98SE slow file transfer

Hi, just need bit of advice. I have an old AMD 64 with 98SE. I just wanted to transfer files to it form a DVD I back files up on. The problem is, it is very slow and takes ages to copy files from DVD to the hard disk . It slows the cursor down a bit to.

It says something like 899989 minutes to compleat, which must be way off.

Is there a problem with windows 98SE and file transfers? or maybe a bug that causes this problem. I know 98 has a 4GB file size limit but it has nothing to do with that.

Cheers.

I suspect it is just Win98SE that is terrible at these sorts of operations.. Search around on OldVersion and see if you can find a CD burning package that supports 98 (like Nero)..

Hi, it's nothing to do with burning a CD or DVD. It's copying files from a DVD to the hard drive thats slow.

Check that the hdd is ok .. Quite possibly could have multiple sector failures.

Scandisk shows no problems and SMART says healthy.

If you know of any software that can do better, could you post a link to it.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

It says something like 899989 minutes to compleat, which must be way off.

That was a very common bug back in the day. Just let it do it's thing. It caused by an unexpected negative iirc.

I seem to recall (but it was a long time ago) that it was much faster popping back out to DOS for file transfers.

well i just fired up the old 98SE, managed to transfer around 230Mb (about 4.500 files) in around 6 minutes from a CD-R to the Hard drive, which isn't too bad
networking to it is also Ok

have you tried a few small files from the disk?

is AV running in the background scanning the files?

It's a bit quicker fro smaller files but still slow.
I have Avast on my computer but don't think it is interfering with it.

It must be a problem with 98 or that can affect FAT32 systems.

Does the disk transfer ok to another system? Have you tried a new dvd drive in the computer? Is the drive connected to its own ide interface or are the hdd and dvd drive setup in a master/slave combo?

Funny you should talk about master/slave combo, I have found the problem.

I have the HD and DVD on one IDE cable. Before it was, master= HD and DVD= slave but I have swapped them round and now works faster. I copied over about, 4GB worth of files and it took 15 minutes.

That is much quicker than taking about an hour or more before. I think my DVD drive is one of them that, has to be on master.

Cheers for the replies anyway.

Usually (back in the W98SE days) the best setup was to have C: as Primary master, main CD drive as Secondary master...any other drives were usually an annoyance.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Usually (back in the W98SE days) the best setup was to have C: as Primary master, main CD drive as Secondary master...any other drives were usually an annoyance.

Yup. It's always better to have the HDDs running on one IDE channel and the opticals on the secondary as the opticals will commonly run at slower speeds and will cause a data bottleneck and impact negatively on overal performance.

This thread brings me back to to my old W98 build. I remember proudly installing my Voodoo 2 for state of the art graphics for gaming!!!