I have an old harddrive with 98 on it (98 wouldn't boot due to a virus). I put it in an external case to rescue my saved data from it. The external case is hooked up to my XP laptop via usb. I can get to all of my data except the files saved directly on the desktop.

Is there any way to access the files and folders that are saved on a 98 desktop?

Have you tried going C:/Documents and Settings/User Name/Desktop? of course the drive root and user name will be different then above, im not sure if this works on windows 98 though.

I tried it, and the desktop folder is empty.

Are these files that are saved on the desktop for all the users? In which case, you may find them under C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Desktop

In 98 the desktop files are stored under \windows\desktop

98 does not have the Documents and settings folder that XP does

If you had a virus and didn't get rid of it , remember to scan everything before you open it up on the new drive
Just a thought
Mark

I already scanned the drive for viruses. I went into \windows\desktop and it was empty. Is there anywhere else I should be looking?

Are you are sure that you are looking at the right drive?
Everything that 98 has stored on the desktop is stored in the C:\windows\desktop folder except for the system icons

Have you looked under /Windows/Profiles/<User Name>/Desktop on your old drive? That is where I find files saved to my desktop on my Win98se box.