USB Flash Drive + Win98

Equals difficulties. I've been trying to get my 2 GB USB Flash Drive, which is compatible with the USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 interfaces according to the manufacturer's website, to work with my Windows 98 computer so I don't have to keep using so many floppies. It works fine with my Windows XP desktop, and worked fine with the Windows 2000 and Mac OS 9 desktops at school, as well, so I know it's working properly.

My older desktop is a Sony VAIO PCV-E308DS (just as complicated a name as their new models), running Windows 98 Standard Edition. I think its USB interfaces are 1.0, as it never specifies anything other than plain old USB in the Device Manager or the .pdf documentation it came with. But it does (kind of) recognize the flash drive when I plug it in (although it doesn't show up in My Computer). It gives the following information in the Device Manager:

But I don't have any drivers for the device. I tried using Microsoft Update, but it didn't find any drivers for my flash drive nor any updated ones for the USB Root Hub in the Device Manager (though it did find 28 critical updates). So I'm hopeful all I need is new drivers, and not new hardware, but I don't know where to find them.

 

Windows 98 does not support USB. Microsoft later added USB support as part of 'Windows 98 Second Edition', so it was kind of an after-thought and never worked that well. Maybe you can find some drivers at Sony.com? Storage drivers are generic, they are not specific to the brand/model of device you are attaching. Good luck with it!

 

Hmm...good idea with Sony.com. I'll try that.

But Windows 98 Standard Edition does have some USB support at least. Otherwise my keyboard and scanner wouldn't be working!