advanced functions of ontrack using a virtual machine this weekend.

In the meantime, I'd just suggest dd-ing 4mb of zeros to the front of the disk then trying again, or something similarly brutal.

A nice idea, but I'm not even sure how I'd go about it or what I would need to add. Opening up the autoexec, all it has is this:

1@echo off
2cls
3cd a:\
4findrdsk VDISK
5echo Please remove the CD and/or Floppy Diskette
6echo Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot your system

I've tried the same command when trying to initialise it manually - findrdsk vdisk or trying to load findrdsk.exe and nothing happens.

I will look into it more closely when I go home today.

Okay. Thanks. 😀

I think in the meantime, I'll order myself one of those ATA133 PCI controllers, so at least I've got something to fall back onto if all else fails.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-14, 17:04:

I think in the meantime, I'll order myself one of those ATA133 PCI controllers, so at least I've got something to fall back onto if all else fails.

The Promise S150 and Ultra133 are best. Promise cards that support ATA100 or 133 have the BIOS & Controller in a single chip package & are most compatible. Maxtor branded cards are promise cards. The Ultra 100 cards can be upgraded to support LBA48 by flashing the 2003 firmware to the card.

Cards with Silicon Image chips like the Adaptec ASH-1233 have always worked OK for me, and Phil likes them too, but other people have reported issues.

If you get a card that's not a Promise card, make sure you see a BIOS chip on it.

Here's an example of a card without a BIOS:
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/high … int-rocket-133s
Here's the same card with a BIOS:
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/high … nt-rocket-133sb

I'd avoid Via based cards unless they are free or close to free. And even then they might not be worth the effort.

I don't have a lot of experience with Highpoint or ITE based cards.

douglar wrote on 2026-03-14, 18:40:

The Promise S150 and Ultra133 are best. Promise cards that support ATA100 or 133 have the BIOS & Controller in a single chip pa […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-14, 17:04:

I think in the meantime, I'll order myself one of those ATA133 PCI controllers, so at least I've got something to fall back onto if all else fails.

The Promise S150 and Ultra133 are best. Promise cards that support ATA100 or 133 have the BIOS & Controller in a single chip package & are most compatible. Maxtor branded cards are promise cards. The Ultra 100 cards can be upgraded to support LBA48 by flashing the 2003 firmware to the card.

Cards with Silicon Image chips like the Adaptec ASH-1233 have always worked OK for me, and Phil likes them too, but other people have reported issues.

If you get a card that's not a Promise card, make sure you see a BIOS chip on it.

Here's an example of a card without a BIOS:
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/high … int-rocket-133s
Here's the same card with a BIOS:
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/high … nt-rocket-133sb

I'd avoid Via based cards unless they are free or close to free. And even then they might not be worth the effort.

I don't have a lot of experience with Highpoint or ITE based cards.

Thanks for the heads up. 😄 I ended up ordering a Silicon Image one. At least, it looks to be based on the model on the box. It’s old stock that’s technically new. It was only £8-11. But here’s hoping I don’t run into issues. It’s this:

https://ebay.us/m/ZChY44

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-14, 18:49:

Thanks for the heads up. 😄 I ended up ordering a Silicon Image one. At least, it looks to be based on the model on the box. It’s old stock that’s technically new. It was only £8-11. But here’s hoping I don’t run into issues. It’s this:

You sure about that?

Please post a picture of it when it arrives. Very curious to see what you get.

douglar wrote on 2026-03-14, 19:04:

You sure about that? […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-14, 18:49:

Thanks for the heads up. 😄 I ended up ordering a Silicon Image one. At least, it looks to be based on the model on the box. It’s old stock that’s technically new. It was only £8-11. But here’s hoping I don’t run into issues. It’s this:

You sure about that?

The attachment Untitled.png is no longer available

Please post a picture of it when it arrives. Very curious to see what you get.

Oh no. Have I gone and bought an unknown brand? 😕

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-14, 19:35:

douglar wrote on 2026-03-14, 19:04:

You sure about that? […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-14, 18:49:

Thanks for the heads up. 😄 I ended up ordering a Silicon Image one. At least, it looks to be based on the model on the box. It’s old stock that’s technically new. It was only £8-11. But here’s hoping I don’t run into issues. It’s this:

You sure about that?

The attachment Untitled.png is no longer available

Please post a picture of it when it arrives. Very curious to see what you get.

Oh no. Have I gone and bought an unknown brand? 😕

It's probable one of these two:
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/star … ch-pciide2-8211
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/startech-pciide2

douglar wrote on 2026-03-14, 19:04:

You sure about that? […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-03-14, 18:49:

Thanks for the heads up. 😄 I ended up ordering a Silicon Image one. At least, it looks to be based on the model on the box. It’s old stock that’s technically new. It was only £8-11. But here’s hoping I don’t run into issues. It’s this:

You sure about that?

The attachment Untitled.png is no longer available

Please post a picture of it when it arrives. Very curious to see what you get.

Nearly a week later, it finally arrived. And yeah, it's an ITE. I just hope it does the job.

Hmm. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't appear to be working. Unless I'm missing a crucial step...? I plugged the card in, the PC didn't detect any hardware changes. Connected the HDD to it and then it did. I've installed the drivers for it, I get a prompt on boot, which I would love to disable somehow as it doesn't carry on booting Windows unless I press a key to either go into the configuration utility or Esc to continue loading Windows, and I have a RAID utility in my taskbar. Both utilities seem to recognise the correct capacity of the HDD. It says around 298-300 anyway, but Windows still doesn't recognise the full amount. And I still get a BSOD if I try to run the ScanDisk. 🙁

So I'm not sure what I'm missing here.

Yeah, this is all new territory for me. Never used a RAID card before, don't fully understand what they are or what use they have, I'm not sure if I need to build an array or how. I've tried doing it in the utility on boot, but I can't seem to do it. It says I need two drives and I don't even know how to do that.

More or less, what you are missing is an lba48 capable bootrom, or equivalent.

Windows 95 will still need patching. The 32bit disk drivers it ships with are not lba48 aware.

Information can be found here:

https://rloewelectronics.com/Programs/Patch137.htm

wierd_w wrote on 2026-03-19, 16:15:

More or less, what you are missing is an lba48 capable bootrom, or equivalent. […]
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More or less, what you are missing is an lba48 capable bootrom, or equivalent.

Windows 95 will still need patching. The 32bit disk drivers it ships with are not lba48 aware.

Information can be found here:

https://rloewelectronics.com/Programs/Patch137.htm

Surely that defeats the point of having a RAID controller card...? I thought ATA 100/133 supported LBA48 out of the box? But it's Win 98 I have and I had already installed that patch. Re-running it, it did say the HDD is 48-BIT Support Verified. And the patch is verified on boot, but it still only recognises it as 127GB in Windows. 🙁