Will an external hard drive help with a really old laptop (1GB disk space / Windows 98)?

Question

I'm not in a position to buy a new, or even used, PC, so am inquiring if an external hard drive will help with disk space issues. I don't have a USB port, can I connect without?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you!

Thanks to everyone for their responses. All much appreciated. I think I will limp along with what I have and buy a refurbished PC when I can!

Answer 1

This could be complicated but could usually be done with PCMCIA USB adapter (if your laptop has standard PCMCIA slots) like the one found at http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?dest=9999999997&product_id=3942788&sourceid=1500000000000001827170 .

Answer 2

First, a usb or firewire port are the best ways to connect an external drive. Consider putting on on your laptop. I had usb on win98, it just takes getting the drivers. Talk to someone who knows your brand of computer. As far as helping goes, it means that you can store a lot more data, and when you lap top dies, just hook the drive to your new computer, and there is your data! I use an external, as does my daughter, for backup, safety and portability. They are very good for those purposes.

Answer 3

Most if not all new external harddrives are usb. Even if you found one that would connect to your labtop its really a waste of money since the laptop is old and probably will only see a 10 gig harddrive (This can be changed with a BIOS upgrade though)

Me I wouldnt go out and buy a new external harddrive for it.

Answer 4

You might be able to connect without usb but more likely you will need an internal Hard drive. It will definately help with disk space (thats what hard drives are!) but wont make the pc much faster. For that you need Ram.

Answer 5

Okay, I would approach this problem from a different angle. I would get a 2.5" IDE drive carrier with a USB 2.0 connection. I would then dismount the Toshiba drive and mount it in the carrier. The files would then be accessible to your new system. Other than that, without proper USB support, your system probably won't be able to expose the drive. Another approach would be to use the parallel or serial ports and special crossover (Xmodem) cables to connect to another system. I've got a set of those cables if you want to borrow them... ;) hth

Answer 6

First you have to purchase one PCI to USB card . Then you can think of a USB external hard drive. make sure to install the USB 2.0 driver of the card to Windows 98. And also make sure to get the driver for external hard drive as most of hard drives work without drivers in windows XP.
Make sure you have proper driver for PCI to USB card as well USB hard drive.
However this modification is not recommended as again you are investing to purchase the PCI card which is useless for any future use....
Good luck

Answer 7

You can get a PCMCIA care with USB ports
like this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815124011

that will allow you to install an external hard drive.

I think they even have PCMCIA cards with a large storage space, but the card above is 13.99 which would be your best bet for external hard drive.

You might want to go with a PCMCIA that is firewire so it will be faster.

here is the IEEE 1394 card, 29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815150032

Answer 8

In my past experience adding a new anything to such an old computer will bring it to its knees. Have you tried downloading your data to floppies, or an Iomega Zip Drive wld work also as they hold 200 mg however, again they cost and will be slow on your computer. My advice, compress everything, download to floppies and save your pennies for new comp. Can get decent one for $400.

Answer 9

No! I doubt if there are any external hard drives that will work with serial ports..