I figured I would give this a try because I was starting to get desperate at this point.

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 thats still running Windows 98.

Usbstor Raw Software That Needs

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.

Ive tried compatibility mode on Windows XP and it doesnt work either, so its 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.

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.

SE doesnt 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.

This following method which Im 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 isnt guaranteed to work with all devices because its a generic driver, and you shouldnt 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.

Usbstor Raw Driver To The

Download Windows 98SE Generic USB Mass Storage Device Driver to the desktop.

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.

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 UnknownOther devices, those which have no installed driver.

Run the nusb36e.exe driver installer.

After that has completed, reboot the computer.

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 didnt have to.

If you have any issues, then follow the advice and reboot a second time.

Then insert your USB storage device and it should get picked up by Windows.

Open My Computer and your flash drive or device should be visible.

The 16GB flash drive above wasnt 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 wont work on the original Windows 98.

You can visit the related MSFN forum thread for more support or updates to the driver in future.

I can finally use a flash drive instead of burning cds to get windows 98 better.

Worked a dream, Win98 now reads Kingston USB stick, so I can now recover all my old treasured Win98 stuff.