Upgrading to Windows ME problems?

[mikewg]

I have Windows 98 (not 98se) and I just went to Best Buy the other day and bought a 60 Gig hard drive. When I get home, I read on the box that Windows 98 will only support up to 32 Gigs total. Funny I've never heard that before. Regardless, I think I need to upgrade and Windows ME is the only other thing I have available to me.

Has anyone experienced any problems capturing/converting/authoring with Windows ME? Here's my setup:
AMD 900Mhz
256 Megs of RAM
20 Gig Hard Drive + 60 Gig I just bought
ATI All In Wonder 128 Pro Video Card
Soundblaster Audigy sound card

And I use VirtualDub to capture, TMPGEnc to encode, TSVC to make Menus, and Fireburner/Nero to burn, depending what I'm doing.

Does anyone think I'll have problems upgrading to ME? Thanks for any advice in advance.

[mikewg]

By the way, I'll be upgrading to ME since I only have the Upgrade version available to me.

[Anonymous65]

You might have to play a bit with the ATI video card to get the correct drivers. WinMe is like a combination of Win2K and Win98. Normally, you would use Win98 drivers unless there are WinMe drivers. You might also find a few applications that just will not run correctly under WinMe that worked perfectly under Win98. But as far as video applications go, I have tried almost everyhting, and it works in WinMe.

[Sefy]

skittelsen, I don't see how you can compare WinMe like a combination of Win2k and Win98, it doesn't have the stability of Win2k, and it does not have the compatibility of Win98, has anyone seen any commercials for WinMe ?
I think it's the only OS that Microsoft doesn't seem to want publicized.

Anyway, mikewg, i've got Win98SE, and I've got 2 drives of each of them is 45gb, which I believe is a bit over the "limited" 32gb support which who ever told you has, since WinMe uses the exact same FAT32, i'd say if Win98SE is limited, then so is WinMe, maybe it's a gimik Microsoft said to trick people into upgrading I don't know, wouldn't be the first time they lie.

Either way, DO NOT upgrade to Windows Me, cause except incompatibilities and ALOT of problems, you won't get anything else out of it, if you want to upgrade into anything, it might as well be 2000.

[Tommy]

Yes WinME is not the greatest os in the world, but its nothing to be scared about either. I've seen many people have much more trouble with win2k then winME. Once you get your system tuned properly it shouldn't be a problem. I'd say tht WinME has better compatibility then Win98 unless your running really old stuff........

[mikewg]

I don't have the hard drive box with me right now, but I believe that the box says that Windows 95 and 98 are limited to 32 Gigs, and Windows 98SE and ME are limited to 120 Gigs. Again I don't have the exact the numbers in front of me, but I'm pretty sure this is right. And I don't have Windows 98SE available to me, hense having to go to ME.

[kinneera]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
I have Windows 98 (not 98se) and I just went to Best Buy the other day and bought a 60 Gig hard drive. When I get home, I read on the box that Windows 98 will only support up to 32 Gigs total.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I believe this refers to the addressing limits of the FAT16 filesystem. However, Windows has supported FAT32 ever since OSR2 of Windows95, so you should have no problem with the 60GB hard drive. The only other possible issue would involve your BIOS, as many older versions don't support extremely large hard drives.

[Anonymous65]

WinME gives you the same interface and features as Win2K. For the ones that doesn't know, Win2K use the NT kernel, and WinMe uses the DOS kernel. WinMe is the last OS from MS that use the DOS kernel, like Win95, 98, 98SE. Win2K, or NT5 as it is, has the same core as WinXP. However, XP has a new interface. So, you basically have three options as far as MS OS'es, WinMe- the latest DOS version, Win2K- the latest NT version, and WinXP- the latest "NT" version with a new interface.

[mikewg]

If I'm running a FAT32 system in Windows 98 (not 98SE), does anyone else think I'll have a problem installing a 60 Gig hard drive with a 20 Gig master drive? Does anyone have Windows 98 (not 98SE) that has more than 32 Gigs total?

[el_mondo]

skittelsen, come on !!
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On 2001-10-22 15:26:40, skittelsen wrote:
WinME gives you the same interface and features as Win2K.
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I has nothing like the features of 2k. as for the rest your right. as to the initiator of this post. dont upgrade, make a fress installation of 'Me' after you have fdisk'd all your partitions to a max of 32GB, the guy who wrote 40+ is posible is right, It can be done when you change the sector allocation, but its not advised as it creates more blue screens that you could throw a stick at. Last thing is try and get a copy of W2K it is so much more stable and you have the posibility of 2proc's, big disks etc. Compatability problems are out of the window if you update it to the max on windows update (even runs quake3arena, windvd(prior to 2000), etc) It has no compatibility problems sinse the september update.

