|There is no guarantee my data will be on my Win98 forever
|if I have issues with it.
| Mert
|
Y'know, you may be too smart for this forum.  8-)
Everyone else shows up AFTER their "precious" data is long gone.  8-(

|I want to keep my data forever,
|so what would be the best form of back-up on an old OS like Win98?
|
Well, it won't actually be **on Win98**.
It will be on external media; I recommend on FAT32.
(The only part of *the OS stuff* you should back up is the device drivers.)

The old standby was optical media (CD/DVD)--and it's still the cheapest.
The file format there is ISO 9660 and that limits the length of filenames
(more so than FAT32 does),
so some filenames (like some Favorites) get truncated in the transfer process.
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1199557915

These days, USB thumbdrives are dirt cheap.
http://www.google.com/images?q=thumb-drive
Units up to 64GB are readily available AND they can use standard FAT32.
I don't think I even need to go deeply into the portability factor
about something that can go on your keychain.

When buying something to use with a 9 year old operating system,
READ THE SIDE OF THE PACKAGE and make sure that it says
"SUPPORTS WINDOWS 98SE".

An alternative to purchasing from a vendor WHO HAS MADE THE EFFORT TO SUPPORT YOU
is to get Nathan Lineback's generic (universal?) W98 USB device driver:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1197047770
As you see there, I actually advise using ToastyTech's driver from the start;
the **read the side of the box and purchase from those folks** thing
is really a **quality of the company** thing.
We want to keep The Good Guys in business.

If you have much more than 64GB of files, an external USB hard drive is an option
but be advised A BACKUP IS *NOT* A BACKUP **UNTIL IT IS OFF-SITE**.
When backing up, do make multiple copies to facilitate this.

• Reply or follow-up to this message

• Search this forum
• Start a new thread on a different subject

• Report abuse of the forum