# Win98 won't assign drive letter to USB storage drive



## yoger (Jul 29, 2003)

I've tried to install an external USB drive (2.0) but without success.

I am running Win98SE and have other USB items connected without problems (card reader and digital camera) so I know the USB connection is working, and the USB storage drive is working on another computer as well.

I've downloaded the drivers from http://www.kasercorp.com/Drivers_USB_Storage.htm before running the setup.exe from disc and then connecting the drive. All seems to go well - I get the dialogue boxes saying the USB storage device is being setup, but windows fails to assign a drive letter. Hence, no access to the USB storage drive.

Can anyone offer any tips and or explain why Win98SE won't assign the drive letter? The last device installed is a removable disk with drive letter F.

Thanks,


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## rugrat (Dec 17, 2001)

Try adding "lastdrive=z" without the quotes and no spaces, to your config sys file. You can do this by going to start, run, and type in msconfig, click the config sys tab and add the line.

I remember 98se had a problem with drive letters once it got to G. The above is worth a shot and will do no harm.

Good Luck


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## yoger (Jul 29, 2003)

Unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem. I uninstall the driver and the setup programme, rebooted, reinstalled and rebooted again. When I turn on the USB device, Windows recognizes the new drive as a Mass Storage Device, loads the driver, but then another message windows saying New Hardware .....Unknown Device....then loads the USB IDE Bridge Controller. That's it....no drive assignment initiates.

Any other suggestions?


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## vicks (Jan 31, 2005)

are you sure it isn't there? On our old 98 puter I have to open MY COMPUTER and it shows there and I activated it there.....
Vicks


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## ceri sheeran (Aug 15, 2003)

Hi,

Win 98 and USB 2 are not a good mix. Even WIN 98 SE and USB 2 did not work well.

You may find a PCI USB 2 card with 98 or 98SE drivers but I doubt if they are available these days.

I tried several different PCI USB 2 cards under 98 SE but eventually gave up and upgraded to XP.

Win 2k SP4 may be a better option if your pc is unable to run XP.

With XP you will need SP 1 for USB 2.

hth

Ceri


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## almostsmart (Jul 30, 2003)

Perhaps you should verify you have loaded the correct driver for that drive. 

I am running external hard drive on Win 98 (not SE) on a 2.0 Compaq PCI card and it works great. (I also ran it off the computer which would make it 1.1)


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## yoger (Jul 29, 2003)

The suggestion to upgrade is exactly what I want to do.....after I can backup my files on this hard drive . I'm quite sure I have the correct driver downloaded from the web.

Seems to me there must be a conflict somewhere because initially I may have screwed around trying to install the USB hard drive without the driver installed first. All the other USB connected devices are correctly config'd/connected.

I've had a peak around using regedit and seems there are some unknown USB devices there. Anyone have an idea if cleaning this up might help. I known that playing around with the registry can be tricky so any tips would be appreciated.


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## junker39 (Jun 13, 2004)

yoger, go to Device Manager and under the Disk Drives,your external should be listed....Hold on, I gotta start up the old 98 machine real quick. O.K., That's right. Double click the drive and open the Settings tab. The "Removable" box should be the only one checked and you assign your drive letter at the bottom. Close everything and restart and it'll show up in My Computer.


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## yoger (Jul 29, 2003)

ok - made the changes and will restart now...back in a bit.


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## yoger (Jul 29, 2003)

My torment is over! Thank you junker39 - what made the difference was unselecting all the boxes under Settings and then clicking on the Removable box for the Drive. All of a sudden, as you said, I could assign the drive letter.

Brillant - once again, all on this board, thank you for taking the time for your suggestions. Never know how hard or simple a problem will be. Once I back up everything I be able to upgrade to Windows 2000 on this old computer and never run into this kind of USB problem again!

Cheers


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