Mobile drive

jee · Post by **jee** » 10 Nov 2003, 10:51

We have a mercer 128 mb mobile drive normally used on win98. It was formatted on w2k and now will only show up on the w2k machine but not the win98 machine. Any suggestions?

default · Post by **default** » 10 Nov 2003, 10:54

was is formatted using fat or ntfs?
ntfs and 98 no not deal with each other too well. can you see the drive on an XP machine?

brabham · Post by **brabham** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:14

Yes Jee that is probably the problem. You can format the drive again on the w2k machine just make sure the file system is set to fat32 instead. Then you should be able to see it on the 98 machine.

jee · Post by **jee** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:14

Formatted in FAT.

And no, don't have an xp machine. The member says that everytime he saves anything on it, and recalls it, it comes out in gobbledigook. And he cannot format on his machine (98).

Post by **Thrall** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:16

Two possibilities occur to me:

1. If it's a USB drive, you'll need to install the USB-drivers for 98
2. If the drive has been formatted as NTFS, Win98 won't see it.

default · Post by **default** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:23

Thrall wrote:Two possibilities occur to me:

1. If it's a USB drive, you'll need to install the USB-drivers for 98

since it is usually used on the 98 machine anyway it probably is not the drivers. Jee said that its only been a problem since it was formatted on the 2k box

but then again if there are drivers it might not be a bad idea to reinstall them anyway.

jee · Post by **jee** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:26

It is a USB drive (both) and he used it on his machine before. And he can see the hdd on his machine - only it will not format?

Btw - I definitely formatted it in FAT - not NTFS. Should it be FAT 32?

(sorry Brab - did not see ur post)

default · Post by **default** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:38

Jee wrote:It is a USB drive (both) and he used it on his machine before. And he can see the hdd on his machine - only it will not format?

Btw - I definitely formatted it in FAT - not NTFS. Should it be FAT 32?

(sorry Brab - did not see ur post)

yes fat 32 is normal fat 16 still an option?

jee · Post by **jee** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:42

Another problem - If one saves directly on the mobile drive, it saves fine.
But as soon as one tries to copy exixting files it changes it to gobbldigook.

jee · Post by **jee** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:46

Also it does not want me to see (on w2k) what was saved on the 98 machine.

After format it shows 1.00kb used space - is that normal?

default · Post by **default** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:50

ok thats it im not helping you anymore its way to complicated now

what if you just buy 2 nics and a cross over cable or a cdr or something?
IR file transfer? esp would be easier to get working

Post by **Tel** » 10 Nov 2003, 11:54

Since formatting on the w2k machine the drive has gone whack. Have you tried formatting the drive on the 98 machine?

jee · Post by **jee** » 10 Nov 2003, 12:06

default wrote:ok thats it im not helping you anymore its way to complicated now

Fader!

Ok, we've formated to FAT32 (on w2k) and saved some files that actually looks ok - he will go and play on his machine to see if he can see the files, and if he can save now. If not, I'll just download the driver on my 98 machine to see if that will work.

But I'm really curious - is the mobile drive not like a cd or stiffie - once formatted completely clean?

Post by **Tel** » 10 Nov 2003, 12:23

The mobile drive works the same as a stiffy, not a CD.

When one formats a stiffy or mobile drive it does wipe it clean.

On a CD it does not format properly. It more like covers the existing data and leaves the remaining space free.

bb_matt · Post by **bb_matt** » 10 Nov 2003, 12:24

Standard formatting doesn't clean the data as it can always be retrieved providing data doesn't write over the same area of disk. A standard format just flags the sectors of a drive to allow you to write over them - something like that, not too sure of the technical details.

The best way to really format a disk is to low level format it, but only if your that the data you formatted should not be retrieved

You'll definately need USB drivers for win98 and sometimes they can be an issue to install and get working correctly.