A serious error hs occurred while writing t drive C: retry?

[paugie]

I used to be able to dual boot Win98 and 2K from different partitions on a single 80Gb hard drive. Needed the Win98 only because my old Matrox capture card has no drivers for the newer OS’s. When I changed my mobo to an MSI KT6V-LSR (Via KT600) I couldn’t get the Win98 partition to work (I didn’t have to wipe it through 2 earlier mobo changes. I guess it couldn’t stand the 3rd)

The previous setup was like this, all on a 1-1/2 year old 80gb Maxtor:

Primary partition, 753 mb, FAT32, Windows 98
1st logical partition, 11gb, NTFS, Windows 2K Pro
2nd logical partition, 25gb, FAT32, for video files
3rd logical partition, 40gb, FAT32, for all my data, downloads, etc

I could get the standard Windows OS selection page upon boot. This time whenever I try to install Windows 98 I get the above “serious error” message right after the partition check by scandisk. It's not the installer's fault, it's been with me for a long time. Worked flawlessly before.

I am able to install Win2K on NTFS or FAT32. It is only when I try to install Win98 that I get slammed with this error. I can’t use my capture card and that’s where I earn a little.

The drive passes both the Maxtor diagnostic software (full system scan) and the Seatools generic test (full system scan).

There are no viruses detected (my software may be faulty, though).
PartitionMagic 7 fails to create the small partition I need for Win98, saying “cannot create partition, anti-virus software may be running” But I have disabled any virus settings in BIOS and I am using PartitionMagic from the boot diskettes.

Really stumped here. Can’t afford to buy a new drive right now just so to transfer my files and wipe the current drive.

In summary, the drive allows me to install Win2K on either NTFS or FAT32. But it will not allow me to install Win 98, whether on a Primary partition or the first logical partition (i.e. after Win2K has already been installed)

Hope you can suggest a work-around or a reason for this behavior.

 

[Pradeep]

Nothing wrong with your computer in particular, that is just standard Windows behaviour (older versions of Windows not wanting to install in a multi-boot system with more recent versions of Windows). 98 just wants to be the first installon the drive (prob too stupid to understand multiboot).

 

[Howell]

Nothing wrong with your computer in particular, that is just standard Windows behaviour (older versions of Windows not wanting to install in a multi-boot system with more recent versions of Windows). 98 just wants to be the first installon the drive (prob too stupid to understand multiboot).

If that is the case then making the 98 partition the active partition should allow it to install I think.

 

[sechs]

I question whether Windows98 will work properly on the newer hardware.

 

[paugie]

98 just wants to be the first installon the drive (prob too stupid to understand multiboot).

tried this, no go.

I question whether Windows98 will work properly on the newer hardware.

Ouch! Does this really happen? I've worked this setup on NForce2 chipset mobo, KT400 mobo and newer SiS chipsets.
Please don't tell me I will have to buy a newer capture card.
I am ghosting this partition and will try dual booting to the same partition. Hope it works.

 

[Jan Kivar]

I've seen similar once. My problems (similar error IIRC) happened during the install. My problem was ATA133 and too much signal degradation. I used a mobile rack, round cables and wrong connector on the ATA cable.

My problem was sorted when I plugged the drive in the right connector (the one in the end of the cable). Interestingly, the previous configuration had worked for more than a year in WinXP use. The OS (XP) was not installed in this drive, though.

Cheers,

Jan

 

[paugie]

thanks Jan. will try a different UDMA cable. And will also try connecting the Hard Drive using an old Promise ATA66 PCI controller I have lying around.

 

[paugie]

workaround successful

So I installed the Promise ATA66 controller, connected the Hard Drive to it.
And Partition Magic works flawlessly, allowing me to add a new partition, change it to Primary, make the old primary partition into a logical partition within the extended.
Needless to say Win98 and Win2K are dual-booting as before.

Something wrong with the on-board IDE controller or it's really just because of the new hardware?

I've emailed the problem to MSI support, hopefully they come up with an explanation.

 

[paugie]

new problem on same system

aghhh! on two consecutive nights, my system started to recycle from boot on the Win2K partition. (the Win98 was ok).
right after the Win2K splash screen, it would blue screen saying "the hive file (registry) is corrupted. blah-blah-blah" then it would restart.
I had to reformat.
The next afternoon, it happened again.