HELP!!!!!! Windows 98 problem

[bartjones]

I recently upgraded my firewall and during the installation of the update something went wrong, and the VMM32.vxd files were either corrupted or deleted. I was unable to reboot and my startup disc is back home (I'm currently working on a one year assignment in Asia).

As the machine was a little old (PII400 running windows 98) I opted to buy a new machine. I installed the old hard drive in the new machine and copied it's contents onto the new drive. I then wiped the old drive clean thinking I would replace it in the old machine, pop in the windows 98 CD, reinstall windows and give it to a family member or maybe use it as a server when I get home.

I have done that but when I boot the machine it goes to the safe mode menu (i.e. where you can choose normal, safe mode, command prompt etc.) and gives me the following message.



Warning:Windows has detected a registry/configuration error.

Choose Command Prompt only and run SCANREG

The following file is missing or corrupted
C:WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS

The following file is missing or corrupted
C\WINDOWS\DBLUFF.SYS

The following file is missing or corrupted
C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS


Type the mane of the Command Interpreter (e.g. C:WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM



I'm a relative novice when it comes to DOS commands and don't know what to do next.

Can anyone help. The old machine was a little outdated but I'd hate to mothball it because of a windows error. I can't really go to a computer store for repairs as I am a little ways away from a major city and all the computer repairmen I have used since arriving here have not been able to read english. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx in advance.

[The Dude]

You can get a boot disk at bootdisk.com. Sounds like a hard drive problem. I would run scandisk to check for errors.

[jumpingrat]

Well himem.sys is required by windows to start, and I beleive the other 2 are also. Try typing scanreg/restore at your dos prompt and see if you can find an earlier version (date) of your registry. By default there should be 5 dates saved on your old 98 OS. I'm not clear on whether or not you formated over your old OS.

The alternetive is to look around the web for copies of your missing system files and reload them into your system. (Is your 98 disk scratched or damaged in any way?)

But like The Dude said it may be more than a software problem.

Good luck :)

[bartjones]

ok,, I'll try those suggestions but how do I run scan disk if I can't get it to boot? There is nothing wrong with my windows 98 cd. I can't undertsand why it won't boot from the CD when I insert it. Thanks guys.

ps The Dude, hello from a fellow canuck a long way from home.

[bartjones]

tried typing "scanreg/restore". Nothing. It just gives me the same line, "type the name of the command".

[The Dude]

Originally posted by bartjones
ok,, I'll try those suggestions but how do I run scan disk if I can't get it to boot? There is nothing wrong with my windows 98 cd. I can't undertsand why it won't boot from the CD when I insert it. Thanks guys.

ps The Dude, hello from a fellow canuck a long way from home.

If you have or can download the win 98 boot disk it should have chkdsk and scandisk on it. Boot with it and then run chkdsk C: and then scandisk C:.

[The Dude]

Originally posted by bartjones
I recently upgraded my firewall and during the installation of the update something went wrong, and the VMM32.vxd files were either corrupted or deleted. I was unable to reboot and my startup disc is back home (I'm currently working on a one year assignment in Asia).

As the machine was a little old (PII400 running windows 98) I opted to buy a new machine. I installed the old hard drive in the new machine and copied it's contents onto the new drive. I then wiped the old drive clean thinking I would replace it in the old machine, pop in the windows 98 CD, reinstall windows and give it to a family member or maybe use it as a server when I get home.

I have done that but when I boot the machine it goes to the safe mode menu (i.e. where you can choose normal, safe mode, command prompt etc.) and gives me the following message.





Warning:Windows has detected a registry/configuration error.

Choose Command Prompt only and run SCANREG

The following file is missing or corrupted
C:WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS

The following file is missing or corrupted
C\WINDOWS\DBLUFF.SYS

The following file is missing or corrupted
C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS


Type the mane of the Command Interpreter (e.g. C:WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM



I'm a relative novice when it comes to DOS commands and don't know what to do next.

Can anyone help. The old machine was a little outdated but I'd hate to mothball it because of a windows error. I can't really go to a computer store for repairs as I am a little ways away from a major city and all the computer repairmen I have used since arriving here have not been able to read english. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx in advance.

When it prompts you for the name of the command interpreter try typing in "C:\command.com" or "C:\WINDOWS\command.com"
without the quotes. If one of those work you should be able to run scanreg.

