[SaraRose6]

Hello,

I'm trying to recover data from my old Windows 98 (Second Edition) computer. I haven't used it in years and decided to try to plug it in and get it running again so that I could burn my old stuff onto some blank DVDs and transfer the old files to my new computer. Unfortunately thus far I have not succeeded in being able to do this.

I got the computer running and split my stuff up into three folders, Folder One being 4.1GB, Folder Two being 2.9GB and Folder Three being 3.6GB. I put in a blank DVD-R (4.7GB) and attempted to burn Folder One to the DVD with the burning program that's on there (a freeware program called Burn4Free)...it burned for about 10 seconds and then failed, giving me some error message about filenames and indexing.
I figured there must be some weird glitchy thing in the folder somewhere that was making it fail so I created a .rar file with WinRAR and put Folder One into that. About 3 hours later (it took forever to get Folder One into the rar) the rar was made and I tried burning just the rar to another blank DVD-R...again, it burned for about 10 seconds and then failed, this time giving me this error:

Writer Error [Illegal Request (Logical Block Address Out of Range)]

I googled that error message and got some hits but unfortunately found none of them to be very useful...most are from 5+ years ago and I can't find any real solutions provided. Now, there is some good news...after Folder One and then the rar file of Folder One failed to burn I tried burning Folder Two, which successfully burned to the DVD and I was able to transfer the contents to my current computer. So it does work at least some times.

The second problem...after the DVD-Rs failed I decided to try getting the data via a USB flash drive. The USB port on the computer works since the mouse is plugged in there and it recognizes it, so I figured a flash drive might work as well. Unfortunately no such luck. It did recognize it but then gave me an error about not having the correct Driver needed. After this I tried using an external hard drive on it (also via USB) to the same result. Stupidly I didn't write down what the name of the Drivers were that it said it needed and now when I plug either the flash drive or the external HD in I no longer get the window saying it needs a particular driver and instead the computer just does nothing. I thought of uploading the data somewhere online and then downloading it from my current computer but the Windows 98 machine doesn't recognize the wireless signal to get on the internet and even if it did I doubt it could handle uploading gigs worth of files anyway.

So, now I'm kind of at a loss. I can't get the data burned to a DVD and I can't get the data transferred onto a flash drive or external hard drive. So how do I get it off that computer?

Any help on the matter would be sincerely appreciated!

[DaveBurnett]

Well I can help you with the drivers for the USB drives.
There are generic drivers available. Go here: http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/usbmsd98.php

[SaraRose6]

I downloaded the USB drivers exe from here and put it on a CD and moved it to the desktop of the 98 machine. I did as it said and installed it and then rebooted and tried again with an external hard drive via USB...this time the option in the lower right corner of the screen to remove the USB drive came up and in Device Manager under "Storage Device" it had the name of the external HD and in the preferences it said it was working properly.

However, I can't seem to locate the external hard drive anywhere on the machine. In My Computer there's the C drive (not it), the D drive (with nothing but a few folders in it--not the external), the A drive (floppy disk) which it says is Not Accessible and the E drive which it also says is Not Accessible. These same 4 drives are listed there just the same whether or not the external HD is plugged in.

So how can I locate the external hard drive on the computer so that I can move stuff to it? It supposedly is successfully connected and has the right drivers now, I just can't figure out how to access it.

Thanks again!

[DaveBurnett]

Has it been Partitioned and Formatted? If not, it won't be seen until it is.
or
Is it NTFS? Windows 98se will not see NTFS

[DoubleHelix]

Connecting the hard drive to another computer is an option as well.

[SaraRose6]

Originally Posted by DaveBurnett

Has it been Partitioned and Formatted? If not, it won't be seen until it is.
or
Is it NTFS? Windows 98se will not see NTFS

The external HD hasn't been formatted, it's about a year old and has some of my stuff from my current computer backed up on to it...and as for it being NTFS, I'm not sure. Is there an easy way to find out whether it's NTFS or not?

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

Connecting the hard drive to another computer is an option as well.

I'm afraid I don't know much about this. I have a Windows XP laptop in good working condition but I'm not sure how I'd connect the Windows 98 computer to it in order to recover the files.

