I have an old 98 system and the usb mouse works. I plug in my usb thumb drive and it won't respond. This system doesn't have an ethernet connection, so do I need to get drivers on a cd from another computer to load into this system for it to work?

yes it does need drivers if it will work and it's a pretty big if.

here's all y'all want to know about win98 and usb drives.

http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/usbmsd98.php