iPod USB driver for Windows 98

Apple iPod is the greatest MP3 player. It offers quality sound, ease of use, and doubles as a mobile hard disk drive - USB and FireWire.

Everything is easy for Windows 2000 and Windows XP - iPod comes with proper drivers which makes it fully functional, but without them you can still use iPod as a removable disk drive.

Problem starts with Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE - iPod can be used only as FireWire device. No USB support.

Since I don't have FireWire on my home Windows 98 machine, I started to search for some way to use iPod with USB port.

After several trial and errors I finally succeeded! I have taken reference Microsoft driver for USB Mass Storage Drive, added some keys into .inf file and that was it! iPod download for windows 98 was ready.

• 4G iPod Shuffle ("small one") NEW!
• 3G iPod Nano ("with Video") and iPod Classic support is still in beta! That means that the driver won't make any harm to iPod but sometimes it doesn't work. If you have "device not formatted" message, initialize it with iTunes, not by formatting under Windows.
• 2G iPod Shuffle ("the clip")
• 2G iPod Nano (the one with a metal case)
• 5G iPod ("with video")
• iPod Nano
• iPod Shuffle
• 4G iPod ("with ClickWheel")
• iPod Mini
• 3G iPod

Setup

1. Donate $5 (or more) to charity fund of your choice then contact me by e-mail. Don't forget including the name of chosen charity fund in your message.
2. Download driver:
    iPod-PSP-win98-v28.zip (if you don't have WinZIP, here's self-unpacking version: iPod-PSP-win98-v28.exe)
3. Unpack it. win98-iPod-PSP directory will be created
4. Connect iPod to your computer. If nothing happens check your cabling or reboot iPod.
5. When prompted, select "Search for updated driver (recommended)"
6. Check "Specific location" and uncheck remaining checkboxes
7. Select location you have unpacked driver
8. Wait for a while. Now you should have additional drive visible on your system.
9. Before unplugging iPod you should always eject it. To do that, double-click My Computer icon, right-click iPod disk drive and select Eject on pulldown menu.

Uploading music

Unfortunately, you cannot use Windows 98 with Apple iTunes software, but there are alternatives:

• YamiPod - simple and multiplatform.
• Winamp with iPod Plugin - supports Shuffle! (Remark: Winamp 5.22 has iPod support built-in, but it seems to be incompatible with Windows 98 - do not enable it during installation!
• RealPlayer v. 10.5 and newer. Free version is OK.
• SharePod - a great program for downloading mp3 back from iPod to other computer
• EphPod - doesn't work with 5th generation iPods (those with video)!
• vPod (old versions)

Important remarks

Regarding iPod Shuffle

If you need to initialize your iPod Shuffle and you cannot use iTunes - now you can use iPod shuffle Database Builder, a smart little program made by Martin Fiedler.

Regarding all iPods

If your iPod was never used before you can get "Drive not formatted" message. Don't try formatting iPod with Windows tools! To format iPod correctly you have to use Apple iPod Updater software. This software works only under Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
So you'll have to find some Windows 2000/XP machine, install software from CD you got with your iPod (or download it from here) and Update (or Restore) your iPod.
After that you can uninstall software and enjoy iPod under Windows 98.

Regarding iPod Touch and iPhone

iPod Touch and iPhone are not supported since that devices doesn't have mass storage device capability. It could be possible to make a driver for photo access and for charging, but I didn't get requests for such limited capability driver.

Above information suits Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE. If you have Windows ME, there's a page devoted to using iPod: Guide to iPod and Windows ME

More info on Microsoft reference driver - Q257751

Return to All Win98 drivers page.

Official address of this page: http://mho.republika.pl/ipod/ipod.html

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For questions and fixes mail to win98.drivers@gmail.com