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What is required for WIN98 to assign a drive letter to a
USB Mass storage device?
QUESTION:What is required for WIN98 to assign a drive letter to a
USB Mass storage device? Have 2 USB 2 port PCI cards 2.0
installed, 1 for USB storage device and 2nd for USB CD
writer and high speed internet service. Ran the WIN98 USB
device viewer utility and all units are assigned, plus the
CD writer is listed in "My Computer" as drive G. All
units under system are working properly and designated the
USB storage as a single drive, but cannot access the unit
for their is no drive designated.
Have looked thru Windows USB support but cannot find an
answer - need help.
ANSWER: I am happily running a pocket USB 40GB drive as follows:
1) The drive came with a win98 driver CD (not needed for
win2k or XP. The driver actually came with a pocket USB
notebook drive case which I'm using with a standard 9.5mm
Toshiba hard drive. IBM/Hitachi drives OK as well.
Bigger 9.5mm drives will be available this summer
(60/80GB).
2) Due to my PC (notebook) BIOS age, I had someone else
(running a newer version of windows as well) plug the
drive into their USB port and partition the drive for me.
NOTE: Fat32 supports max. 32GB, so it had to be
partitioned as two logical drives.
Note2: Under Win98 1st edition, I find the Win98 mass
storage driver doesn't get along with my mouse bloatware
(I had to remove the IntelliPoint software, and then
reinstall as 'driver only'--see the Mouse CD readme file).
3) Once partitioned, the drive is assigned letters when
you plug it into a USB-equipped PC (different letters
depending on the number of drives already present).
Note3: With my notebook (Win98 1st edition), the drive is
plug and play ONLY (booting with the drive connected
produces an error message and boot failure).
Note4: After using the drive, you should STOP the device
before unplugging it. Look for something like "USB Mass
Storage Device" or "Safely remove Hardware" in the systray
(right end of the task bar, bottom of windows desktop),
and then right-click or double click the associated icon.
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