[daren b]

no body seems to want to answer your question so i will
im running windows 98 with 2x 40 gigg h/drives with absolutlie no problems at all neither are partioned both are full 40 giggs one is running fat 32 the second drive is formatted ntfs and before any one says this cant be done with 98 go to apachez website and download the driver pack to do this then replie !!
i tried win me and took it off 1 hour later it stinks!
when you install second drive go into cmos setup on boot and select the drive number its on ide2 slave or master then press enter this will automaticlie set the size and cylinders ect then boot normalie

[mikewg]

Thank you Daren B, you're saying what I'm wanting to hear. I'm not too excited about upgrading to Windows ME, I'd rather wait until the day I can afford Windows XP. In the mean time, I'd love to install my 60 Gig Hard Drive with my current Windows 98 setup. Also, an NTFS setup just for that drive would be ideal because I'm planning to capture entire movies on it and not having to deal with segments would be great. You mentioned the Apachez website to get a driver pack... what website is that? Is the Drive Pack just an install, and do I just install it before or after I install the drive physically into the computer? Any other advice before I attempt to do this? Thanks again for the help and taking the time to answer my question and not talk about Windows 2000 since that's not available to me. Thanks and I look forward to your reply and any other advice you might have.

[daren b]

the site address is http://www.apachez.net there you will find a tools section its in there a read me file comes with it this should tell you all you need to know good luck

[patsym1]

Microsoft have made many mistakes Win ME WAS THERE BIGGEST ONE,steer clear of it is my advice.



Regards: Patsym1

[Sefy]

Tommy, WinME does not have better compatibility, if it did, half the drivers and programs wouldn't ened to be re-written just so they could run on it specificly.

skittelsen, Like another guy here said, COME ON! although I hate W2k, but Me is Defenetly the worst OS in the market! 2000 puts it in it's left bottom pocket!, ME is so bad it doesn't even have commericial!.

daren b, you've said the same thing I did, I've said I have 2 drives of 45gb and i'm running Win98SE, there is no diffrence in FAT32 ragarding 95 OSR2, 98 and 98SE, the only diffrence in Explorer and more drivers.

mikewg, unlike daren b who said to use a driver to access NTFS, I don't recommand it because external drivers do not give the same performance as true native support, and if you planning on capturing it would not be good enough, now again, 95OSR2 and Windows98 and Second Edition and ME use the same FAT32, if you already have 98, I believe you can use a FAT32 Conversion which is supposed to be in the System Tools and if you by accident installed it as FAT16 it can convert it without losing any information.

[mikewg]

Actually now that I have AVISynth working, I've decided I'd rather capture as segmented AVI files because that way I can edit individual AVI files one at a time without having to resave an entire 40 Gig AVI file. So NTFS is out the door for now.

But my question is still about the hard drive... it says Windows 95 and Windows 98 have a 32 Gig hard drive limitation, while 98SE and ME have a 120 Gig hard drive limitation. I'm running FAT32, I know that for a fact. And I believe everyone on the site who says they have more than 32 Gigs with just Windows 98 (I'm hoping they don't mean 98SE and don't know they have it) so I'm just going to bite my lip and install the drive with my regular old Windows 98 and see what happens.

[Sefy]

As a PC Technician and working for the same company from 1996 till now I can tell you i've went from each and every version of Windows for Installation, and you are practicly guarnteed that 95 OSR2 (FAT32 Supported) and 98 First Edition can work with drives larger then 32gb, the only diffrence between 98 and SE is the "free" 60$ Internet Explorer 5.0 instead of 4.0.

[eyeofbeholder]

Win ME isn't my choice either. I don't know what the limits are of FAT32, but if it were me I'd partition that 60GB drive into 2 or 3 smaller drives. The advantages of partitioning are obivious; more manageable, additional virus protection, and it'll get you around your current problem.

Good luck!

[Sefy]

Since he already has 2 drives, i don't think splitting it to partitions is required, use the slow drive for the system and the fast drive for capturing and for the things that require faster access.

[mikewg]

Well here's my plan... I currently have a 20Gig Maxtor 7200 hard drive. I just bought a 60Gig Maxtor 7200 drive. I'm planning on having my 20Gig drive as my C: and the 60Gig drive as my D:, and using the 60Gig to capture video directly from VirtualDub to. Is that alright? I'm not interested in partitions, I'd rather have one big 60Gig hard drive.

[mikewg]

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it... if I'm using the drive mostly for capturing and then converting what I capture to MPG, should I partition the 60Gig hard drive into, say, 3 20Gig drives? I mean, does it really make a difference? Will one 60Gig drive run slower than 3 20Gig drives?

[supercrew]

Mike,
I am running WINME with and ATI AllInOne care
using vDub to capture.

I have a 60gb hard with a 56gb partition and 2 gb for
compaq safestore drive which keeps copy of all original software install on system.

You must use this version of ati drivers.
WME_W98_R128_4_12_6292
and Version 6.4 of the multimedia tools on your
original CD that came with the card.

I would also make sure you have latest sound drivers
for your sound card.

With this setup I can:
1) Capture at 480*480 in Vdub using PicVideo quality 18.
2) Edit in Vdub with resize filter,
Crop of 16 lines from bottom
Add black bands top & bottom of 8 lines each.
3) Do Not Deinterlace!!!!!
4) Encode with CCE2.6.2 CQ 60, audio 128k
5) Multiplex using mpeg-vcr 3.11
6) Burned SVCD with nero

This looked great on my 46" projection screen.

Good luck