random reboot,shutdown during scan & now cant boot

[skon]

I have been going thru the threads for the last 2 days but could not find answers & hence I created a new thread. I'm really sorry if its already answered

First the system started with random reboot. Later I ran virus scan using Computer Associates EZ Armor.There was no virus detected. Then during subsequent scans, the system would shutdown. Now the system does not boot at all....not even in safe mode. When I try to run in safe mode, I get errors like
"Following file is missing or corrupted: C:\ESSOLO.SYS"
Error in CONFIG.SYS on line 1
"Following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS"
"Following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS"
"Following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS"

It later asks me to specify the location of the command interpreter COMMAND.COM

I started the system with a boot disk & it looks like there is no "windows" folder under c: at all. I'm not able to access D:

I have windows XP Professional. Please help me & I dont want to reformat since I have lot of photos on the system

[patio]

Are you sure you are running XP ? ?
Did you leave an old Win install on this machine perhaps ? ?

patio.

[skon]

Well, I'm running xp for sure. However I do get options to choose xp or win98 at startup.

[patio]

I thought so...Can you boot into Safe Mode and or Win98? ?
If so copy your boot.ini file and post it here...

patio.

[skon]

No I cannot get the os running. Any option such as safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, safe mode with networking etc does not work. After the initial check & I think just before the os loads, the sytem restarts.

I tried changing the RAM. Could it be because of this?If so is there any way to fix this?

[patio]

You might have put RAM in ther which is not matched for your MBoard...return to the original RAM chips and try again.

patio.  

[skon]

Yes, I did put the original ram immediately. These problems are with the original ram in place :'(

[patio]

If you cannot boot either OS as is you're best bet would be to hook it up as the only drive as master on IDE2 of a working machine and copy the data you need.
Reason for this is that a repair installation of both 98 and XP have no guarantees that your other data will be intact.

patio.  

[GX1_Man]

Format and reinstall is the ultimate solution. You have two buggered operating systemz and booting the only somewhat functional one from the D drive......

[skon]

Thanks everyone for your advise. I'l hook up the hard-drive to another working laptop & copy the data. Can anyone point me to instructions on how to do this:-) I'm really dumb with this & every instruction will help.