Can you add an external drive to a win 98 computer

Sure, PCs from when 98 was out should all have USB ports. Just make sure the drive supports it, things are not always guaranteed to work in such an old OS, especially larger drives. If the PC does not have USB2 though expect very slow file copy speeds.
 

pico ruivo

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Thanks for this information. I will certainly get the driver.

Trevor Franks
Pico Ruivo
 

JuniperSprouts

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The generic USB mass storage driver normally works. If it does not, you may be able to find Windows 98 drivers for your external hdd on the manufacturer's website.
 
Maybe I should have just cut-and-pasted the following into my first post:

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The following generic mass storage drivers work very well with my Win98SE setup.

Windows 98 USB Mass Storage Device Drivers:
http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/usbmsd98.php

Here is another driver set:

Universal Win98 Mass Storage Driver:
http://www.wintricks.it//download/wtgenusb.zip

The first driver set includes USB 2.0 host controller drivers for various chipsets.

Be aware that your old hardware may not have a USB 2.0 controller, in which case you will be limited to transfer rates of about 1MB/s, whereas USB 2.0 will typically achieve 20MB/s. Look for an EHCI (enhanced) host controller in Device Manager, or use Microsoft's UVCView utility to detect your USB hardware:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_IDs/UVCView.x86.exe

If the USB 2.0 hardware isn't there, you can install a cheap PCI USB 2.0 card. However, I would avoid those with a VIA chipset. These have lots of issues, as discussed at the following URL.

VIA USB Tips, Tricks and Troubleshooting:
http://www.usbman.com/Guides/VIA%20Tips%20and%20Tricks.htm
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