Windows 98 wants to reinstall

[Terij]

Hi Everyone,

First off--I know this is a very old computer and system (Sony Vaio Model PCVE308DS purchased in 1998), and yes I will rectify that soon.

The other day when turned on it showed the Windows 98 setup wizard.  My son said it wants to reinstall windows and if I do that I will loose all my stuff (pictures, documents and programs).  Is this true?  And how can I get my stuff off the hard drive so I can save it?  
Thank you all so very much!  T

[GX1_Man]

I have never seen that legitimately appear, although there are some rogue programs that want to get installation numbers or cause other problems. What is the EXACT mnessage or, even better, please post a screen shot.

[Terij]

Thank you GX1_Man for responding,

There is no error message.  When the computer is turned on the windows 98 set up wizard is there---
it says: User Information
            Name: (for my name)
            Company: (for my company name)

            then the back  next  cancel    buttons

that's all.  But if I fill it out again--I'm installing windows 98 again and I don't want to loose my data.

Thanks, T

[GX1_Man]

Can you boot to safe mode (F8 before the Windows logo)? Are there files you need to save? Do you have a Windows CD or a restore CD from Sony to reinstall if needed? Was Windows 98 the original O/S on this machine? What malware protection was being used regularly?

[Terij]

Yes Yes Yes to all.  I think I can boot to safe mode--should be able to, I do have all the original disks.  Windows 98 was the original OS and has been updated.  And Norton was used for virus protection as was spyware.  And YES that is the main problem I want to save my data and picute files.

 Thanks, T

[GX1_Man]

If you can boot to safe mode and function you can copy files to a floppy, if small enough. If networked, you can boot with a Linux Live CD and copy them to a pen drive or across a network to a machine with a CDRW drive.

www.knoppix.com

Download and burn the file as an ISO (with Nero, etc.) to make a bootable CD.

[Terij]

Thank you so much, I think I'll wait until my son gets home from work.  And I will let you know how it goes or if we have other questions.

Thanks, T

[GX1_Man]

Yes, please post back.  

[Terij]

Uh oh it won't let me boot into safe mode.  My son says as far as the computer thinks there is no operating system.

Help

Thanks T

[svenea]

Hmmm.

Looks like Boot sector problem.

(Long time that i have done this, but any other might confirming it)

Boot on CD

Load all drives

Repair system?

You are in DOS mode.

CD /windows
CD / System

Write FIXBOOT or BOOTFIX "Enter"


Try again!

Sorry for any bad english!

// The Swede

[Dead_reckon]

odd, ive never heard of windows 98 doing that, although, i can say i have had some very unpleasant experiences with win 98, 95, 00, millenum (only used once, never again), and xp home, i use xp pro corporate 2002 edition, works great... i dont know if re installing windows 98 is a good idea, i belive the windows site stopped providing updates, go with windows 2000, its as good as win 98, alittle better in some cases, and there are still updates for it

[GX1_Man]

Try booting with a Win98SE boot disk annd when you get to the A:> type in:

fdisk/mbr        

and press enter. If the master boot record is salvageable that will fix it. If not, then you are looking at a Liniux solution as your only hope. Ask if you have any questions about that. it's free and it might save your data.

again if the files are small enough to fit on floppy disks you can copy them off there little by little.

[Terij]

Remmeber I am just trying to save my data and pics so I can put it on a different computer (w/o windows 98               this is what is happening now:

When we started the wizard installation we followed thru putting in the product key code and it then went to out network login screen.  When we try to log in it brings up an install microsoft directx 5.0 and asks for a setup file path---which we do not have, do not know where to get (we've looked on the web--thank goodness for a second computer).  When we try to cancel we get the message: "Explorer
this program has preformed an illegal operation and will be shut down:
 (details:  explorer caused and invalid page fault in module explorer.exe at 015f:00401f31.
               registers:
               EAX=00000000 CS=015f EIP=00401f31 EFLGS=00010246
               EBX=00000001 SS=0167 ESP=0080feec EBP=0080fef4
               ECX=c1746a80 DS=0167 ESI=00000000 FS=0f4f
               EDX=0080fefc ES=0167 EDI=00000000 GS=0000
               Bytes at CS:EIP:
               8b 08 50 ff 11 8b 45 08 50 8b 08 ff 51 08 8b 45
               Stack dump:
               00401ee0 0080fefc 0080ff34 00405cac 00000000
               00000000 00000000 00000001 00404436 00000000
               0059fc0c 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
              

[GX1_Man]

Please see my earliest response. This is not a normal phenomenon. Direct x 5 and asking for a product key code are a BIG tipoff.

This installation is hosed. You need to save your data and format this drive and reinstall whatever operating system you want. This is a hopeless mess!