windows 98se will not read data on fantom 2.0 usb external hard drive

I have installed a fantom 2.0 usb external hard drive to my computer running windoows 98. It “see’s” the hard drive and will let me asign a drive letter to it, but when I click on the drive icon it will only say it is not formatted would you like to format it now. I know the drive is full of data because on my work station running windows xp it simply plugs into the usb port and works fine. I have tried to see if the firewire used in windows xp might be the problem because all the data was saved at work in a windows xp environment, but so far no info seems to satisfy the problem. Lastly I have loaded the fantom drivers as well and the problem persist. Help would be greatly appreciated.