Computer Crashed and Now Won't Boot

nhandy007nhandy007 NC
edited March 2004 in Hardware
Hello everybody, I was seeking some advice on getting my computer back up and running. A couple of days ago I left going all night to record a television program and the next morning when I tried to get it to boot, it wouldn't. My Goback software uninstalled itself, so I can't revert back to an earlier time. When the computer tries to start windows 98 from the hard drive, the Windows 98 Startup Screen Appears. It has 6 options:
1. Normal
2. Logged
3. Safe Mode
4. Step By Step Confirmation
5. Command Prompt Only
6. Safe Mode Command Prompt Only
And below these choices it says: "Warning: Windows has detected a registry/configuration error. Chose Command Prompt Only and run SCANREG." When I run SCANREG it says that "It found an error in your system files and was unable to fix the problem." Then it says "Try deleting some files to free up disk space. If that doesn't work you need to install Windows to a new directory." I have only used around 10 gigs of the 80 gigs on my hard drive.
Once this happened I ran SCANDISK in normal mode and it found tons of errors and fixed most of them, and I then ran it in thorough mode, but it didn't seem to help either.
When I try to boot in Normal or Safe Modes the computer can't find the WIN.COM file to boot.

I would appreciate any advice on this matter and thank you for your time.

Here are my computer specs:
FIC AN11 Stealth Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 1900+
Crucial DDR PC2100 RAM
PNY Verto Ti200 64MB Video Card
IBM Deskstar 80GIG Hard Drive
Creative Soundblaster Live 5.1 Soundcard
Generic Modem
Leadtek Winfast XP2000 TV/FM Tuner
Creative Inspire 5100 Speakers
Samsung 955DF Monitor
and sadly Windows 98

Comments

  • citrixmetacitrixmeta Montreal, Quebec Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    i have a feeling you filled up your drive.

    1st thing i would do is remove that hard drive, and slave it into another pc.
    u can backup everything you need that way, and check the diskspace.

    then pop it back into your original pc, and see what happens.
  • verselloversello New
    edited March 2004
    Boot to the command prompt; My memory is hazy with Win98 so bear with me:

    - Have you tried running SCANREG with the /fix option? eg - scanreg /fix

    - Check C:\Windows and verify if WIN.COM exists. If not, you will have to use "extract.com" to restore the file. More info on usage @ http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;129605
  • nhandy007nhandy007 NC
    edited March 2004
    I know I haven't filled up the drive. Before I recorded the program, there was about 10 gigabytes of data on the drive out of the 80 gigabytes it can hold. I recorded the 2 hour program in a VCD mpg format so it should have been around 1 gigabyte.
  • nhandy007nhandy007 NC
    edited March 2004
    I tried adding the \fix to the SCANREG command, but it only gave me the same message that it found a error and couldn't correct it. I will try restoring the files next.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2004
    If you have the HDD space and it sounds like you do....

    Boot to dos then go MD DRIVEC
    then xcopy /e /c /H /k *.* DRIVEC

    That'll effectively backup your entire C Drive into that directory.

    Then Re-install windows ontop of itself it should do a repair of sorts. That should get you back to a bootable and mostly back to normal stage. Check things out and if everything seems fine you can delete the DRIVEC folder. If not delete everything off your HDD accept DRIVEC and do a clean install.
  • nhandy007nhandy007 NC
    edited March 2004
    Thanks for the replies kryyst. I believe what you have said will work, but could you explain how to backup the C Drive a little more, I'm somewhat confused with what you said. Thanks.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2004
    Ok boot up the computer with a dos boot disk or when it's booting up do an F8 so you get to your 1.normal 2.logged menu.

    Then if you can boot into safe mode and then open up a dos prompt. If you can't even boot into safe mode then reboot and use the command prompt option

    Then you should be at your C:> prompt.
    Next type in MD DRIVEC that will make a directory called DRIVEC you could call it backup whatever...DRIVEC is just what I normally do when doing this kind of stuff (or DRIVED whatever depending on the drive letter).
    Anyway now you will have a new directory called DRIVEC and you'll still be at your C:> prompt.

    Now issue the command xcopy /e /c /h /k *.* DRIVEC
    This command will copy everything directories, files, hidden files, system files etc... to your new directory called DRIVEC

    This will take awhile.....Once it's done re-install windows into your C:\windows directory and it'll start a pseudo repair and should find already installed programs and keep them there. If it works about 50/50 chance you'll be back up and running and won't need to re-install most of your software. Though you will have to install any windows patches and things of that nature.

    If it doesn't work, or doesn't work to your satisfaction. Then reboot back into dos and just use the deltree command to start deleting everything off of your harddrive accept for that DRIVEC directory. Oh delete the files at C:> last and the windows directory second last.

    Once everything is deleted you'll have a non-functiong machine that can't boot because it won't have command.com or an OS on it anymore. Just a few hidden files and this DRIVEC directory.

    After that is done you'll need either the windows boot flopy or a win98 bootable cd. Stick it in and do a 100% clean install of windows and everything else.

    Now you have this DRIVEC directory. In there you'll have all your data, so emails, favorties save games, saved downloads all that shit. Just copy it back from DRIVEC to whereyou normally had it on your harddrive.

    Once everything is back to normal (through either method) you can delete the DRIVEC directory.

    Oh it's better if you can get to the dosprompt through safedisk then off the boot drive or regular command prompt since it'll preserve long file names and not turncate them all. ie a file called 'This is a long file.doc' will stat that and not become 'This~1.doc'
  • nhandy007nhandy007 NC
    edited March 2004
    I'm working on backing up Drive C. The computer booted into the command option. I created the DRIVEC directory and did the xcopy /e /c /h /k *.* DRIVEC command, but it says
    Invalid Switch - - /c
    0 File(s) Copied
    I entered it in exactly like xcopy /e /c /h /k *.* DRIVEC, but every time this error message comes up. How can I get around this or am I entering the command wrong? Thanks.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2004
    don't use the /c option...it's an option that tells it to continue even if there are erros... It works in 2k and XP. It may not work in win98.

    if you want to check the options do xcopy /? that'll tell you all the switches. The ones you want are....

    /e - recursive copy of folders and files including empty folders
    /c - continue copying even if errors
    /h - copies hidden and system files
    /k - copies attribues without resseting read-only

    Those are the options you want just check to see if any of the letters have changed or aren't available.
  • berkoberko NY
    edited March 2004
    at the dos bootup command prompt there is another switch that can be used with scanreg


    scanreg /restore


    this lists the last 5 registry configs that were saved, which you can choose from
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