I would try testing the drive from DOS using one of the manufacturer’s utilities (you can try some Boot Disks like Hirens or Ultimate) — if it has bad sectors, it would be better to replace it.

Otherwise, on a motherboard with the same chipset (nForce3 250), I’m running a WD 120GB IDE drive without any problems with Windows 98 SE and a Samsung 250GB SATA300 drive with Windows XP.
I had to install drivers from Rudi Loew (SATA patch and AHCI patch, plus the BigHDD patch for SATA); I don’t use RAID.
In Device Manager, you'll see the "Standard dual PCI SATA controller".

The IDE drive is formatted as FAT32, the SATA drive as NTFS; in Windows 98, I use an NTFS reader to access data on the SATA drive. The chipset also works with SATA 300 (maybe even 600?) drives; no configuration is needed—the speed is, of course, limited by the chipset to 150MB/sec.
I also tested a 120GB SATA SSD, and it worked without any problems—you just have to run TRIM yourself using Rudi's utility.

Ydee wrote on 2026-07-13, 08:23:

I would try testing the drive from DOS using one of the manufacturer’s utilities (you can try some Boot Disks like Hirens or Ult […]
Show full quote

I would try testing the drive from DOS using one of the manufacturer’s utilities (you can try some Boot Disks like Hirens or Ultimate) — if it has bad sectors, it would be better to replace it.

Otherwise, on a motherboard with the same chipset (nForce3 250), I’m running a WD 120GB IDE drive without any problems with Windows 98 SE and a Samsung 250GB SATA300 drive with Windows XP.
I had to install drivers from Rudi Loew (SATA patch and AHCI patch, plus the BigHDD patch for SATA); I don’t use RAID.
In Device Manager, you'll see the "Standard dual PCI SATA controller".

The IDE drive is formatted as FAT32, the SATA drive as NTFS; in Windows 98, I use an NTFS reader to access data on the SATA drive. The chipset also works with SATA 300 (maybe even 600?) drives; no configuration is needed—the speed is, of course, limited by the chipset to 150MB/sec.
I also tested a 120GB SATA SSD, and it worked without any problems—you just have to run TRIM yourself using Rudi's utility.

Thanks for the Rudi Loew patch option.
Not to be rude or a smart ass... but I thought nothing like that was necessary since FDISK sees the drive and Win98SE installs on it without issues.

To be safe and clear: I am only using Win98SE atm with this system.

The disk has no bad sectors: Tested with HDTune under Windows XP.

Are you using the Rudi Loew SATA and AHCI (I don't think NForce3 has AHCI?) patch for Win98SE?
Do you see a Standard dual PCI SATA Controller in Windows 98SE device manager?

I think my problem has something to do with the SATA drive and Win98SE, or the drivers, or the partition size.

With this same system I first tested WindowsXP, with a SATA SSD, to make sure the board, ram and cpu were OK. Never had problems with this Nforce3 board and WindowsXP + SATA SSD. That Windows XP was installed with Service Pack 3 included (I read that no additional floppy install sata drivers were needed).

Both Win98SE and WinXP SP3 installations do not need any additional sata drivers to install properly... but in the case of Win98SE it might need sata drivers installed áfter Win98SE installation to work properly.

I read about issues with Windows98SE and Nforce3 being Sata 150 only so I limited the speed of the disk with a jumper.
Do you think that might cause the issues.

No problem—I'm just writing from my own experience with this hardware combination.

If I remember correctly, I installed nForce drivers 4.27 and both SATAFIX.ZIP (PTCHSATA.exe) and the AHCI.ZIP (AHCI port driver - even though that might not be necessary, I'm not sure if the nForce3 250 meets the SATA 1.0a specifications or just 1.0.) from R. Loew's utility package. And yes, I see Standard Dual PCI SATA Controller after installation as you can see below. Installation instructions are provided with each patch package.
This applies to Windows 98, because Windows XP already has the necessary drivers and doesn't need any patches.

I experienced incompatibility with SATA300 drives using the VIA VT8237; in that case, I had to limit the Samsung 250GB drive to SATA150 using the manufacturer’s software utility ESTOOL, otherwise the BIOS wouldn’t recognize the drive. With nForce, I didn’t notice anything like that, either with Samsung or with WD SATA300 drives.

Hello Ydee,

Thanks again!

I will nuke the Win98SE installation again and try, for the last time (I am probably fooling myself 😜) with those SATA and ACHI patches.

