Cannot start WIN 98se

[poptom]

How I managed to screw up a perfectly good computer, I don't know. All I did was open it up and installed a fan speed control, but I sure must have disturbed something else while I was snaking wires through.

Windows would not finish loading no matter what startup options I tried. Always "error reading drive C". I tried "scanreg /restore" and it halted at the "checking files" screen.

I took an old Win 98 C drive off the shelf, plugged it in and it started OK. Next, I connected the problem drive as slave (now D) and I could could read it fine in Win Explorer so the drive is physically OK.

Then I opened bootlogs for both drives to compare them side-by-side. They are both about the same until about a quarter of the way through when the problem drive stopped at "DEVICEINIT=VCACHE", not followed by the success line.

If I can get it started with a floppy, can I re-install the OS on top without disturbing the existing settings and apps?

Or what?

Thanks.
Tom

[ghettoside]

if I remember right, you could reinstall 95 like that, but prob is if files were corrupted it didn't get fixed, seemed like if a sys file was present it wasn't copied.
I'm not sure if win 98 will go over itself, but if you let it install to dir C:\windows.001 (default inst if win is already present) you'll get all the progs & settings you had. then you can go into dos and delete the old win files & dir. did that once.
if you don't have a ton of apps I suggest just doing fdisk and reformat, do a fresh install.

On 2nd thought, you could try editing sys.ini, remove the vcache lines & see if that works, start in safe mode & edit that file.

[mnosteele52]

Yes you can install 98 overtop itself without losing anything. Wait until Norm comes around and he can tell you more than you would ever want to know about 98, he will get you straight.

:D :cool:

[Norm]

Poptom, if you boot to safe mode you should be able to use ghetto's advice and remove the vcache settings from system.ini. You either put those settings in manually or you used a 3rd party app like cacheman to do it. Try running "cacheman" or whatever you used to undo the vcache. Win98 doesn't need any cache management. Or Start>Run sysedit to edit those lines out.

You might want to try running scandisk too. Possible corrupt file(s)

Yes, you can (if you need to) reinstall 98 over itself and keep all settings, programs, registry intact. When asked if you want to save system files during install say yes. And make sure you have the product key handy. Sometimes you're asked for it, sometimes not.

[poptom]

Can't get into safe mode. I should be able to start up with my loose HD and edit sys ini. I'll try it tonight. Don't remember what I used for vcache. It wasn't 3rd party.

This is my secondary computer and I hadn't gotten around to backing it up. :cry:

[ghettoside]

what happened, safe mode won't start or you can't get win start up options screen? that vcache shouldn't keep you from starting in safe mode.
if you got a boot disk, and it's got edit.com on it, you can boot up in dos and run edit.com, then select sys.ini file and remove the vcache lines. if needed you can copy edit to your boot disk from dir windows\command

[poptom]

I get the options screen. Safe mode stops loading at vcache and I get the "Windows protection error, you need to restart" message.

I can probably use the DOS option to edit. I'll let you know later.

[Norm]

If you can boot into a 98 startup floppy you can type:

edit c:\windows\system.ini

It will open for editting. From there once you make the edit, use the ALT key (then arrow down key) to bring down the menu to save it.

Instead of deleting those lines referring to vcache, you can type: REM infront of the line and windows will disregard that line.

That's REM, plus a space.

[poptom]

I don't see "edit" on the floppy but it must be there somewhere.

I recall doing a lot of remming with 3.1. I believe a semicolon does the same thing.

Won't get to it until this evening, though.

--Tom

[TonyT]

The 'edit' program is in the cab file on a startup disk and it loaded into the ram drive.

ASPI2DOS.SYS
ASPI4DOS.SYS
ASPI8DOS.SYS
ASPI8U2.SYS
ASPICD.SYS
AUTOEXEC.BAT
BTCDROM.SYS
BTDOSM.SYS
COMMAND.COM
CONFIG.SYS
DRVSPACE.BIN
EBD.CAB (IT'S IN THIS CAB FILE)
EXTRACT.EXE
FDISK.EXE
FINDRAMD.EXE
FLASHPT.SYS
HIMEM.SYS
mouse.exe
MSINPUT.INI
OAKCDROM.SYS
RAMDRIVE.SYS
README.TXT
SETRAMD.BAT
SMARTDRV.EXE

[Norm]

The win98 startup disk has a bunch of commands in the .cab file on it. It extracts them to the ramdrive it creates, and adds the ramdrive to the 'path'

All you have to do is use the line above, it will open the file to edit it.