Installing an external hard drive on Windows 98

[Hank]

Hey guys,

So I got a new computer, and I'm giving my old one to my dad. Currently, my dad's running on a Windows 98 SE, which is, you know, ancient. But he's been stubborn about it, and he wants absolutely EVERYTHING transfered over. He has some 15 gigs of stuff to move, and I can do it with my external hard drive, which is 80 gigs, however when I plug it into his old computer, it just doesn't show up. I need too install drivers, which are apparently on the CD which came with it, which I have no idea where that went. Is there any way to install the drivers WITHOUT the CD? Or is there any way I can take the drivers off another computer, and put it on my dad's?

Thanks guys.

 

[guspav]

Umm maybe you can download the drivers from your external HD's company site. If that doesn't work I guess you could just burn a lot of cds or dvds.

 

[gamerwiz09]

You can probably find the drivers somewhere. Check the manufacturers website.

First you find the drivers. Download them and em in a folder. Put it on another thing like a flash drive, or CD, or some online storage thing, or email them as an attachment. Then run and install them on the other computer. Plug back in your external drive and transfer files. Done.

 

[Archonsod]

You can try searching for the drivers on the web.

Is this a USB or SCSI drive? You'll need to download and install a hotfix for Windows 98 in order for it to use a USB drive.

 

[Hank]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Well, unforunately I have no idea who made the external hard drive, mostly because the name is not on it.

It is indeed a USB hard drive - do you know where to get the hot fix?

Also, when I go to my VIsta computer and copy the drivers onto a flash drive and bring them over, they seem to disappear, or change into some random folder. It's really quite odd. I'll give it another shot though.

Thanks guys.

EDIT: Yeah, it seems that whenever I put the drivers on my memory key, and bring it over here the files just seem to vanish completely. It's really odd.

 

[Archonsod]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q240075/

If that doesn't work, these might help.

 

[Hank]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q240075/

If that doesn't work, these might help.

Ok, so, I tried both of those, and when I plugged it in it atleast detected that there was an unknown device in the USB port. However, when I attempted to get it to install drivers, it said that the "device will continue to work normally". It still won't show up in My Computer, which is strange.

However, after installing those, I can't open My Computer without the computer freezing and me having to use task manager to close My Computer.

Anybody have any idea what's going on here? It's driving me absolutely bat s*&% insane. Thanks.

EDIT: Ok, I'm at complete wit's end here.

My Computer freezes.
My Documents freezes.
Freakin' Internet Explorer freezes.
I'm restarting the damn thing at the rate of three to four restarts a minute!
Even if I get the drivers onto the computer, I can't put them in the right place because THE STUPID THING FREEZES.
Man, this is driving me absolutely INSANE.
Does anyone have an solution to... well, anything?

 

[Mage246]

I think you might have bigger problems than installing an external hard drive, if that's the case. Does removing whatever you added fix the problem?

 

[Hank]

I think you might have bigger problems than installing an external hard drive, if that's the case. Does removing whatever you added fix the problem?

I was about to try that, when all of a sudden, the problem's gone? I still can't use the external hard drive, but it seems that it isn't freezing anymore - thankfully.

So, BACK to the original problem - the computer now detects the hard drive as an "unknown device"

Any ideas?

 

[Mage246]

I'm still wondering how the heck your external hard drive has no manufacturer label on it.

 

[Hank]

I'm still wondering how the heck your external hard drive has no manufacturer label on it.

I really don't know, it's quite peculiar.

It's got a label on the side say:

"HDE8-80GB
FTY:OK
GEMCHU3.5"/JT"

I know the HDE8-80GB is the size designation
no idea about FTY
GEMCHU3.5" I think is the physical size of the drive, I think. I have no idea.
Any clues?

 

[Mage246]

Is there anything on the inside of the drive, maybe?

 

[Hank]

Is there anything on the inside of the drive, maybe?

Nope, nothing. Thanks though.

Well, it's all good - I'm gonna use my memory key (256 MB) to transfer around 3 gigs of information, then do another 6-10 tomorrow.

I'm so tired. Thanks for the help though guys.

 

[Janus]

It's got a label on the side say:

"HDE8-80GB
FTY:OK
GEMCHU3.5"/JT"

Googling "Gemchu3.5" brings up a few results which all indicate their external hard drive is manufactured by ComStar. Since there are a lot of companies with the name ComStar, I didn't bother investigating further.

Another thing to consider is that Windows 98 doesn't support NTFS. If the drive is NTFS formatted currently, you probably want to reformat it as FAT32. There are a few solutions to access NTFS in Win98 (such as here), but it might be better to just go with FAT32.

 

[Cymro]

At the risk of appearing a philistine, would it not, perhaps, be easier and faster to buy a metre or two of crossover cable and send the data across?

 

[MaskedBlood]

Meh Idk now you could be stubborn about a Windows 98 >>;; I would just buy a new OP saves time..

 

[Cymro]

If you had read the thread, you would have noticed that he's trying to get from 98 to another OS

 

[MaskedBlood]

Oh lol crap I read it wrong my bad. I thought he was trying to downgrade..I think I need glasses o.o