[bartjones]

ok, its late here now. I'll try it in the morning.

can you tell me this. If all else fails can I take the old drive out, put it in the new machine and run scan disk that way? (the new machine runs WinME) I know it sounds like a helluva hassle but if it will work I'll gladly give it a shot. Thanx for your ongoing assistance.

[crazyjw1971]

DONT RUN CHKDSK IN WINDOWS 98... IT MAY DELETE YOUR LONG NAME FILES!!!

JUST RUN SCANDISK!!!

[bartjones]

ok, tried both of those commands and nothing. Just shows me the same message prompting me to enter a command.

What about my idea of taking the hard drive out and scanning the disk in the other machine? Even better how about a fresh install of windows while the drive is in the new machine? Won't that replace the files that are missing?

If you can believe it, I am now having troubles with the floppy drive on the new machine so I can't get a startup disk from that website. Thanx for your help.

[The Dude]

Originally posted by bartjones
ok, tried both of those commands and nothing. Just shows me the same message prompting me to enter a command.

What about my idea of taking the hard drive out and scanning the disk in the other machine? Even better how about a fresh install of windows while the drive is in the new machine? Won't that replace the files that are missing?

If you can believe it, I am now having troubles with the floppy drive on the new machine so I can't get a startup disk from that website. Thanx for your help.

If you put the hard drive in the new machine and install from there it will cause problems when you move it to the old machine. Windows will install the drivers for the hardware in the new machine which probably won't work in the old. If it was me I would put the drive back in the old machine, fdisk it and remove all the partitions. Then use fdisk to create a fresh partition and formate it. Then have one more go at installing to see if it was gust an error during the last install. I'm not one hundred percent sure but I believe you have to use a "switch" with chkdsk and scandisk for them to do any thing. That's the"/?" part at the end. If you put /? at the end it will give you a list of all the commands and what they do. During the install windows will ask you if you want to make a boot disk, say yes and you are all set. This floppy should end up with scandisk and chkdsk on it. There is a GUI in windows 98 to create one any time but I don't remember where it is.

[bartjones]

sorry, but as I said above I'm a novice at DOS. What should I be typing when I get to the "command interpreter" message to accomplish all of that?

[YeOldeStonecat]

Originally posted by bartjones
tried typing "scanreg/restore". Nothing. It just gives me the same line, "type the name of the command".

scanreg /restore

That is the word scanreg followed by a space, then a forward slash immediately followed by restore.

Himem.sys loads from config.sys file, and only if typed in config.sys, by default it's not there, Win95/98 doesn't even need autoexec.bat or config.sys to run default, I'm not thinking it's a registry problem though.

At this point, I'd try to "sys" his hard drive, it seems it's missing some critical DOS files. From a boot disk of the same version operating system, sys c:

[The Dude]

Originally posted by bartjones
sorry, but as I said above I'm a novice at DOS. What should I be typing when I get to the "command interpreter" message to accomplish all of that?

The command interpreter message is telling you it can't find one. You need to type in the path to the command.com file. It could be "c:\command.com" or "c:\windows\command.com", no quotation mark's. If that doesn't work you need to use the boot disk. None of the dos commands will work if no command interpreter is loaded into memory. If you boot with a boot floppy and then type the command "sys c:" command.com will be copied to the c: drive and it should be bootable after that.

[bartjones]

managed to make a bootdisk off bootdisk.com using a friends machine. Put it in the old computer. Ran scandisk: no errors found. Ran scanreg. It said it found errors but couldn't repair them.

I took the old drive out and put it in the new machine and copied the contents of my W98 CD onto the old drive. I then put it back in the old machine, booted it with the bootdisk, typed C:\setup and it reinstalled windows. The machine now boots fine with two little problems.

First, the old drive was partitioned into two parts. When I go to Windows Explorer it shows drive D (i.e the second partition) as a hard disk but it shows Drive C (where I copied the contents of the W98 CD) as a CD, i.e the icon is a CD not a hard disk icon. Very strange. When I double click the C drive the Windows 98 CD runs. I'm confused.

Second, it will only give me 2 monitor settings 640 * 480, 2bit or 16 bit color. I used to have a better selection and hate the current look of the screen.

Any ideas? Thanks again.

