Although Windows 98 has been out of general circulation for well over a decade now, it might come as a surprise to some people that it’s still actively in use, especially in a business or specialized environment for running old software. There is actually a third party Service Pack for Windows 98 Second Edition which is still being updated well into 2013, even though Microsoft ended their support for Windows 98 on the 11th of July 2006! Obviously, hardware support from all major manufacturers has ended years ago so if you or your company still run Windows 98 in some capacity, it’s incredibly difficult to find compatible hardware and software for it.
As an example, a company I did some work for a while back purchased a Kingston Data Traveler USB flash drive for backup purposes on a computer that’s still running Windows 98. The problem is, due to some obsolete software that needs to run on Windows 98, the computer cannot be upgraded to newer versions of Windows such as 8, 7, Vista or even Windows XP. I’ve tried compatibility mode on Windows XP and it doesn’t work either, so it’s either upgrade the software or continue using Windows 98. Updating the old software is very expensive, so the decision was to stay with Windows 98 and try to source parts that can support this ageing operating system.
The immediate problem was getting the flash drive to work. Windows 98SE is actually not too bad at handling mass storage drivers for a USB storage device IF you have a driver disc that accompanied it or a download is available. 98SE doesn’t come with a generic mass storage driver that would install support for all standard USB storage devices like newer Windows versions, so not every device you insert will simply get recognised. Predictably, Kingston offers no support for their devices in Windows 98 so no driver can be installed to pick up the flash drive.
After much searching and testing, I finally managed to install the Kingston DataTraveler on Windows 98. This following method which I’m about to show you can work for most USB mass storage devices if your Windows 98 has detection problems. What I found was a generic Windows 98SE USB mass storage device driver that will work with many makes and models of the following:
– USB Flash Drives
– Digital Photo and Video Cameras (that connect to the PC via USB)
– USB Hard Drives
– MP3 Players (including Apple iPod from v2.4)
– Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP)
This driver isn’t guaranteed to work with all devices because it’s a generic driver, and you shouldn’t install it if you have no issues in the first place. It does though work well for the purpose it was intended for, it did for me and has for many other people.
Installing the generic USB Mass Storage driver
1. Download Windows 98SE Generic USB Mass Storage Device Driver to the desktop.
2. Open Device Manager (right click My Computer -> Properties -> Device Manager) and remove ALL drivers for USB flash drives. This includes any drivers of removable devices previously installed from the “Disk drives” tree.
3. Remove all drivers for any USB controllers (under Universal Serial Bus controllers). Devices in Device Manager can be uninstalled by right clicking on an entry and selecting “Remove”. Also remove any Unknown/Other devices, those which have no installed driver.
4. Run the nusb36e.exe driver installer. After that has completed, reboot the computer.
5. During reboot, the computer will detect new devices and USB controllers and will ask for the Windows 98 install CD so make sure you have it to hand. The driver install window actually tells you to reboot after these controllers are installed but I didn’t have to. If you have any issues, then follow the advice and reboot a second time.
6. Then insert your USB storage device and it should get picked up by Windows. Don’t forget Windows 98 cannot read NTFS so the storage device needs to be formatted with FAT/FAT32 to be recognised with a drive letter. Open My Computer and your flash drive or device should be visible.
The 16GB flash drive above wasn’t a Kingston but still required the general USB mass storage driver to be installed for it to be detected. Do note that this driver is for English versions of Windows 98SE only and won’t work on the original Windows 98. You can visit the related MSFN forum thread for more support or updates to the driver in future.
If you are going to copy or recover files from a Windows 98 machine then the best a quickest option is using a USB stick on a free USB port or on a USB card that might have been installed. Typically Mass Storage Drivers are not in Windows 98 and will need to be installed. Below the very small driver files will allow you to see a formatted Fat/Fat32 memory stick. Please backup any files that are already on the memory stick before inserting into a Windows 98 machine, the older low powered USB port were unreliable and could easily corrupt the USB stick.
These drivers a mix of official and unofficial upgrades, put together by a Windows 98 enthusiast called Maximus-Decim and will upgrade/replace parts of Windows 98 in order for USB HUB/Ports to read the device. Install at your own risk. (or at least extract the exe files with 7zip and examine them.)
Install Instructions
1.Remove ALL drivers USB flash drives.
2.Remove ALL drivers USB 2.0 controllers.
3.Remove ALL USB 1.1 and 2.0 controllers and devices.
4.Remove ALL unknown devices.
5.Install Drivers and reboot.
6.After detection new USB 1.1 and 2.0 controllers
(if it will occur) too it is necessary to be reboot.
Remember! You install it at own risk!
I have a Compaq desktop computer running Windows 98 SE. It’s been handed down a few times, and I don’t recollect it ever being online but it does have a version of Firefox from 2007 so I could be wrong about that.
I recently tried using the internal modem on the computer — a 56k Compaq modem — for the first time. The modem shows up in certain system dialogs but none of the dialers — HyperTerminal, Phone Dialer, etc. would successfully connect.
I thought perhaps the modem was broken. I had a Dell Dimension 8200 laying around that had Windows XP, so I opened it up and took out its internal modem, and the NIC, for good measure. I installed both in the Compaq computer. It didn’t boot the first time but I cycled the power and it booted up fine, more or less.
The «Add New Hardware» wizard did not open by default. I ran the wizard but it didn’t detect any new hardware. Nowhere in the system was either the NIC or the second modem recognized.
I thought perhaps maybe I didn’t have the right drivers, so I decided to load some on. The problem is, since this computer is 20+ years old, it only works with USB 1.1. My research shows that there are third-party drivers available that allow Windows 98 SE to work with USB 2.0 devices including flash drives. I have a PS/2 keyboard and mouse so flash drives here are my main concern.
I loaded the following drivers onto a floppy disk, and brought it home:
- http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/win98se-usb-mass-storage-drivers.php
- https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=53512
To test it out, I plugged a flash drive into the computer and the Add New Hardware Wizard opened and prompted for drivers. I then loaded the floppy disk and manually ran the .exe file for the first driver. It installed and rebooted. But when I plugged a flash drive in again, the Add New Hardware Wizard no longer opened automatically, and the flash drive was still not recognized in my computer.
I have nothing against floppy disks, really, but being able to use USB flash drives would be far more practical. This wouldn’t be as important if I could get one of the modems to work, but right now neither is working. I believe someone is getting an external US Robotics 56k modem for me on eBay at the moment, and my hunch is external modems are more reliable than internal modems so that one may work more seamlessly. I’m not so sure though, given my problems so far.
I extracted the files for the second driver but I found just a bunch of «.sys» files. I didn’t do anything after that.
I am following the procedures available online for getting Windows 98 to work with USB 2.0. What else could I do to get my Windows 98 SE PC to work with USB flash drives? Do I just need drivers, or is some other change required?
My main reason for needing USB 2.0 support is so I can load drivers onto a flash drive and transfer them to the Windows 98 computer to load drivers for the modem. I have a feeling I may need to do trial and error to get the right drivers, and given the capacity of a floppy disk that route would not really be practical. At the moment, however, floppy disks are the only thing working perfectly for me.