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Thread: win 98 boot proccess

  1. #11
    Webius Designerous Indiginous
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    Okay.. can you get to the startup menu? Push F8 many times till you get there. Once in choose Logged mode. Once it goes as far as it can, rebbot to floppy, lookin the drive for bootlog.txt and post it. If you can't get into the the startup menu, I would suggest booting with a 98 boot disk, and then copy all the system files over to your c: drive. The system files should overwrite any bad files. But try the bootlog first.
    x

  2. #12
    Jaded Network Admin nebulus200's Avatar
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    Sounds like your bootup system files (command.com, etc) have been corrupted (did you lose power or shut off your pc without shutting it down ?) The error message is essentially telling you that you have no OS on the disk it is trying to boot from...

    Warning, I have been fortunate enough over the years to avoid having to do this, but here is what I would try:

    Might want to try a get something like scandisk on your floppy and then when you boot up off of the floppy run it. If you are fortunate, it can recover the FAT.

    Might want to consider copying your system files from the diskette (make sure it is same version of OS or you are in for a headache) over to c:\ (command.com, etc) (I would make this a last resort).

    Might want to consider putting your harddrive in another win98 computer and then running scandisk on it from there...

    Either way, good luck.

    Neb
    There is only one constant, one universal, it is the only real truth: causality. Action. Reaction. Cause and effect...There is no escape from it, we are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace is to understand it, to understand the 'why'. 'Why' is what separates us from them, you from me. 'Why' is the only real social power, without it you are powerless.

    (Merovingian - Matrix Reloaded)

  3. #13
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    Not sure if you can do this but (I think I remember doing this at one point in life but I am getting old so what can I say) after booting the system to dos can you sys the C: drive. just like you would sys a floppy drive.

    you might have to do what M$ calls an "in-place" upgrade. run the installation of Win98 over the top of the exsisting installation to reinstall. It should (mind you... should) as long as you do not format the drive maintain the registry files and your software may not have to be reinstalled. I have done this in the past but mind you it was a LONG TIME AGO...

    I believe like neb it is a problem with the system files rather then a BIOS issue. If it where BIOS you would not be able to boot the system with a boot disk... and read the c drive. It might be a bad sector on the hard drive where the boot files are and runnign scandisk might help this but more then likely it wont becasue scan disk will make the secotr bad and you still wont be able to read the data from that sector.

    coping the files is also another idea I might try before I did the inplace upgrade. but as stated they have to be the exact version of the OS to work otherwise you will get the "Incompatible DOS version" error.

    edit another thought about neb's suggestion

    Actually if you are booting from win98 boot disk you can run SCANDISK from the RAMDISK that is created at startup
    My other Computer is a 4000 node Beowulf Custer

  4. #14
    The Iceman Cometh
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    You mentioned that you have fdisked the drive, yet you can't boot to it. Have you formatted it, adding the system files on? The computer can't boot to the harddrive with the boot files command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys. To get these files, boot using a floppy disk and then type format c: /q /s (/q for a quick format and /s for the system files). If you tried to install from the Windows CD without these files, on the first restart, you'll receive the error you are receiving. Hope that helps.

    AJ

  5. #15
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    BEFORE you format your C: Drive.

    Are you using a boot disk that was created with Win98 SE? If so, there's an easy way to put on the Command.com files again and make the C: drive bootable once again, without formatting. At the prompt type in sys C: so your screen will look like:

    A:\>sys C:

    If you have a proper boot disk, this will copy the system files over to the C: drive and make it bootable, at least into DOS. This will NOT format the drive and destroy any information. If you cannot boot into windows at all after this then you may need to re-install windows. Again, a format is NOT necessary.

    I hope I was able to get this to you soon enough before you trash the info on the drive. If not, hope you have backups.

    At any rate, good luck!
    \"It is a smart man who can quote others, but it is a wise man who can come up with his own, and it is a wise@** that came up with this one. \" -yours truly

  6. #16
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  7. #17
    Jaded Network Admin nebulus200's Avatar
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    To explain a little bit why I was suggesting scan disk. I suspect that the problem isn't that a sector has gone bad on the disk, but rather there were probably some files that were open when power was lost. This can cause a corruption in the file allocation table or even in the master boot record, either of which can lead to this problem (the first one only if certain files were lost). The reason I suggested scan disk is that it also checks for anomolies in the MBR and in the FAT. Since Win95 I think there is at least one backup to the MBR and if this is the case, scan disk should be able to repair it for you without causing any loss of data.

    Before you start trying to copy system files over existing things (which may or may not work if you have hosed your MBR or FAT), try a scandisk. If it is of no help (which is a distinct possibility), sys is the way to go (rather than trying to do it manually).

    Neb
    There is only one constant, one universal, it is the only real truth: causality. Action. Reaction. Cause and effect...There is no escape from it, we are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace is to understand it, to understand the 'why'. 'Why' is what separates us from them, you from me. 'Why' is the only real social power, without it you are powerless.

    (Merovingian - Matrix Reloaded)

  8. #18
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    Thumbs down k

    salutare sa mai scrieti si in romana mai romanilor
    speedos

  9. #19
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    Originally posted here by littlefro
    thanks X i tried that and then restarted and got the same thing. fdisk is recognzing the drive and dos is recognizing it too. but it still wont boot to windows
    I've seen this problem before, one of the essensial startup files is corupted, you'll want to do boot into dos, change boot order (in the bios) to Hard Disks first then cdrom (case you have to boot from there) then a: and do an overlay install (just installing windows ontop of windows it'll replace system files) and that should fix the problem while keeping all your programs and drivers.
    Alternate realities celebrate reality. If you cant handle the reality your in, then you wont be able to handle the one your attempting to escape to.

  10. #20
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    asa pentru noi
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