Windows 98 Backup Supported Media Types

The native Microsoft Backup utility in Windows 98 provided users with built-in tools to safeguard data across a range of popular contemporary storage technologies. Developed in partnership with Seagate Software, the utility supported several distinct media types, including magnetic tape drives, removable cartridge disks, standard floppy diskettes, local hard drives, and shared network resources.

Magnetic Tape Drives

Tape drives were the primary target media intended for the Windows 98 Backup application. The utility natively supported various tape formats and interfaces, provided compatible Windows 98 device drivers were installed:

  • SCSI and IDE/ATAPI Tape Drives: Digital Audio Tape (DAT/DDS), 8mm helical scan, and high-capacity linear tape formats connected through SCSI or IDE buses.
  • QIC and Travan Tapes: Quarter-Inch Cartridge (QIC) formats, including QIC-40, QIC-80, QIC-3010, and QIC-3020, as well as Travan drives (TR-1 through TR-4).
  • Parallel Port Tape Drives: Select external tape drives connected via standard or bidirectional parallel ports.

Removable Media and Cartridge Disks

Windows 98 Backup recognized high-capacity removable magnetic and optical storage drives, treating them either as standard disk volumes or dedicated removable storage:

  • Iomega Zip and Jaz Drives: Both 100 MB / 250 MB Zip disks and 1 GB / 2 GB Jaz cartridges, connected via parallel, IDE, or SCSI interfaces.
  • Magneto-Optical (MO) Disks: Standard rewritable optical cartridges commonly used for archiving during the era.
  • SuperDisk (LS-120): High-density 120 MB diskettes operating in compatible drives.

Standard Floppy Disks

For smaller backup sets, the utility supported traditional 3.5-inch (1.44 MB and 720 KB) and 5.25-inch (1.2 MB) floppy diskettes. When a backup exceeded the capacity of a single diskette, the program prompted the user to insert sequential disks to complete the set.

Local Hard Drives

Users could save backups directly to internal fixed hard disks formatted with either FAT16 or FAT32 file systems. The utility created a single container file (using the .qic file extension) on a secondary local partition or secondary physical hard drive.

Network Shares

Microsoft Backup allowed users to designate shared network directories as the backup destination. As long as the client had write permissions over the local area network (LAN) using protocols like NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, or TCP/IP, backup archive files could be stored directly onto remote Windows 95/98, Windows NT, or Novell NetWare servers.