The upgrade to windows 98se is quite simple.. just get the disk and put it in the cd drive.. the on-screen instructions are self-explanitory. I'm not sure what the driver issues are concerning the 98 vs. 98se but I do know that 98se is noticably better.. I think the 98 problem with flash drives is that it was never designed for the capability. Windows 98se disks should be simple to get from a friend, or maybe even from a computer store in your area. I honestly don't think there are any ways around to useing your current operating system to back up the flash device's files.

Sorry.

Best of luck.