Can I have help moving data from an old Windows 98 desktop PC to my new Windows 10 PC?

First of all, what drive on the device is the drive letter E: associated with?

Why did you do both at the same time (one at a time is best practice, especially on and old outdated OS that is no longer supported (nor able to be updated past were it was when you stopped using it or updating it when updates were still available)).

At this point try shutting down then unplug the CD drive and the thumb drive then startup the device, then do a restart and give it 10 or fifteen minutes to stabilize, then plugin one of the peripherals (either the CD drive or the thumb drive, your choice) then let me know what happens. What do you then see in My Computer, System properties (Device Manager?) etc..

Let me know.

-Richard

Drive E: is the built-in CD-RW.

I foolishly tried doing them both when I found that the CD drive was working OK to read the driver files and I didn't want to miss my opportunity. I guess it was dumb. I also screwed up by not having Copied each other them and Pasting them somewhere that I could navigate to later if I needed to install them. 

Was that silly double clicking thing that I did to them the right way to have installed them or at least, should it have?

When you say "no longer supported (nor able to be updated ...)", is that why the choice to get the driver from Microsoft Update on the New Hardware Found box just does nothing when I had clicked it last week?

I'll do your Shut Down, unplug stuff & Start it up, wait 10 minutes and report back with what I see at My Computer > right-click Properties (System properties) > Device Manager tab.

****** ADDED WITH EDIT *****

I just Copied both driver files off of the CD after putting it back in and I Pasted them to the Desktop on the old Win 98 machine so I can get them from there tomorrow if they're needed again.

****** ADDED WITH ANOTHER EDIT *****

I couldn't wait until tomorrow so I Restarted & waited 10 minutes or so. When I plugged in the USB hard drive, at My Computer > right-click Properties (System properties) > Device Manager tab, I see that same yellow ? mark. Should I do what I'd mentioned in my last Reply that I'd seen it offer when I click on the yellow ? mark to {Reinstall Driver]?

I'll wait for your Reply so this is the last Edit I'll do on this one. I hope it's OK with you that I've done this. Tell me if I shouldn't. :-)

Today, I started by plugging the Iomega CD-RW player into the Windows 98 Gateway in a USB port. It didn't

Plug-N-Play (be recognized, installed, and function).

Instead, it popped that Add New Hardware Wizard when I plugged it in. After I let it Search at some E:\Driver\Win9x that it had pre-filled in the bottom box and it didn't find anything it could use.

I searched online using my newer DELL and I found the driver for the Iomega CD-RW for Windows 98, which is win98usb2drv-w32-x86-1020.exe, and I downloaded it.

I found it at https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=1117226 under

File Name

win98usb2drv-w32-x86-1020.exe (15.1 MB)

which is a tiny blue link that's down a ways, just above the big green button. I say all that since they love to hide things to make you unwittingly click on stuff that seems like it's what you wanted when you went to that site.

I then Saved that file onto a CD that already had the USB Drive driver file on it which is nusb33e.exe.

I put that CD into the CD drive in the old Gateway that has been problematic and today it was working fine. So, I double-clicked each of them which had me agree to licensing & then they installed. Both said that a Restart would be needed but I only Restarted after doing the 2nd one. It had told me to remove any discs and let it Restart.

My thoughts were that if this all works, I could now just Copy/Paste to the USB Thumbdrive so I won’t even need to use CDs or the Iomega CD player anymore.

Cool, that Add New Hardware Wizard thing didn’t pop when it Restarted, so it must at least know of those 2 devices that it finds are plugged into the USB ports having drivers installed.

So, that’s good, I guess.

The problem is though that after a Restart, as I’m in My Computer with the Iomega CD-RW and the USB Thumbdrive plugged into USB ports, no new devices are shown. So, how do I use them?

If they’d show in My Computer, I could either Copy data onto that same CD or onto the Thumbdrive or both. I think I’d just use the Thumbdrive since it would be so fast & simple.

So, how do I use it?

****** ADDED WITH AN EDIT ******

I just went into System Properties on the old Gateway and under Other Devices it looks like it has the Iomega CD-RW and that USB Thumbdrive and they both have big yellow ? on them. They are called CDDVD523216E23-B and TransMemory which I've seen somewhere as I've been messing with the thumbdrive. I clicked on both of their yellow ? and they popped boxes saying Device Status: The driver for this device is not installed (Code28) to reinstall the drivers for this device, click Reinstall Driver.

So, I guess I should try doing that but I'd like to hear back from you before I do, just in case you've got something I should know. I guess it will probably want me to navigate to the driver or something like that. It had seemed like it knew what to do with both of the driver files earlier when I'd double-clicked on them.

I apologize for my putting anything unnecessary on here but maybe my mentioning my having those Iomega CD-RW (DVD-ROM) disc drives could bail me out quickly without my needing to buy anything since I do already have that USB Thumbdrive driver burned onto both a CD & a DVD and yet I can't seem to find a single 3-1/2" floppy disc in my pile to Copy it onto, so I would have had to buy a box of 10 on Amazon (I couldn't find floppy discs anywhere on the Fry's site).