can someone please help me with windows 98 recovery?

[crazee4celtic]

Hi-
I'm hoping someone can help me.  One of the computers at my house is an older Dell XPS 550 computer that I use and which is still running windows 98se.  Last week, I bought an external hard drive to back up my computer and to be able to move information to a new computer when I get one and of course while I was gone over the Thanksgiving holiday, my computer crashed.  The error message says "windows file missing... you must reinstall Windows".  I can't even get it to work in safe mode.  I have some important legal information in there that I need to get out.  Can anyone tell me if I can recover my needed information?  Is there some way I can reload Windows 98 that won't wipe everything out?   Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[alyoob]

Visit this website http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and download the windows 98se bootdisk file and save it on a cd then when windows starts up use the disk to bootup the system. The disk contain information that might fix the problem you are encounting while booting the computer. When you are done please post back the results.

[Broni]

Welcome aboard

Try this tutorial:
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-reinstall-Windows-98-95-t479.html

[crazee4celtic]

Is there any way to save "My documents" folder as well desktop items?  How about Favorites?  The re-install tutorial will delete all of those.

[Broni]

Do you actually have Windows 98 CD?

[crazee4celtic]

Yes, I have the Windows 98 CD that came with the computer. 

[Broni]

Start your computer, while holding CTRL key. Boot menu will appear. Pick DOS mode.
At DOS prompt, type in:
chkdsk /f (<----watch for "space")
Hit Enter.
Have your CD ready.

[crazee4celtic]

ok... thank you.  what exactly will this do?
Is it some type of overwriting?  or ??

[Broni]

No. If it'll find corrupted Windows files, it'll ask you for Windows CD to replace bad file with good file.
Be patient. It may take a while.

[dahlarbear]

Broni, can you confirm that?  I thought you were to only use "scandisk" on a Win9x system.  I thought in the Win9x world "chkdsk" was only for DOS Fat16 or something (and perhaps won't handle FAT32 or "long file names"). 

At any rate, aren't you thinking of the "sfc" (system file check) program as the one to use to check for missing/corrupt files?

[patio]

I don't believe there is sfc in Win98.

You're safest bet to grab that data right now would be to remove the Win98 HDD and hook it up in a working machine as a slave drive then copy/burn the data you need.
After that is done if you still want to attempt to repair the Win98 install let us know. You need a basic understanding of DOS commands and it doesn't always retain all your data which is why i suggest doing the above first...
Let us know.

[dahlarbear]

I don't believe there is sfc in Win98.

Yes, there is.  "sfc.exe" lives in the "C:\Windows\System" directory, but I just realized it is a 32-bit program, not a 16-bit program; so I guess it can't be run under control of a Windows 98SE boot disk.

[patio]

I just fired up my Win98 all in one to see and i don't show sfc.exe...
Win98SE on a Gateway Profile unit.

[soybean]

Yes, there is.  "sfc.exe" lives in the "C:\Windows\System" directory,

I agree; I've confirmed that on an eMachines 466id running Win 98SE.  Can run it via Start, Run, ....

[patio]

Where's mine doggonit ? ?