Backup

[jefnl05]

Trying to back up an old machine running Windows 98. Neither a Western Digital (black) Passport nor the newest SanDisk USB sticks have drivers for Windows 98.

Any suggestions for a suitable hardware medium?

Joel

[BATcher]

I have had some success with "Windows 98 SE Generic USB Mass Storage Device Drivers - nusb23e.exe". Suggest you do some Googling for this sort of thing (unfortunately I didn't note the origin of the files on my disk). Maybe this, or a similar driver, would enable you to use the devices you mention?

[DocWatson]

Have you looked here ???

[jefnl05]

Thanks, DocWatson, but SanDisk doesn't seem to have Win98 drivers for the newer USB sticks.

[DocWatson]

That is becoming more of a problem with new USB devices. It's just not worth the money or trouble to write drivers for legacy operating systems. Have you tried any generic drivers for Windows 98 ??? Also, what version of 98 are you using ??

[jefnl05]

Version seems to be plain ol' Windows 98 (not SE)...running winver delivers something like "Windows 98. Copyright 1991-1999"

Generic drivers seem to be for Windows 98 SE...would this work?

Is there another backup medium (instead of USB stick) still on the market that would have drivers for Windows 98?

Also...the backup system in Windows 98 creates a .qic file. Is this easily readable in XP and Vista? If not, what's the best bet for a backup format (and program) that will be readable for a while?

Thanks.

Joel

[JoeP517]

What comes up if you right click My Computer and select Properties?

Joe

[DocWatson]

You might try looking at this support article from Microsoft if you are not running 98 SE to see if you have USB support enabled on the system.

The only other backup option I can think of is to burn to a CD or slave a second HD to the master and backup to the slave drive. But to do this you have to open the case.

I have never heard of a .qic file.

[Leif]

You could check out How Do I Open QIC Backup Files In XP if you have some .qic files you need access to, but as far as I am aware, all versions of Windows produce backup files incompatible with any other Windows version. Using any version of Windows backup is therefore not recommended unless you intend to never change OS!

[jefnl05]

Joe,

many thanks for this tip, it is indeed Second Edition!

Leif,

thanks for the warning. Provided that backup medium is bigger than the hard disk of the old machine, any drawback to simply copying all the files over? If not, what's a simple to use backup program?

Joel

[Leif]

I would be inclined to simply copy the files as is.

Backup software? - there are quite a few products on the market, some of which have dedicated enthusiasts as you will see in this <!post=Back Up,718782>Back Up<!/post> thread. Also mention is Karen's Replicator which may well be the simple solution you want.

[bigaldoc]

If you don't plan on having to restore the machine to operational condition and you're just wanting to archive "data" files, whatever that might be, why couldn't you give WINZIP a try? I realize it would take a little time to make all the selections, but at least we know that zip archives are recognized by all the OS versions that I know of - at least so far.

[stuck]

We have both this LG 1Gb USB drive and the 2Gb version in our house. Both work a treat with Win 98 Gold.

You can also get a 4Gb version that says it's Win 98 compatible but I've not tried that one.

Ken

[jefnl05]

Found an Apacer 8GB USB stick that worked beautifully. Many thanks for everyone's suggestions.

Joel