External Hard Drive

[jerryhillman]

I bought a WD 80 USB 2.0 external hard drive. I use both Win XP Home and
Win 98 (not se) Can this hard drive be used on both systems? Is it like
a plug-in where a new drive letter appears and I have 80 meg more storage.
It also comes with a back-up program on a cd disk. This software will work
on XP, but will it work on Win 98? What does the back-up program do?
Also can I install a second operating system like Win 95 on it and then
run the system. I want to do this because a few of my programs will not
run on XP.

Thanks, Jerry

[Train]

For 98 you will have to install drivers for theh external HDD.
Be sure to follow the instructions for doing that as there usally is a step by step procedure to do the installing.
Should you not have thosoe instructions, hit the external's manufactors website and they normally have the article on how to do that listed.

Now that hdd will need to be formated, so when the icon for it is in My Computer, right clickc the icon and select format. You will be asked if you want to overwrite the drive, which you do in this case, and after a lengthy time it will complete and the hdd will be ready to use.

Since you re using 98, be sure to do this in 98.

XP will then pick up the drive and be able to access what ever is on it.

[SpywareDr]

I bought a WD 80 USB 2.0 external hard drive. I use both Win XP Home and Win 98 (not se) Can this hard drive be used on both systems?

Yes, both Windows 98 and XP support USB devices. (Note that Windows 9x cannot read/write NTFS partitions; only FAT).

Is it like a plug-in where a new drive letter appears and I have 80 meg more storage.

That's the way one would expect it to work, yes. (Especially on Windows XP).

It also comes with a back-up program on a cd disk. This software will work on XP, but will it work on Win 98?

Which program and what version? What do the instructions say?

What does the back-up program do?

Should tell you in the instructions. For a general definition of backup, see this page: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/b/backup.html

Also can I install a second operating system like Win 95 on it and then run the system. I want to do this because a few of my programs will not run on XP.

Both your computer's BIOS and the Operating System will need to support booting from a USB hard drive. The last version of Windows 95, OSR2.x (OEM Service Release 2.x), had problems with USB devices, and earlier versions didn't even know what a USB port was.

[Welshjim]

"Also can I install a second operating system like Win 95 on it and then run the system. I want to do this because a few of my programs will not run on XP"
I would be very surprised if you can use the external HD as a bootable drive--or run any programs from it. That requires a very modern and high end BIOS. I have a year old Dell 4600i, with latest BIOS (updated after purchase). I cannot boot from a similar WD external hard drive. It is basically only a storage drive.
Now to show some ignorance--not sure about the following.
The instructions for your external hard drive will tell you how to format the drive for NTFS. (It comes from the factory formatted for FAT.) If you already formatted the whole external drive for NTFS, I doubt you can use it with Win 98. And if your WinXP uses NTFS, then I doubt you can use the external drive with it if the external drive is still formatted for FAT. However, partitioning and formatting a part of the external drive for NTFS and leaving the rest formatted for FAT will probably allow you to use both Win98 and WinXP.

[SpywareDr]

Windows XP (and 2000) can read/write both FAT and NTFS.

[Welshjim]

SpywareDr--I was aware of that. But I was guessing that if the internal hard drive was formatted as NTFS any transfer of files to the external hard drive would require that the external drive (or at least the partition to which the transfer is being made,) would have to be formatted as NTFS. And similarly for FAT.

[SuperSparks]

Nope you can mix and match FAT & NTFS on the NT-based OS's however you like, it doesn't make any difference as far as file transfers between fiule systems are concerned.

[Welshjim]

SuperSparks--Thanks for setting me straight.

[lgbpop]

Also can I install a second operating system like Win 95 on it and then
run the system. I want to do this because a few of my programs will not
run on XP.

XP has the compatibility adapter for most programs, have you tried it yet? Right-click on the program folder or file in question, left-click Properties\Compatibility. Has worked fine for me, the few times I've needed it.

[liam858]

For compatibility info check out the links posted in this thread:HERE



Liam