win98 woes

[Guest]

@#$%^& win9x... Cannot boot win98 1st edition on my thinkpad 600. Not even in safe mode. Boot log file error message: numerous missing/corrupt windows directory files reported. dir in windows directory reports o files, o bytes. Now the fun begins. Run Norton Disk Doctor from emergency floppy. Now Windows directory “repaired”, and all subdirectories visible/accessible, except System directory. Still won’t boot windows ofcourse. So close yet so far!!! Any suggestions? Can anyone save me from a full reinstall?

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

From DOS mode try running "scanreg /fix" (without the quotes of course).

<font color=green>I wonder...what is the speed of gravity!<font color=green>

 

[Guest]

seem to be missing that utility. Have the windows version; scanregw, but not msdos. Can I get if out of a cab file on the windows98 install cd?

 

[Guest]

I copied scanreg from another pc and ran it on the notebook. Still missing System directory-but thanks for the suggestion. Not looking good at this point but i'm not quite ready to giveup.

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

I'm presently using WinME and the file is in the Windows\Command directory and another copy in Windows\Options directory. I ran the utility when I was using Win98, but I can't remember exactly how I did it, except that I know it was in DOS mode.

There is a Microsoft article on this at
<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q183/8/87.asp" target="_new">http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q183/8/87.asp</A>

<font color=green>I wonder...what is the speed of gravity!<font color=green>

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

Another idea is that HDD may be developing bad sectors. Have you run scandisk on it?

<font color=green>I wonder...what is the speed of gravity!<font color=green>

 

[Guest]

It seems that there are more missing subdirectories in the windows directory. I could not find c:\windows\command or c:\windows\options directories. Ran scandisk on c: and it found a suspicious amount of "lost" data ~5 megabytes worth; 15,599 lost clusters in 4,380 chains. But it can only delete this data or save it to a file. I'm a little leary of doing this. If this lost data contains the missing directories & files do you know how I can view the file and repair/restore the directories from that file?



<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jdfranks on 08/04/01 11:36 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

That is significant. It will not hurt to save it to a file, but you will not be able to restore the missing directories.

It is possible that your HDD is developing bad sectors and failing. I would run scan disk using the "Thorough" option. If you have bad sectors, then you will need to replace the HDD. Hopefully it is still under warranty. The reason I suspect the HDD is the problem is because you were not installing software or working with the computer when the problem developed.

If it passes the scandisk and does not have bad sectors, then I would reformat the HDD and try to reinstall Windows. But I would keep my fingers crossed. When a HDD starts to fail it can be very frustrating.


<font color=green>I wonder...what is the speed of gravity!<font color=green>

 

[Guest]

Thanks a lot for all your help. I'm in the process of doing a through surface scan. I'll let you know how it turns out ~1.5 hrs to go.

 

[Guest]

Ok Here's the final chapter to this tale. The surface scan of HDD reported no errors. I discoverd that the Norton Disk Doctor utility had copied and renamed the missing windows subdirectories to the root directory c: although it never reported doing this...nice. I created a new system directory and xcopy'd /s the files back into it. My attempt to boot into Windows got past all the boot initiation files but failed when attempting to load the windows system driver: atmsys.drv. So I look into the system directory and find that although the file is present, it is corrupted along with about 200 other various system files. At this point, swalling a hard dose of reality, I surrender to the full reinstall and head off to the local computer show to look for a better backup solution. Maybe it's time for Windows 2000 and another 192mb of ram. Thanks again for all the suggestions. It was a frustrating but good learning experience!