Member Avatar for aussielad

win98 recognises new hardware (usb stick) but I still cant see the drive.
where can i get USB drivers for my memory stick?

thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by JorgeM

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Short answer: Windows 98 often “sees” a USB device but does not expose a drive letter because Microsoft did not include a generic USB Mass Storage Class (MSC) driver for Win98 — MSC support arrived in later Windows releases, so many thumb drives needed either vendor-supplied drivers or third‑party MSC drivers to be usable. (learn.microsoft.com)

Practical checklist (combine ideas from , and others, but avoid driver links from this thread):

  • Confirm the exact OS edition (Windows 98 Gold vs 98SE vs Me) in Control Panel -> System; driver choices differ by edition.
  • Check Device Manager (Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager) for the USB host controller (UHCI/OHCI/EHCI) and any Unknown/! devices. Install the motherboard/chipset USB/host‑controller drivers from the PC/OEM first — without the correct host controller driver Win98 may detect hardware but not mount volumes. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • Verify the flash stick’s filesystem: Win98 cannot read exFAT/modern NTFS setups. Reformat or create a FAT32 partition (or a small FAT partition for compatibility) on a modern PC if necessary; very large volumes and old FDISK/Scandisk utilities have known issues so keep a compatibility-sized partition if the old system is required. ()
  • If drivers cannot be installed from floppy (see ), use a bootable CD, a short wired-network transfer, or the hardware fallback recommended (attach the old drive to a modern PC or use a USB<->IDE/PATA adapter) to recover files before trying risky driver installs.

Notes and cautions: prefer vendor-supplied or well‑known community packages, check MD5/sha sums where available, and back up data before repartitioning or installing legacy drivers.

Recommended Answers

All 12 Replies

Member Avatar for dlh6213

It should have come with drivers for Win98; if it didn't, does the manual tell you where to download them from? If you go to the manufacturers website, you can probably find them there.

Member Avatar for Thong_Ispector

Go to driverguide or do a google for...

Diskonkey_Win98_Driver_Installer.exe
(or just DiskOnKey)

It is 1.4megs and will fix the problem

98 does NOT have drivers and most memory sticks were made long after 98 so the manufacturers do not provide drivers.

This will take care of the problem...

Member Avatar for jeff cdu

the BASE MP3 player/memory has a driver disk which installed the driver, but Win 98 on IBM Aptiva cannot recognised the installed drivers.

Can you help?

Member Avatar for benmar

download the usb driver to the net,, a lot of usb driver their for win98...

Member Avatar for javanoob101

USB's don't actually work with Windows 98.

Who is the USB manufactuer? if it is a Sandisk Cruzer with the model no.SDCZ36-008G
(That is my USB model no) then their are no drivers for it for Windows 98. (I've tried looking)

javanoob101

Edited by javanoob101 because: n/a
Member Avatar for javanoob101

Perhaps you can copy the Windows ME USB drivers to your C:\WINDOWS\System32 folder and tell windows to look for the drivers there instead?


javanoob101

Member Avatar for reviresco


Sandisk win98 driver.

Member Avatar for caperjack


Sandisk win98 driver.

original post is almost 7 yrs old ,im thinking they got it already

Member Avatar for reviresco

If it's that dead of a subject, why did you even look and respond to the thread update?

I posted it for others who come by looking for an answer.

Enough said.

Member Avatar for minibanks

Diskonkey_Win98_Driver_Installer.exe

I'm hoping people are still reading this post - I need a USB stick driver that will fit on a floppy disk. The ones I'm finding are over 2mb. I'm trying to get access to an old machine that currently only has a floppy drive and I need to recover large files off it!

Member Avatar for JorgeM

Why dont you remove the hard drive from this older system? It is most likely a parallel ATA Drive (PATA). Then just get a hold of a USB to ATA connector (about $20.00 in a computer store), then plug the USB/hard drive connector into your computer so you can access all of the files.

Otherwise, you can plug a NIC into this old computer if it doesnt have one. Connect it to your network, or if you do not have a network at home, a cross-over cable betwen this computer and another computer you have access to will do.

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