My Hard Drives are running in MS-DOS Compatibility Mode? What does this mean?

Windows 95/98 has built-in 16-bit generic drivers that it uses by default
if it can not find a 32-bit driver or can not properly initialize the one
it loads. It puts up exclamation marks to indicate that it had a problem
initializing the 32-bit driver. This is not a driver or hardware problem
but a problem with Windows 95/98 itself. There are known limitations of
Windows 95/98 that may cause problems. These are NOT problems with your
IDE controllers and can happen with ANY system. No problems will occur
that we are aware of if Windows 95/98 is loaded onto a newly formatted
hard disk. HOWEVER, if Windows 95/98 is loaded and then the user changes
motherboards and attempts to use the same hard disk with the NEW board
(and, therefore, a new IDE controller), Windows 95/98 is not always smart
enough to completely figure out the new configuration. This can happen ANY
TIME the motherboard is changed to a different type. Putting the old
motherboard back probably will not do any good as the previous system
registry has been destroyed by Windows 95/98s attempts to configure itself
for the new board. The standard procedure in this case it to re-install
Windows 95/98. Be aware that if you re-install Windows 95/98 you may need
to re-install many of your applications. This may seem drastic but there
are other procedures. Microsoft is aware of this problem and has an
article on their web page that discusses solutions that do not require you
to re-install Windows 95/98. This article is located at:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q151/9/11.asp. The
procedure provided is fairly straightforward but requires the use of the
Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). The Registry Editor is very powerful and
should only be used by technically trained users! What you do is select
`run` on the start menu and enter `C:\WINDOWS\REGEDIT.EXE`, then find the
following registry key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VXD\IOS If there is
an entry there called `NOIDE`, select it and click on the `remove` button.
After you remove this entry, restart the system and Windows 95/98 will
attempt to initialize the protected mode driver for the controller. If no
further problems are encountered, everything should then work fine in 32-
bit mode. Note: Check for the existence of a virus infecting the master
boot record of your hard drive.

If your computer has a VIA chipset go to www.via.com.tw and download the 4in1 driver package. some boards that have a VIA chipset have BIOS ID's like 2A6L.. or 6A6L..