Win 98 - re-install or fix system files?

Greetings all,

I am working on a system that would not boot to start with (win 98) it would give a blue screen error on startup, even in safe mode.

So, I ran a scandisk on it, just out of curiousity. Well, it seems that more than 50 of the system files in the system dir were messed up. It tried to repair them, but now each of these is 1,474,560 in size (taking up a lot of space).

There is not enough free hard disk space to re-run windows setup.

My question is this: Is there a quick and easy way to restore all of these system files? Like a program that will scan each one and replace it if needed?

I need about 150MB more free space. The drive is only a 1.2.

I really don't want to have to format and re-install. This PC has tons of data that is not backed up.

Thank you,

Al

Depends if its a time sensitive job or not. if not, note down each one of the files you need to replace and use extract from dos to re-extract them from the windows setup disk.

If it's time sensitive, grab another hard drive, copy all the data to it. format and re-install. hook up the drive with the data you saved, then copy it back over and re-install the programs.

both will take some time, but option # 2 is generally quicker and involves less time in front of the system. also there is no guarntee that option 1 will work, especially if some of the system files have been updated by windows update or other programs.

i don't normally do this, but i have done it a few times and it is a quick fix when it works. try deleting the windows directory and reinstalling windows. you'll then need to reinstall all the programs, but the data files will still be there.

Eventually it sounds like you need to reformat and start over. Save your important work and start over. This is the 'if all else fails' step.

Before I did this I would also check for viruses. It can give you false information like this.

Also I would run system file checker and see if any files need to be replaced. Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Microsoft Information>System File checker.

IT will prompt you if any files need to be replaced and ask you to insert your disk.

Good luck
Orangman

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Orangeman:
<strong>
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Also I would run system file checker and see if any files need to be replaced. Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Microsoft Information>System File checker.

IT will prompt you if any files need to be replaced and ask you to insert your disk.

Good luck
Orangman</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">i don't think he can get into windows to run the SFC. at least thats what i got out of his post. but i do agree that the format and reinstall would be a good idea.

Sorry, you're right. I forgot he couldn't get into windows to run Scandisk.

Is there an error message attached with the BSOD? OR is it just a blue screen? IF it looks a kernel32.dll message you might try to reinstall Window from DOS or SAFE Mode using a boot disk. This would save you the time and trouble of reformatting. At this point I don't think you have much to loose.

That's my two cents. Take it for what it's worth.

I grabbed this from another post. If yo think it might be just an Internet Explorer issue you might download this and it will eliminate Internet Explorer. It might save you the trouble of reformatting.

<a href="http://www.98lite.net/download/IEradicator2001.zip" target="_blank">http://www.98lite.net/download/IEradicator2001.zip</a>