upgrading Windows 95 to Windows 98

[zach85]

Hi,

A buddy of mine, who very seldom uses the computer for anything more than email and basic internet use, has a Windows 95. His printer recently died, and because it's hard to find a decent parallel printer and because Win 95 doesn't have much, if any, support for USB printers, I suggested he atleast upgrade to Win 98 to use a USB printer, which after a bit of discussion, he went for the idea.

my question is this... I just bought a brand new Win 98 SE upgrade disk. Will I have to worry about backing up his emails, documents, and stuff since the upgrade disk should only change his system files, and shouldn't touch anything outside of the c:\windows folder? I know it wouldn't hurt to back up his stuff, especially his emails and all, but since he doesn't have a CD Burner or anything, I'll end up backing everything onto a floppy disk, which will take a LOOOONG time to do. Any help appreciated, thanks!

 

[Tyler1989]

USB flash drive perhaps if you need to make data up? They are getting rather cheap.

 

[jeremy]

all the data except the windows itself of course should remain intact , but im not 100% sure about the emails as win9x dont have user profiles better back that up just incase , and a newsflash these days theres a thing called "usb flash drive" it comes in various sizes from 128mb to 4gb (usally it isnt too expensive at least if your aint getting higher then 2gb) of course various flash drives have diffrent read/write speeds but overall their pretty fast+alot more reliable then floppy disks+their compact you can put it in your pocket, floppy disk is the most unreliable storage media there is it lasts for a few months and thats it and if you drop it even just 1 time thats good enough to make some of the data unreadble

 

[zach85]

USB flash drive perhaps if you need to make data up? They are getting rather cheap.

It's Windows 95, would not have support for USB Flash. If it had support for USB, I wouldn't be upgrading to 98. However, the ironic thing is that there are 2 usb ports on the back, but I still cannot install a USB printer because most, if not all, USB printers have to be atleast Windows 98.

I just need to know from anyone who has upgraded 95 to 98 whether or not they needed to back up emails and stuff. Thanks!

 

[zach85]

all the data except the windows itself of course should remain intact , but im not 100% sure about the emails as win9x dont have user profiles better back that up just incase , and a newsflash these days theres a thing called "usb flash drive" it comes in various sizes from 128mb to 4gb (usally it isnt too expensive at least if your aint getting higher then 2gb) of course various flash drives have diffrent read/write speeds but overall their pretty fast+alot more reliable then floppy disks+their compact you can put it in your pocket, floppy disk is the most unreliable storage media there is it lasts for a few months and thats it and if you drop it even just 1 time thats good enough to make some of the data unreadble

I know what USB Flash is, I have one. The thing is that Windows 95 would not have support for these, nor do I think I can get a driver for Win 95. I tried using my USB Flash drive on a windows 98 system once and it wouldn't work because most USB Flash drives will only work on XP or better.

 

[EricB]

is the cd bootable? use a bart pe disc to copy it over. the bart pe cd will recognize the usb flash drive.

 

[zach85]

is the cd bootable? use a bart pe disc to copy it over. the bart pe cd will recognize the usb flash drive.

What CD are you talking about? If you're talking about Windows 98 CD then yeah, it is bootable.



For everyone:

All I need to know is if an upgrade will erase the emails, documents, and other files along with deleting and reinstalling system files in C:\windows directory. Once I find out about that, then I can take care of stuff on my own after that. What directory are the emails and "My Documents" saved in with Windows 95?

Thanks, and please, NO MORE ABOUT FLOPPY, USB FLASH, OR OTHER DEVICES FOR BACKUP. I have a few backup devices I might be able to use, since I do run a business where backing up stuff is crucial!!! I just never did a 95 to 98 upgrade, and i don't want to screw this up and lose the business. I may end up putting in a second hard drive and using PartitionMagic 8 or Acronis to backup the whole hard drive onto the second hard drve. thanks again!

 

[EricB]

I was asking if the cd rom on his computer was bootable.

 

[zach85]

I was asking if the cd rom on his computer was bootable.

I would think it'd have to be. I got the PE Builder you were talking about, but how do I use it to make a bootable XP CD, or can it only work on 98? Thanks for your help

 

[EricB]

this is how I backup data from win 95-98 machine. I have a 200 gig Usb backup drive and win 98 drive (I know that this don't pertain to you, but I just telling you anyway).

my usb hdd is ntfs, so a fat32 computer won't see it. but the bart pe cd will. it will copy the file over properly (convert the data to ntfs) and copy them back to the original (fat32) fromat later if needed.

I assuming that you have an xp cd. open pe builder and stick the xp cd in your cd rom (on your xp machine. if don't have xp I can upload a bart pe xp ready cd to send space). it will rip an bart pe iso file to your hdd. burn that iso file to disc as a disc image with something like nero or alcohol.

you can now run a windows environment from cd. you could copy his files to a flash drive or external hdd now as the bart cd with recognize usb. you could copy the files to another slave hdd if you wish. you can use the drive image part to back up the whole thing. if it have an ethernet port, you can back it up to a computer on a network as the bart pe cd will even recognize that