What you were told is wrong--you have to purchase SE. More info below.

Why don't you invest in a new computer now? Rather then spend a couple of
hundred bucks getting an upgrade and external drive, take a look at this:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/prod...=19&l=en&s=dhs
Your old PC has little to no value and you could use the hard drive from it
for back up.

MS can no longer sell W98 disks as an initial purchase so your best bet is
to try to find another source; however, supplies of W98 are becoming very
limited. Go to http://www.pricewatch.com, scroll to the software section,
click on Operating Systems and click Windows 98. They may have listings on
boot up floppy disks, CDs but no license, a license but no CD, OEM versions,
W98 and W98SE CDs, update from W98 to W98SE only and so on. Pay ATTENTION
to what the listings say or you may end up with something you don't want or
need. You can also check on EBay or other auction sites. Be aware that
only paid support for W98 still exists. Here's some info about the various
types of W98SE CDs:

RETAIL FULL INSTALL: This CD will either upgrade W95/98 to SE or you can
install it to a blank hard drive.

RETAIL UPGRADE INSTALL: This CD will either upgrade W95/98 to SE or you can
install it to a blank hard drive; however, when installing to a blank drive,
install will ask to see the qualifying system (i.e., W95) disk(s).

OEM FULL INSTALL. This SE CD is designed to be installed to a blank hard
drive; however, there is a good possibility that you can trick it into
upgrading. For info, go to:
http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/upgrade.html Be aware that if you buy
an OEM disk, it might be customized for installation on a particular
computer; however, this will probably be primarily with a used disk.

UPDATE CD: This CD will only update a functioning copy of W98 to W98SE.
When MS sold them, they were $20 and came with a ProductKey. Some venders
were selling them and advising customers to use the W98 ProductKey which may
or may not work--don't get stung.

RECOVERY CD: Some companies will brand an OEM CD and call it a recovery CD.
You should avoid these unless it is the exact recovery CD you are looking
for. Many recovery CDs will only install on the equipment they were
intended for.

--
Regards

Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo

"Jeff" wrote in message
...
Windows 98 has worked very well for me since I bought my
computer 5 years ago. It has served me well through grad
school. Now I find however that I cannot run my PDA or any
external HDs with anything older than 98 SE...I need to
upgrade.

Can this upgrade be done without erasing my HD or is this
a major OS change? I have so much of my grad. school work
on this computer that my old Zip drive back-up is simply
not practical...thus one of the reasons I wanted to back-
up with an external HD. This external HD I thought would
also make it a lot easier to download all my important
files to a new computer I need to get in the near future
(I would still use my current computer for other purposes).

I was told by someone at Western Digital that they thought
they had gotten Windows 98 SE by simply maintaining their
updates (which I too have done but see no indication that
my OS has been upgraded during this process).

Any and all help is deeply appreciated...thank you!
-Jeff