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Finding hardware for Win98

post #1 of 6
11/27/07 at 6:52pm
Thread Starter 
Microsoft ending support for 98 has me worried about finding hardware compatible with the Win98 Se operating system. I went to Circuit City recently to purchase a new DVD ROM Drive for my Win98 based system. At my last visit to Circuit City, there were no DVD ROM drives available at that location which would state they were suitable for Windows 98. If I remember correctly all those DVD ROM drives were for XP or Vista only. I ended up ordering my new DVD ROM drive from Amazon.com.

Windows XP and Vista are too bloated for my current system so I'd like to continue having 98 Se for some time. I am worried however that soon I will not be able buy any new hardware for my system. If I should need to buy another DVD ROM drive or a new hard drive down the road, is this something I should be concerned about?
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post #2 of 6
11/28/07 at 3:49am

Re: Finding hardware for Win98

If I was you I would spend the money you put into the dvd drive and spend a little more to get a complete new system. You can find a brand new machine for as little as $400 these days. If your looking to stear towards the cheap route you could just build a budget PC. Buy a barebone system and just throw 512mb of ram in it, a smaller 60gb drive and your dvd drive. All could be had for pretty darn cheap.
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post #3 of 6
11/28/07 at 11:48am

Re: Finding hardware for Win98

DVD and CD drives are fairly generic nowadays, like hard drives, so you shouldn't need special drivers, at least for the basic functions. This is unlikely to change in the next few years, but there can be gotchas. For example, if you need to update the firmware on the drive, that update program might only run on XP.

For more specialized hardware that does need drivers, you can certainly run into problems. At some point, you might get better hardware support with Linux than with Windows 98.
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post #4 of 6
11/29/07 at 5:42am

Re: Finding hardware for Win98

well really any cd/dvd drive marked for xp will work just fine in 98SE. If it has a label that says 95/98/2000/me, what you bought is a dated drive that if you paid more then $5 for you way overpaid. Like stated above, the basics of any new drive will work, but the drive may have some special software packaged with it that only works in xp/vista
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post #5 of 6
11/29/07 at 2:28pm

Re: Finding hardware for Win98

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Chan
DVD and CD drives are fairly generic nowadays, like hard drives, so you shouldn't need special drivers, at least for the basic functions.
One gotcha is that DVD drives are also using the SATA interface now, which a Win98 PC won't have. But any IDE (or PATA) drive should work.

Also, don't just get a DVD ROM, unless you already have a DVD burner. RW machines are $30 now. Here's a quick find at NewEgg, a $30 DVD, IDE interface.
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post #6 of 6
11/29/07 at 5:06pm

Re: Finding hardware for Win98

You will hit lots of walls with a 98 system as time goes by. Driver support these days is pretty iffy and getting worse, for instance.

Stop spending any money on the old system and save up for a new one. As has been mentioned, new systems aren't that pricey, especially if you look for deals at Dell etc or just build a bare-bones system and put Ubuntu Linux in there to keep software costs down.
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