Large External HD compatible with win95?

Does anyone have any experience with larger external hard drives, say 120+ gigs, running on a windows 95 osr2 machine? I know USB is supported in my version of windows 95, so does that mean an external USB hard drive will be compatible?

Furthermore, I'm looking to have an external USB drive as a backup solution, but I'm also open to any suggestions to back up about 120MB daily. I'd prefer something automated, but I would like to stay away from tape drives.

Keith

 

No Guarantee of USB support in win 95

The usb support in win95 was not introduced till ver osr2.1 and it cannot be taken for granted unless you have installed the update Microsoft posted on the webb at the time, it has long sinced been removed but it may be available for info try Here and Here
Hope it helps

 

The last version of Windows 95 might support USB. But generally there is no USB hardware that will support Windows 95.

 

Thanks for the USB/Win95 info. It seems that I would have many complications trying to implement a USB hard drive backup solution. Any other suggestions?

Keith

P.S. I've been told that the computer MUST have win95 for some legacy applications. So upgrading to 98 or later is not an option.

 

What about a cd burner ?

What about a cd burner, cdrs are so cheap that it would make it a practical option, the main thing to check is that the writing speed is not to fast for win95, probably an older model would be more suitable if you can find one. software is easier to find Here
What legacy apps are you running that will run on win95 but not on win98 ?

 

Let's not put the cart before the horse. It's the OS that supports a certain feature, not the other way around. Win95 version (c) will definitely support USB. Versions a & b were marginal in their support.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253756&Product=w95

KeithKi, you can use that external HDD as long as youre not trying to boot from it. I doubt that w/ your older PC, your BIOS will support booting from a USB external HDD.

 

Keithki, here are some of the system requirements I found for external drives. Unfortunately, none include Win95 for the operating system
Iomega
http://www.chumbo.com/common/boxshots/PDF/7519/751921027569.PDF
http://www.dv-gear.com/usb/ads-usb-2-hard-drive-kit.htm
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/usb/2079-001033.pdf

I always read the system requirements for hardware items. You may still be able to get them to run on lower systems (with restrictions).

My personal opinion...look at getting Win 98SE, it has a large range of applications (maybe still better than XP) and better trouleshooting (eg MSCONFIG).

Backup system...another internal harddisk drive (if you have enough IDE connections available).

Matt

 

Thanks for all the reponses. It may be possible to upgrade to windows 98, but my client does not want to take the chance on losing the ability to use his legacy software, which contains a lot of financial records for the past 10 years. I think I may just network the win95 computer to a windows 98 computer, which will have the external hard drive attached. Can anyone suggest a better idea?

Keith