Windows 98 will not boot up

[Vinny]

I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on a problem I seem to be having.

Basically Windows will not load in either normal mode or safe mode.

A message shows about 7/8 files are missing comes up on startup, along with a 'BEEP' sound. The last two of them files I can see as missing are (as the others have scrolled from the top of the screen):

C:\ WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS
C:\WINDOWS\IFSHELP.SYS

Also a message saying "Cannot find WIN.CON, unable to continue loading windows"

And another message saying:

"Warning: Windows has detected a registry/configuration error. Choose, Command prompt only and run SCANREG"

When I try to run SCANREG at the command prompt it comes up with 'bad command'

Last night I was using my PC without any problems and in the background Zone Alam was running some sort of check. I left my PC for a bit and when I came back, I had a white/grey screen......no desktop. I re-booted my PC and ever since then it has not been able to boot back into Windows 98.

I also tried running SCANREG from within the Windows/System directory, but again the same error message 'bad command'. I also tried booting up with my windows bootup disk, but again no luck with that.

Does anyone know what else I can try to get my PC back to how it was?

Thanks in advance :)

[Tekboy]

I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on a problem I seem to be having.

Basically Windows will not load in either normal mode or safe mode.

A message shows about 7/8 files are missing comes up on startup, along with a 'BEEP' sound. The last two of them files I can see as missing are (as the others have scrolled from the top of the screen):

C:\ WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS
C:\WINDOWS\IFSHELP.SYS

Also a message saying "Cannot find WIN.CON, unable to continue loading windows"

And another message saying:

"Warning: Windows has detected a registry/configuration error. Choose, Command prompt only and run SCANREG"

When I try to run SCANREG at the command prompt it comes up with 'bad command'

Last night I was using my PC without any problems and in the background Zone Alam was running some sort of check. I left my PC for a bit and when I came back, I had a white/grey screen......no desktop. I re-booted my PC and ever since then it has not been able to boot back into Windows 98.

I also tried running SCANREG from within the Windows/System directory, but again the same error message 'bad command'. I also tried booting up with my windows bootup disk, but again no luck with that.

Does anyone know what else I can try to get my PC back to how it was?

Thanks in advance :)

Sounds like a bunch of stuff in your C:\Windows\Command folder is either gone or corrupted. You can try running Setup from your Windows 98 CD, in an attempt to "patch" your current installation of Windows. Let us know if more help is needed. However, be sure to run a thorough Scandisk on that C drive.

There are other things you can try, but without knowing your level of "expertise", I would try this one. Particularly if you are getting "Bad Command" messages on routine programs. Yeah, start at the above paragraph.

[Vinny]

Sounds like a bunch of stuff in your C:\Windows\Command folder is either gone or corrupted. You can try running Setup from your Windows 98 CD, in an attempt to "patch" your current installation of Windows. Let us know if more help is needed. However, be sure to run a thorough Scandisk on that C drive.

There are other things you can try, but without knowing your level of "expertise", I would try this one. Particularly if you are getting "Bad Command" messages on routine programs. Yeah, start at the above paragraph.

Thanks for you reply.

I'm just a little concerned that if I run Setup from the Windows 98 CD, it may end up overwriting data which I have on my C drive.

What other options do I have?

[Tekboy]

Thanks for you reply.

I'm just a little concerned that if I run Setup from the Windows 98 CD, it may end up overwriting data which I have on my C drive.

What other options do I have?

Actually, as long as you don't format, and if you make sure you put windows in the same existing folder (normally C:\Windows) you will not lose any data, and in your case it is a pretty good chance that you will go back to "business as usual". The advantage of doing it this way is that Windows will be able to use the last Registry.

Alternatively, if you are any good at DOS, you can make a list of the missing files and their usual locations, and extract them from the CD to their proper folders. This would let you use the Scanreg /restore command from a command prompt. If you are able to do this, be certain that you use a registry from before the trouble occurred.

Hope this helps.