[The Dude]

Originally posted by bartjones
managed to make a bootdisk off bootdisk.com using a friends machine. Put it in the old computer. Ran scandisk: no errors found. Ran scanreg. It said it found errors but couldn't repair them.

I took the old drive out and put it in the new machine and copied the contents of my W98 CD onto the old drive. I then put it back in the old machine, booted it with the bootdisk, typed C:\setup and it reinstalled windows. The machine now boots fine with two little problems.

First, the old drive was partitioned into two parts. When I go to Windows Explorer it shows drive D (i.e the second partition) as a hard disk but it shows Drive C (where I copied the contents of the W98 CD) as a CD, i.e the icon is a CD not a hard disk icon. Very strange. When I double click the C drive the Windows 98 CD runs. I'm confused.

Second, it will only give me 2 monitor settings 640 * 480, 2bit or 16 bit color. I used to have a better selection and hate the current look of the screen.

Any ideas? Thanks again.

Copying the windows CD to the hard drive was a good idea, but you should have copied it into a directory of it's own. If you look in the root directory C:\ of your C drive you may find an autorun file that was copied from the cdrom. When you double click on the c: drive this file starts the windows CD install automatically. The CD-ROM icon is probably tied in with this. I would start over and copy the CD to your d: partition and run the install from there.

Once you install the drivers for your video card you should be able to use 32 bit color and high resolution.

[bartjones]

yeah, I solved the display settings problem by reinstalling the video drivers.

As for the CD icon problem, let me make sure I understand. You think I should put the old drive back in the new machine, wipe C drive clean of all Windows folders and files, then copy the CD to D drive in a seperate folder like "W98CD". Then boot again with the bootdisk and type C:\W98CD\setup. Am I understanding that correctly? Should that work?

[The Dude]

Originally posted by bartjones
yeah, I solved the display settings problem by reinstalling the video drivers.

As for the CD icon problem, let me make sure I understand. You think I should put the old drive back in the new machine, wipe C drive clean of all Windows folders and files, then copy the CD to D drive in a separate folder like "W98CD". Then boot again with the bootdisk and type C:\W98CD\setup. Am I understanding that correctly? Should that work?

Yes, D:\W98CD\setup. Write now you have the files mixed together. You should be able to do it in the old machine. Copy the CD to D:\W98CD first, then boot with the boot disk and type "Format c: /u" to erase the c partition. Then do your install from D:\W98 to c:\ by typing D:\W98CD\setup.

[bartjones]

alright, reinstalled the way you suggested and its all setup properly now and there are 2 drives in the explorer window. All else is fine except for one thing. I installed a new CD rom in the machine (Samsung 52x model SC-152) as a secondary master and although the machine sees it as drive E, when I double click on it I get the "drive is not accessible" message.

I have installed the drivers for the CDrom and all the audio and video drivers but it won't work. At the risk of being a total pain in the butt, do you have any suggestions? I checked all the connections and jumper settings and everything is fine. Tried hooking it up as a primary slave but got the same result. I'm stumped again. Thanks again.

[The Dude]

Originally posted by bartjones
alright, reinstalled the way you suggested and its all setup properly now and there are 2 drives in the explorer window. All else is fine except for one thing. I installed a new CD rom in the machine (Samsung 52x model SC-152) as a secondary master and although the machine sees it as drive E, when I double click on it I get the "drive is not accessible" message.

I have installed the drivers for the CDrom and all the audio and video drivers but it won't work. At the risk of being a total pain in the butt, do you have any suggestions? I checked all the connections and jumper settings and everything is fine. Tried hooking it up as a primary slave but got the same result. I'm stumped again. Thanks again.

Have you tried to read several different Cd's?
Have you tried the CD-ROM drive in another PC?
Maybe try cleaning it with a CD cleaning disk.

[bartjones]

Have you tried to read several different Cd's?

yes


Maybe try cleaning it with a CD cleaning disk.

its a brand new component


Have you tried the CD-ROM drive in another PC?

will try this evening

thanx

[bartjones]

put it in the new machine (which has the identical CDrom installed) and it ran fine. I think I know what the problem is and can solve it myself now.

Just want to say thanks for your kind assistance in getting the machine back up and running again. I would have hated to mothball it and with your help, I learned alot in the process of repairing it. Thanks again and have a cool Canadian beer for me. I'd kill for a cold Molsons! Take care.