USB Flash Drive driver for Windows 95 OSR/2.1

As some people may know I am a big fan of Windows 95 because it can be installed without any web browser. Unfortunately for me manufacturers no longer provide Windows 95 drivers for most newer devices, or if they do they install a mess of software that often requires IE. As such I am very cautious about what hardware I add to my computer.

From using flash drives on other computers I have discovered how incredibly useful these things are. They can store as much as or more than a CD-ROM but they can be written to randomly. Supposedly there is a write limit of perhaps a hundred thousand writes but this still makes them way more reliable than floppy disks.

Of course the only driver I could find for my Sandisk Cruzer only worked on Windows 98 SE. Now the funny thing is that USB mass storage devices like this use a somewhat standard communication protocol and work "out of the box" on most newer operating systems. This is true for Linux, MacOS X, OS/2 eComstation, and Windows XP. So I looked around to see if anybody had a USB mass storage driver for Windows 95 that would work with standard devices like this.

I eventually found one that was intended for an older Sandisk USB device. I had to modify the the Plug-And-Play ID numbers to match the one being sent by the Cruzer before Windows would accept the driver. But after that it worked perfectly! I just plug in the Cruzer and a new removable drive letter appears in My Computer.

I have updated the driver with PNP ids for many more devices. I have no idea at all if it works with all of the IDs I added, but feel free to let me know what works and what doesn't. You should even be able to use it even if it doesn't specifically recognize your device!

Update: 1/24/2007: I added a few more plug and play IDs based on the feedback I received.

The local Microcenter has bins full of these things so you know they have taken over!

Requirements:

• Windows 95 OSR/2.1 ("B" version with USB or later) or Windows 98 with a USB port that is already recognized by the system.

1. This driver is not supported by SanDisk or any other manufacturer.
2. This driver may not work on your machine or with your USB memory device, I only know it works for me.
3. For all I know this driver may cause damage to your machine, your USB memory device, or the files on your USB memory device.
4. I have not tried any of the software that comes on the Cruzer - I doubt it would work and I never needed it.

 

Download USB mass storage driver for Windows 95 OSR/2.1 (Updated 1/24/2007)

w95usbflash11.zip

 

Download older version. For now I am leaving it here in case I messed something up in the new one.

w95usbflash.zip

• If you are running the OSR/2.0 "B" version of Windows 95 you must first install the USB supplement from Microsoft if it is not already installed. (search for "Usbsupp.exe"). Note that none of this will work on the original "A" version of Windows 95.
• If your USB flash drive or mass storage device is not specifically recognized by this driver, Windows will prompt you to install a new driver. Keep the above driver on your hard disk and point the New Hardware Wizard to the driver. This *should* let it use the driver if it really is a compatible storage device.
• If your system freezes up while communicating with your USB device check and see if your USB port uses the same IRQ as another device and change it if possible.
• If you previously attempted to install a driver on 95 intended for Windows 98 you may need to remove all INF files from that driver in "c:\windows\inf" before this one will work.
• I noticed sometimes after installing/re-installing the driver the drive fails to mount or show up in "My Computer" even after  rebooting. If this happens, try going to the device manager, open the hard drives group, and find and remove the entry for your drive from there. Then remove and re-insert the flash drive and it should be found again.
• USB 1.1 hardware found on older machines is slower than modern USB ports. This is not a software or OS issue.
• If you have many small files to copy to the device, consider zipping them first. This can speed things up and reduce the number of writes to the file system area.
• Regardless of what OS you are running, if your USB ports are all on the back of your computer I highly recommend buying a USB extension cable. Makes life much easier. (And reduces wear on your computer's USB plug)
• There is also a USB system with a generic USB mass storage driver for Windows NT 4 located here (it is part of a bundle for some camera device.) For larger flash drives on NT 4 you may also need the FAT32 filesystem driver located here. (Interesting trick, using this FAT32 driver and the Win2000 bootloader you can boot NT 4 from FAT32)
• And believe it or not, there is even a USB storage driver for DOS! This can also be used under the "a" version of Windows 95.