how big of a thumb drive can I pop into my windows ME computer?

I have a bunch 2 gigs, plus a 4gig.... I notice the stores have ones that are like 8, 12, 16 or whatever. Would they work?

Good question. If Windows Millennium detects a USB flash drive by default, the maximum size is 32 GB. However, because Windows 98 and Me, lack LBA 48-bit support, the maximum size will be as much as 128 GB.

The USB flash drives will still work, but it's unfortunate that vendors no longer test USB devices on Windows 98 and Me.

The 128GiB (137GB) Limit does not apply to USB Devices in general.

It may apply to very old External Hard Drive Enclosures not rated for more than 128GB, but this is a limitation of the enclosure, not the OS.

Windows 9x can support up to 2TiB External USB Hard Drives. When Flash Drives get bigger, I am sure they will work also.

I have patches that push the limit even further to 384TiB.

I've purchased only one brand of thumb drives, TechUniverse. The 2Gb ones say on the back of the package that they're compatible with Windows ME. I've only seen these items being sold at Rite Aid.

I bought another brand, which, when I bought it, I didn't realize it requires some password protection or activation. Needless to say it didn't work on Windows ME. Newfangled junk.

I guess I'll just stock up on these Tech Universe ones. The 2gb ones work great. And there's another 4gb model they make that look's like a key for a key chain. It works as well, though the package doesn't say it.

Edited December 9, 201312 yr by LostInSpace2012

Windows 9x can support up to 2TiB External USB Hard Drives. When Flash Drives get bigger, I am sure they will work also.

I confirm that: my USB 3.0 WD My Passport 2TB is detected and works normally in USB 2.1 mode (= USB 2.0 compatibility mode). It's partitioned internally into 2 partitions of a little less than 1 TB, however, because of the 1 TiB bug (I have, of course, applied a patch for it in my main 98SE machine, but that's not the only 9x/ME machine I service).

As for pendrives, just for the record, both my USB 3.0 64 GB Kingston DT Workspace and USB 3.0 64 GB Patriot Supersonic Magnum are detected and work normally in USB 2.1 mode.

I've never had a 32 gb flash (thumb) drive that didn't work on my win-98 systems. I am leery of buying anything larger because of one instance of someone else's 64 gb drive that didn't work. I would like to know of other people's experiences with 64 gb thumb drives and win-98 (with maxim decim's driver).

I note that the OP is asking specifically about thumb drives - not hard drives with USB interface. For the record, I'm not a believer in nor do I have any use for connecting hard drives to any computer via USB. It's a waste of time to use anything other than their native SATA interface.

I do have yet a third one: a USB 2.0 64 GB Corsair Flash Voyager GTS (the yellow & black one), which is not very fast, despite its name, but otherwhise works all right, too. Of course, since my 9x is Win 98SE, my drivers are Maximus-Decim's NUSB, from the time he started creating them. These experinces I'm reporting refer to NUSB 3.6 (although I may have used the Corsair with v. 3.5, too).

I just plugged in a 128GB Thumb Drive I got on Black Friday. It works fine.

If a Drive requires activation or a Password, it is probably auto-running it's own encryption software, but the Drive can be used if reformatted.

It is possible that a Drive has Hardware Protection, but then it would be non-standard and need a special Driver to be used.

A 128 GB one? What is it? Kingston? Patriot? There aren't many brands that size out there, yet.

A 128 GB one? What is it? Kingston? Patriot? There aren't many brands that size out there, yet.

There are a few brands available locally. I got the PNY 128GB from Staples on sale for $44 US.

Thanks for the heads up! I wasn't aware PNY already offered such big pendrives. Was it this one, perhaps? If so, it seems a real great buy.

Thanks for the heads up! I wasn't aware PNY already offered such big pendrives. Was it this one, perhaps? If so, it seems a real great buy.

No. Mine is an USB 2.0 drive. Mine has en entirely black barrel, not black and gray. It was preformatted with FAT32 not exFat.

The part number is P-FD128BATT03-GE.