Did You enabled Large Disk Support when You installed WIN98? What is capacity of USB drive?
If You didn't enable Large Disk Support, than You have to format usb drive to FAT(16).
If You know how to, try booting to DOS mode and try with FDISK command, i don't remember if this works with USB drives?!? Too bad there is no disk management in older WIN 😀

butjer1010 wrote on 2023-02-07, 07:52:

Did You enabled Large Disk Support when You installed WIN98? What is capacity of USB drive?
If You didn't enable Large Disk Support, than You have to format usb drive to FAT(16).
If You know how to, try booting to DOS mode and try with FDISK command, i don't remember if this works with USB drives?!? Too bad there is no disk management in older WIN 😀

USB drive's capacity is 16GB.
The computer was already installed when I bought it off eBay pre-built, so I have no clue if it's in Large Disk Support. How do I find out if it is Large Disk or not?.

joeguy3121 wrote on 2023-02-07, 08:08:

butjer1010 wrote on 2023-02-07, 07:52:

Did You enabled Large Disk Support when You installed WIN98? What is capacity of USB drive?
If You didn't enable Large Disk Support, than You have to format usb drive to FAT(16).
If You know how to, try booting to DOS mode and try with FDISK command, i don't remember if this works with USB drives?!? Too bad there is no disk management in older WIN 😀

USB drive's capacity is 16GB.
The computer was already installed when I bought it off eBay pre-built, so I have no clue if it's in Large Disk Support. How do I find out if it is Large Disk or not?.

Check your HDD properties and see if its formatted in Fat32, if your HDD is Fat32 then Large Disk Support is installed.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-07, 09:22:

joeguy3121 wrote on 2023-02-07, 08:08:

butjer1010 wrote on 2023-02-07, 07:52:

Did You enabled Large Disk Support when You installed WIN98? What is capacity of USB drive?
If You didn't enable Large Disk Support, than You have to format usb drive to FAT(16).
If You know how to, try booting to DOS mode and try with FDISK command, i don't remember if this works with USB drives?!? Too bad there is no disk management in older WIN 😀

USB drive's capacity is 16GB.
The computer was already installed when I bought it off eBay pre-built, so I have no clue if it's in Large Disk Support. How do I find out if it is Large Disk or not?.

Check your HDD properties and see if its formatted in Fat32, if your HDD is Fat32 then Large Disk Support is installed.

Checked and it is formatted in FAT32. Still no access to the flash drive.

Than try with FDISK in DOS, as i wrote, i don't remember if FDISK will see USB disk. If it will, Your problem is solved. Make extended partition and that's it.

butjer1010 wrote on 2023-02-07, 22:08:

Than try with FDISK in DOS, as i wrote, i don't remember if FDISK will see USB disk. If it will, Your problem is solved. Make extended partition and that's it.

How do I fix it from here?

Select 4. Is your flash drive on the list? If so, create a partition on it.

feda wrote on 2023-02-07, 23:24:

Select 4. Is your flash drive on the list? If so, create a partition on it.

Not listed!!! 😭

You can do it on your modern PC using Disk Management, its listed under "Computer Management", just type it into the search bar and it'll show up then go to Disk Management and find your flash drive there. Make 100% sure its the flash drive and then you can create a partition on it. (Right click the flash drive and create a partition)

Again .. be 100% sure its the flash drive you are working on .. drive management lists every drive and partition on your PC and it wont stop you from making changes to your main drives.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-08, 00:49:

You can do it on your modern PC using Disk Management, its listed under "Computer Management", just type it into the search bar and it'll show up then go to Disk Management and find your flash drive there. Make 100% sure its the flash drive and then you can create a partition on it. (Right click the flash drive and create a partition)

Again .. be 100% sure its the flash drive you are working on .. drive management lists every drive and partition on your PC and it wont stop you from making changes to your main drives.

Do I click Format to create a partition?

if you can access it normally on your modern PC then you dont need to do anything to it, can you copy files to it ?

I ask because that flash drive looks fine to me, it already has a healthy partition on it, there is something else going on here and that flash drive isnt the problem.
Have you tried the other USB ports on your 98 PC ?

