Win98 Hw Install Questions

Hi! I used to have a problematic Win98SE minitower. Its hard drive was too small (21GB but only 11% of it worked), its CD-ROM drive was nonoperational, and then, its USB ports stopped working, which was very bad, as I had a flash drive simulate an extra hard drive. Now, I bought some replacement hardware for it: a 6.4GB hard drive, a replacement CD-ROM drive and an internal ZIP drive. The last was to replace a parallel ZIP drive that was too slow. Recently, somebody here shipped me a new Win98SE computer. Its main problems are that it's too good and it has some problems with DOS support under Windows mode: I couldn't get enough UMBs without either an Out of Memory error or an exception depending on which memory manager. That is not one of my questions here, but I could use help for that. I want to know how to determine what type of drive expansions the computer supports and what kind of drive the replacement ZIP100 drive is. I also want to know if it's a good idea to replace the external parallel Zip drive with the internal one. I'm also wondering if I should replace the drive myself or hire somebody to do it. I am pretty good with the software of the computer but not the hardware. Two last questions: what do I do with the useless hardware? What can I do with the old computer? It's too good for parts but not good enough to be sold as fully functional.

 

Look up the model number of the PC or if it is custom, use Speccy, Aida32, HWiNFO, or SIW from there you can usually find the motherboard manufacture / model or even what slots the board has.
Older hardware you're likely looking at IDE.

Really, most most people - No. CD-ROMs and USB drives replaced Zips a long time ago, zips have no place today.

Donate, but places around me barely take old computers anymore, they have higher requirements on the hardware they accept.
Scrap recyclers still give you a few bucks for them.
If you still want to change the hardware, visit YouTube and search for "How-Tos".

 

foogoo: I thank you for your input. You're right about zip disks. I kind of like them, though but don't need them. I have some flash drives to spare, though, and even some of my 32GB flash drives should be compatible with the computer--they are formatted as FAT32. Most of the Zip disks are from an older computer whose hard drive was very small--only 2.1GB usable. I still have some zip disks to fill and am planning to use them anyway, even though I shouldn't.