I have never seen the Standard dual pci SATA controller, only IDE... but that figures since I did not install any sata drivers/patch.

If it still fails I will try my Startech IDE<>SATA adapter.

Success so far with a fresh format and install.

Followed the Patchsata install guide from R. Loew.

I could not delete all 6 ide entries, not the 4 "fifo" ones.
After reboot my Win98se found the Standard Dual Pci IDE Controller again.
I had to point the driver install to the Sata drivers.

I now have 2 SATA controllers instead of IDE controllers in device manager.

Now to test some games!

R. Loews Sata patch fixed all the issues with Asus K8N Nforce3 and the sata hdd.

I also removed the jumper for 1.5gbps from the hdd.

Too soon... after turning the pc off for 1 hour the same things happen and i am unable to boot to windows anymore.

Possible Bad sectors notification, scsndisk, surface test(hangs/freezes), windows protection error, registry checker and system shut off.

I tried reboots, i tried shut downs, i played a game and all was fine... now this after a long shut down.

Ydee wrote on 2026-07-13, 11:04:

With nForce, I didn’t notice anything like that, either with Samsung or with WD SATA300 drives.

I have two hardware identical SSDs with a SandForce SATA3 chipset: Intel and Kingston.
On nForce 4 (by Gygabayte)))), the Kingston is detected as SATA 2, and the Intel, as SATA1.((((

shevalier wrote on 2026-07-14, 06:44:

Ydee wrote on 2026-07-13, 11:04:

With nForce, I didn’t notice anything like that, either with Samsung or with WD SATA300 drives.

I have two hardware identical SSDs with a SandForce SATA3 chipset: Intel and Kingston.
On nForce 4 (by Gygabayte)))), the Kingston is detected as SATA 2, and the Intel, as SATA1.((((

Nforce 4 is strange with SATA 2 speed and the detection. For example: Crucial M4's also work fine (on SATA 2 speeds, maximum for Nforce 4), some SSD's will not detect as higher than SATA 1.
At least, this (Crucial M4's working on Sata 2 speeds) is with my 2 A8N32SLI Deluxe boards.

Ontopic: I have bought a Startech IDE/Sata adapter and will see how it goes with that. Otherwise this will probably become a Windows XP build.

Checked the motherboard and PSU for bad caps?

_Krille_ wrote on 2026-07-14, 20:33:

Checked the motherboard and PSU for bad caps?

Yes and everything (exact same setup) runs fine in Windows XP.

Psu is actually fairly new.

HugoBoss1985 wrote on 2026-07-13, 18:21:

Too soon... after turning the pc off for 1 hour the same things happen and i am unable to boot to windows anymore.

Possible Bad sectors notification, scsndisk, surface test(hangs/freezes), windows protection error, registry checker and system shut off.

I tried reboots, i tried shut downs, i played a game and all was fine... now this after a long shut down.

It wouldn't hurt to test the drive using one of the manufacturer's utilities—that way, you'd know for sure if the problem is with bad sectors, the controller, the surface, etc.
I don't know what brand of drive you have, but Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, and Hitachi (including Maxtor) all have low-level testing utilities that thoroughly check the drives.
I assume your SATA cable is fine, but it might be worth trying a different one.

Ydee wrote on 2026-07-15, 14:22:

It wouldn't hurt to test the drive using one of the manufacturer's utilities—that way, you'd know for sure if the problem is wit […]
Show full quote

HugoBoss1985 wrote on 2026-07-13, 18:21:

Too soon... after turning the pc off for 1 hour the same things happen and i am unable to boot to windows anymore.

Possible Bad sectors notification, scsndisk, surface test(hangs/freezes), windows protection error, registry checker and system shut off.

I tried reboots, i tried shut downs, i played a game and all was fine... now this after a long shut down.

It wouldn't hurt to test the drive using one of the manufacturer's utilities—that way, you'd know for sure if the problem is with bad sectors, the controller, the surface, etc.
I don't know what brand of drive you have, but Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, and Hitachi (including Maxtor) all have low-level testing utilities that thoroughly check the drives.
I assume your SATA cable is fine, but it might be worth trying a different one.

Well I can now report (knock on wood) that everything works fine with the Startech IDE/SATA adapter.

I tried turning off the pc several times for 1 hour, even cutting the power and doing an ATX (draining the PSU) reset.
I also don't notice any speed decrease so for my Nforce3 and SATA on Win98se is a no-go.

The only difference is now the Startech adapter and of course no more SATA cable, but the cable has been tested as working (In Windows XP, I had no problems).