Was it plugged in to the computer when you installed the USB driver? If so, you have to go to Add New Hardware in Control Panel and manually detect it.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-08, 01:21:

if you can access it normally on your modern PC then you dont need to do anything to it, can you copy files to it ?

I ask because that flash drive looks fine to me, it already has a healthy partition on it, there is something else going on here and that flash drive isnt the problem.
Have you tried the other USB ports on your 98 PC ?

Nope, just the flash drive.
My memory is not so good but one thing I remember is that eBay seller who sold me the pre-installed 98SE also got in contact with me to help me out with other issues I had with the computer initially after recieving it. One of those issues was this situation where he showed me where to go in the Control Panel (I think) to assign a drive letter to another USB flash drive of mine to get it accessible in My Computer.
Yes, I have another flash drive which is 32GB that's accessible with a drive letter (E:) assign to it unlike my current 16GB.
I'm no longer in contact with the eBay seller and I wish I'd remember what he told me where to go to get future USB flash drives to work on my 98SE. 😞

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-02-08, 01:40:

Was it plugged in to the computer when you installed the USB driver? If so, you have to go to Add New Hardware in Control Panel and manually detect it.

Im wondering if the USB ports are even working on that 98 PC, if they are front panel ones perhaps they are not connected to the motherboard correctly or the cable is a bit loose but on enough for the drive to be detected.

Reading the above reply it would seem that 98 isn't assigning drive letters correctly or has a drive letter conflict ...its been a while since I last assigned drive letters under 98 so perhaps another here can assist with this.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-02-08, 01:40:

Was it plugged in to the computer when you installed the USB driver? If so, you have to go to Add New Hardware in Control Panel and manually detect it.

Is this correct?

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-08, 01:46:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-02-08, 01:40:

Was it plugged in to the computer when you installed the USB driver? If so, you have to go to Add New Hardware in Control Panel and manually detect it.

Im wondering if the USB ports are even working on that 98 PC, if they are front panel ones perhaps they are not connected to the motherboard correctly or the cable is a bit loose but on enough for the drive to be detected.

Reading the above reply it would seem that 98 isn't assigning drive letters correctly or has a drive letter conflict ...its been a while since I last assigned drive letters under 98 so perhaps another here can assist with this.

I thought I'd show you what I mean with this image. Both flash drives 32GB and 16GB are plugged in, the first listed USB Disk with E: assigned is the 32GB working one.
If the issue is of how the eBay seller installed the computer before he sended to me then my problem will be solved as I'm planning to do a 98SE install of my own on another HDD hard drive with more capacity then my current one so I can have more space and get the computer to work the way I want it for my needs of retro gaming.

I don't know if it makes any difference in this case, but your motherboard is USB 1, so I would use the nusb33e driver instead. https://www.philscomputerlab.com/windows-98-u … age-driver.html

On my 98SE computer, I have both nusb33e and the nusb36e drivers installed because I also have a USB 2.0 card installed. But I don't have an unplug or eject hardware box that comes up - I have the arrow in the system tray, when I click on it, it offers "Stop USB Disk - Drive(G:)" (or whatever letter it has).

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-02-08, 02:30:

I don't know if it makes any difference in this case, but your motherboard is USB 1, so I would use the nusb33e driver instead. https://www.philscomputerlab.com/windows-98-u … age-driver.html

Thanks. I'm already thinking that the problem is how the seller installed the computer and what he included so I'll use the nusb33e driver when I do a 98SE install on a new 120GB hard drive, replacing my included 40GB hard drive.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-02-08, 02:43:

On my 98SE computer, I have both nusb33e and the nusb36e drivers installed because I also have a USB 2.0 card installed. But I don't have an unplug or eject hardware box that comes up - I have the arrow in the system tray, when I click on it, it offers "Stop USB Disk - Drive(G:)" (or whatever letter it has).

I'm actually good with the USB 1 ports included on my motherboard. My only need for it is flash drives.
If the 2.0 ports on that card you mention make the transferring from the flash drive to the computer faster without being hampered by the old operating system then I may consider it.