[DaveBurnett]

Connect the external drive to your XP machine and see if it shows up there.
If it shows in Windows Explorer, right click on the drive ICON for it, and select properties. That will give you some information about the drive.

[DoubleHelix]

You'd use an IDE to USB adapter. Newegg sells many different models.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...to+usb&x=0&y=0

[SaraRose6]

Originally Posted by DaveBurnett

Connect the external drive to your XP machine and see if it shows up there.
If it shows in Windows Explorer, right click on the drive ICON for it, and select properties. That will give you some information about the drive.

It does show up on the XP machine and everything seems to work fine. When I right click on it and select Properties I found out that it does indeed say "File system: NTFS"

So I guess that's why it hasn't been showing up on the 98 machine.

I think my next move is going to be going to a place like Staples or Best Buy and purchasing another external hard drive, one that has nothing on it and one that won't be NTFS. Would I even be able to find one at a retail store that is not NTFS and would work with Windows 98 though? What would I want to be looking for instead of "NTFS"?

[DoubleHelix]

If you only need to transfer files this one time, buy a simple USB adapter to connect the drive to another computer. A new external hard drive may not work with Windows 98. It may not be recognized since it's such an old operating system. It would also have to be formatted as FAT32 which you'd have to do on another computer, and I don't know what the size limitations are for FAT32 partition sizes.

The easiest solution is to connect the drive to another computer.

[SaraRose6]

A new external hard drive may not work with Windows 98. It may not be recognized since it's such an old operating system. It would also have to be formatted as FAT32 which you'd have to do on another computer, and I don't know what the size limitations are for FAT32 partition sizes.

I called Staples and let them know what my situation was and this is basically what they had to say as well. They said I'd have to format the external HD so it's FAT32 and that I'd have to create partitions that are less than 60GB each since that's the maximum Win98 can handle.

If you only need to transfer files this one time, buy a simple USB adapter to connect the drive to another computer. ... The easiest solution is to connect the drive to another computer.

Do you mean physically removing the hard drive from inside the Win98 computer tower, putting it in an enclosure and connecting the enclosure to a working machine, or is there an easier way?

[DoubleHelix]

If you're only going to transfer files once, you don't need an enclosure. Just get a simple adapter. I already posted a link. It's not that difficult to remove a hard drive. It's certainly an easier and cheaper solution than buying an external hard drive, partitioning and formatting it with FAT32, connecting it to an old Windows 98 computer in questionable condition, and trying to get drivers for it installed.

[SaraRose6]

Well since I already needed an external anyway for backup I went to staples and got one. I talked to the sales associate there and he assured me that all I would have to do is plug the external HD into the working XP computer, right click the drive, select Format and format it as FAT32 instead of NTFS and make 60GB partitions, then it would work with the Windows 98 computer and I could simply move everything onto there via USB.
However when I got home and plugged the new external into the XP computer I found no option to change it to FAT32 or to create 60GB partitions. Here is a screenshot of the window I get after right clicking the drive icon and selecting Format:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2dik7ds.jpg

When I click on the dropdown arrow beneath "File system" there is no other option besides NTFS. Likewise, when I click the dropdown arrow beneath "Capacity" there is no other option besides 232GB.
Is there something I'm missing here? Am I doing the wrong thing? I was told that I'd be able to format it to FAT32 but I see no option for doing that nor for partitioning. What can I do to get it to work?

[DoubleHelix]

You have to use Disk Management to delete the existing partition, create new ones, and format them.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000

[SaraRose6]

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

You have to use Disk Management to delete the existing partition, create new ones, and format them.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000

I did this and followed the instructions...but I still haven't seen any option for FAT32.
When I right clicked the drive in the Disk Management window and selected Format there was still only "NTFS" for File system, no option for FAT32. Here's a screen shot:
http://i45.tinypic.com/xlwkkh.jpg

I then deleted the existing partition and followed the instructions on making a new one but in that window there also was no option for anything other than NTFS...a screen shot of that:
http://i49.tinypic.com/mmr6ew.jpg

I was able to make a 55GB partition and attempted to format that partition but still got the same window as shown in the first image, with no option other than NTFS.

Is there anything else I can do?