[Ham-Computers] Computer questions

[Rolly (W7DGX) & Sandra Goodspeed]

Windows 95

I don't know what the limit is for windows 95b. I thought I had the FAT32. I do know that an 80 gb hard drive had to be partitioned. I was informed the limitation was caused by the BIOS. I never verified. It seems reasonable since windows 95 did use the BIOS for some of its disk access subroutines. Again, in some cases windows 95 provided their own disk access subroutines.

I do know the Maxtor disk that I bought did have an overlay of disk access subroutines that did allow windows to access the whole drive. But it was slower.

Windows 98

I have used an 120 gb hard drive with no problems with windows 98SE. I don't know what the upper limit is, or if the upper limit is caused by the BIOS. Again, windows uses at least some of the BIOS (Basic Input Output Subroutines) to access the hard drive. I believe specifically to locate hard drive tracks and possibly sectors. I had a book that explained some of those subroutines. The book was written by Peter Norton. Using information in that book, I wrote a 'C' language program that would find files calling various functions in BIOS.


Hard Drive failures.

I have had one hard drive failure. However it was cause by a large power line spike hitting the computer. The spike was large enough to blow the fuses in my Ameritron amplifier, melt down the kitchen stove circuit boards, and cause damage to various equipment in several houses in the neighborhood.

I really can't blame the hard drive for that. In addition, the computer power supply failed about 3 weeks later. Other than that, I have had no hard drive failures over several computers.

Rolly W7DGX