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Articles / TULARC / PC info / Enhanced IDE/Fast-ATA/ATA-2 FAQ / |  |
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04.11. I heard that Win95 provides support for large IDE disks. |
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This item is from the Yet Another Enhanced IDE/Fast-ATA/ATA-2 FAQ, by John Wehman and Peter den Haan with numerous contributions by others. (v1.92).
True, but it doesn't necessarily mean you can actually benefit from that support in all cases.
Despite a large number of significant changes, in its way of handling harddisks Win95 largely resembles Windows for Workgroups. Just like OS/2, Linux and other operating systems, Win95 uses 32-bit protected mode drivers for the harddisks (unless it's using compatibility mode), and is happy to handle harddrives of respectable size: well over 100GB. However, unlike OS/2 and Linux, and like Windows for Workgroups, Win95 boots from the same old DOS we all love to hate. Even once Win95 has booted, DOS hasn't gone. Win95 always keeps it behind the scenes and uses it to run devices in compatibility mode. In 'safe mode', important for troubleshooting, Win95 completely relies on DOS.
What all of this implies is that even though Win95's protected-mode disk driver may support gargantuan drives, it will never change the setup it inherits from DOS in order to retain compatibility with the latter. If you can only get at the first 504MB of your drive in DOS, it will be the same in Win95. You will still need one of the usual > 504MB solutions mentioned elsewhere in this FAQ. For details, see also Microsoft KnowledgeBase article Q126855, "Windows 95 Support for Large IDE Hard Disks".
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pc, hardware, faq, frequently asked questions, repair, computer, IDE, Fast-ATA, ATA-2, harddisk, hd
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