USB2 FLASH DRIVE on WIN98SE?

littleberry

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My new PNY USB2 128M Flash Drive (Attache) runs fine on win2000 and winXP, but I cannot get WIN98SE to recognize nor detect it. The PNY website will NOT accept emails, and their FAQ's about it are worthless, as is their driver and suggestions as to installing it for WIN98SE. I have many other USB2 devices which work just fine, so I suspect that PNY really doesn't support win98se even though they claim to. CAN ANYONE confirm actually getting any of PNY's usb2 flash drives to work on win98SE? I have three PC's and none will detect this device when running win98se. Any real experience here? Thanks, Littleberry
 

folken

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Drivers: <A HREF="http://www.pny.com/support/drivers/?prod=attache" target="_new">http://www.pny.com/support/drivers/?prod=attache</A>
If those dont work you are up a creek, lol. Not many new things coming out support 98. It's time to go to winxp or at least 2k. Cmon, why on earth continue using 98?

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littleberry

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Folken, Yes, that is the driver I couldn't get to work for me. If I boot up with win2k, then it works just fine. But most of my time is still spent with win98se, and, even on the very same machines (3 of them), this driver will not work. I have several other USB2 devices that all work just fine with thier manufacturer-supplied drivers, even on all 3 of my machines. That makes me suspect that the advertised claim to support win98 is so much hot air. I wish PNY would offer email so I could get someone over there to tell me just what kind of testing they did with their "driver" and what kind of win98se system they did it on. I suspect they just threw it out there to be able to say they made some kind of half-baked effort. Anyway, it wasn't very expensive, so, I guess I don't really care that much, except, it makes a company look cheap when they make a claim that doesn't hold up. I have 3 machines, all different mboards, and none of them will work with this USB2 attache thumbdrive. It was a good idea - if they would bother to test out their drivers.
As to win98se, there are several old applications that are still superior to anything available today that run much better on win98se than either win2k, winme, or winxp. I have finally gotten into the habit of rebuilding my win98se systems often enough that I don't mind, and that is how I deal with viruses. I still dread having to rebuild win2k or winxp, because it never goes smoothly like it does with win88. Littleberry
 

sobelizard

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Just a wild guess, but if you formatted the usb drive with ntfs, you will never get it to work with 98. You would have to leave it at FAT. You've probably already tried this, but Win98SE performs much better with usb products if the device driver are installed, the machine rebooted, powered off, attach device, power back on.

My sympathies with you if you've already done the above.

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_WW_

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I have finally gotten into the habit of rebuilding my win98se systems often enough that I don't mind,
XP is easier to rebuild...no floppys or commands to type. You can partition and format right from the install CD.
I still dread having to rebuild win2k or winxp,
Hmm....


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littleberry

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Good news over here. I called PNY's main line (not an 800 number - my dime) and actually got through to a tech support person (Marty) after a 10 minute wait, who walked me through the steps and began suspicious that my device needed a different driver, which I downloaded and it works fine now. The PNY website attempts to guide you to the correct driver via tha physical appearance of the device, but, in this case, a different driver was the correct one. Mine is only 128 mb, but they make them all the way up to 1 gig, and I think this is a really neat idea - it is small like the size of a key-chain light, which fits into your pocket, and it just plugs in and out with no problems. It is worth a look. Littleberry
 

folken

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I really like my <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820214009" target="_new">1GB PQI I-Stick</A>. Now that sucker is small. I have it in a credit card sized holder in my wallet, lol.

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sobelizard

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Not bad. I have a 7-in-1 data reader. One of those slots is a CF and I have 5 IBM 1GB microdrives. The reader is only about 4mm thick and has the same LxW dimensions of my credit cards. Not bad for 5 GB worth of storage.

Just got an ION external drive enclosure too. 120GB of half-height 2.5" drive - but it requires AC power. Working on a battery power alternative now.

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folken

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I just got this cool little thing for work that is a 2.5" drive enclosure w/ an 80gb hd and is powered completely off the usb.
This enclosure:
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155704" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155704</A>
With this HD:
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822149016" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822149016</A>

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sobelizard

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Thanks for the heads up. I put in an order today. Your drive a 5400 rpm?

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folken

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Nope 4200rpm. Doesnt really matter for a USB drive though. It will get choked down to USB2 speeds anyway so you dont really need more than a 4200rpm. That will also guarantee that it will work in most usb ports, a 4200rpm drive will suck a lot less power than a 5400rpm drive.

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sobelizard

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Yeah, the power draw was my concern. My 80GB is the higher rpm. I know the data band width is limited but it'll still spin up to 5400rpm. Hopefully will have my new drive on Tuesday.

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