Windows 98 SE - Iomega Zip - MVP3 Problem

PROBLEM.  The Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade is used to upgrade a computer with Windows 95 OSR2, a motherboard with the VIA MVP3 chipset (in this case the EpoX  51MVP3-E-M Super 7 ATX motherboard), and an Iomega 100 MB IDE Zip drive.  After installation the system detects the Zip drive as a floppy drive and assigns it as drive B:  The drive letter cannot be changed with the Windows device manager.  The drive letter can be changed  if the second floppy drive is enabled in the CMOS setup, but the Zip is called a floppy drive in the Window's Explorer.  The Zip is functional even as drive B:

SOLUTION.  After installing the Zip driver, download the latest VIA IDE Bus Master Driver and install it in place of the Microsoft Win 98 SE "VIA Bus Master PCI.  IDE Controller" dated 4/23/99.  The version I installed was 2.1.39.  The easiest way to install it is to double-click the download file to decompress it and install it by running setup.  You may have to uninstall and reinstall the VIA driver if the Iomega driver is installed again.

NOTES.  I believe I've seen this sort of problem before in older versions of Windows 95 and decided I had better document it this time.  Also, Windows 98 SE has the same problem with the parallel port version of Sandisk's ImageMate CompactFlash card reader; however, the reader is not functional until the Via driver is installed.

Larry