Thanks OErjan

Here's the output of: dmesg | grep usb

usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 00:50:50 Aug 9 2004
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1800, IRQ 11
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1820, IRQ 11
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1840, IRQ 11
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame# 836
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x46d/0xc00e) is not claimed by any active driver.
usbdevfs: remount parameter error
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse] on usb2:2.0
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame# 1732


the output of: dmesg | grep sd

Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Current sd00:00: sns = 70 6
sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
sda:<6>scsi singledevice 2 0 3 0
sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4


the output of: dmesg | grep ub

ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
usb.c: registered new driver hub
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.0-1, assigned address 2
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.1-1, assigned address 2

I can write to the USB external floppy drive although it doesn't appear on the desktop. My plan is to write the data to the jumpdrive, put it in a Windows 98SE and save the data there then figure out the best version of Linux to run from the Laptop. Knoppix is quite impressive.