This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I have the Windows 95B, that came on a new Gateway computer, way back when. I have two USB ports on the back. When I plug in a flash drive, the computer doesn't see it. But when I boot up with the flash drive plugged in, I get a B drive error message. It's a 16G flash drive I am using. According to the BIOS page it is equipted to handle plug and play devices on the USB ports. Activating the plug and play option in BOIS makes no difference, of course, flash drives weren't around then. Is flash drive memory compatable, or not with this?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Answer accepted by question author
It is a fat 32 flash drive. I think I have this problem resolved. I had this same issue with another computer since I made this post. By upgrading it to a newer operating system, the computer immediately recognized the flash drives. That tells me that it was a software issue. The driver needed was not included in the Win 95 package, as flash drives were not in use then.
Here's part two of the USB question. I learned computers made in the late 1990's and early 2000's had USB ports, but they were USB 1. They were designed for plug & play devices, such as printers, scanners, etc. Their slow speed was more than adequate for these devices at the time. USB 2 came along in early 2000's. USB 2's are 40 times faster than USB 1. Both port designations are physically interchangable.
I borrowed a USB wireless adapter from another computer to try. My ISP is cable based. It works, and I can get on the internet, but boy is it slooooow. Dial up when I had it was much faster. I occasionally get a windows message telling me to get a high speed USB controller, which means, as I am told, to upgrade to USB 2 for the wireless USB. There are two options as I see it. Both will work. First option is get a PCI wireless adapter card. It has it's own antenna, and takes one of the slots in the back of the computer tower. This will get the high speed for the internet. Cost is under $20. Second choice is to get a PCI USB adapter card. It has four USB 2 slots, and costs about $15. It takes a slot at the back of the tower also. Plus I will then still need to purchase a USB wireless adapter. It would be nice though, to have an extra spare three USB 2 ports left, in case I ever needed them. The two original equiptment ports will still be USB 1.
Does anyone have any experience upgrading to any of these devices, or any opinions?
The specs for this particular computer are, Gateway Performance 550. 550 Mhz, 20 G hard drive and recently upgraded to the max of 384 Meg of RAM, Windows XP O.S. Due to system limitations, I cannot go higher than XP.
Thank you for sharing this information with us. It is much appreciated.
Shawn, I don't know. It's a Silicon Power FIRMA F80 16GB. There is nothing on the drive or package telling me. I will have to do some research to find out.
What file system does the flash drive have? Is it FAT32?
