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Reinstalling Windows 98

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URGENT REPLIES NEEDED!
I have a user who keeps getting critical system file errors during boot up. He aslo has a non functioning floppy drive, so I can't use a boot disk.

I tried to boot his PC about 40 times and 90% of the time one of the messages below keep coming up:

Whle initializing device NTKERN
Windows protection error. Restart Windows

Cannot start because vmm32.vxd was not found or is damaged. Reinstall

Windows detected registry error....

(and the system halts at that point)

So I told the user he needed to have windows reinstalled...but he had 10Gb of MP# he doesn't want to lose.

Can I just reinstall the system files? If so, give me some listed details and refer me to website with instructions... I want to save his files...

11 replies

by arg cio

Sounds like someone tried to run an upgrade, and it didn't work..

Anyway, first, try running Win98 setup over the top! Start Windows, insert the CD, and run;

(CD Drive letter):\win98\setup /v/e

(these switches tell it not to show billboards, and don't make a boot disk.)

If that doesn't help, check to see if the bios is able to boot to CD-ROM. Insert the Win98 Cd, and run setup. You can try deleting the Windows directory, and see what happens.

And the last possiblity... his harddrive is FAILING! Get another hard drive (20 or 30 GB minimum) Install windows, and install the other drive as a primary slave (or secondary Master), and copy the MP3's to the new drive.

Good luck, and I hope this helps!

by saxman642

Update:

When I visited the user again and tried to boot to windows...it won't even get past the start menu! For that matter DOS started crashing!!!

So there was no choice but to wipe out his drive with all his MP3s...(when dos worked that long!)

FDISKed it into 3 logical drives (4, 5 & 4.5)and used a recovery disk to reinstall windows (by the way, the floppy is working normally now!)

Thanks for your suggestions...

by ipjunkie

Or take his hard drive out and out it in another machine, back up the MPx's.

I have seem this when the registry is EXTREMELY corrputed, and you need to reinstall Windows. his hard drive may still be ok, but Windows is gone.

Also, why don't youput in a working floppy drive? That will enable you to boot up, delete Windows and the software on the machine without destroying the important flies he wants to keep. Just put them in a directory and delete all other directories and files, but leave that one intact, then reinstall Win98.

by zaphodtwin

This trouble has several ways, I think:
1) Change at last the FDD and try to recover system with Recovery FD;
2) But, perhaps, the system is rather dead than alive - then remove Win-directory at all and reinstall, but previously connect this HDD to other system as a slave drive to backup any important data from this dir to reliable media - CD-R(W) is the best choice; perhaps, you need to delete Program Files directory too, however, if you have ALL installation media for programs that were located there. And next time make thorough list of all installed programs & so on.
3) If you suspect that HDD starts to be corrupted then you have just try to backup any recoverable data from it and, ALAS!, have to throw it as far as possible, previously fully disassembling it (if it contains really very classified data).

Good luck!!!

by cajundon

First of all remove the defective floppy drive, and install a new floppy drive. Then if the customer or you created a Start Up Disk to correct any problems with Windows 98. You might be able to correct the problems. If it can not be corrected, reinstall Windows 98 with the Boot Up Disk in the same directory of the previous directory.

Good luck and have a great day.

Don Thibodaux, Computer Technology Consultant.

by kenalmoore

All of the above are good answers! Replace bad FDD. The NTKERN sounds like someone tried to install NT 4.0!!! Take the hard drive put into another PC as a slave on 2nd controller, boot into bios( should see it)( You have to use FDISK #5 to get second drive)
Boot into the primary drive OS and copy files from the ailing hard drive. Installing tthe OS on the ailing drive could destroy the MP3 files. Make sure to use 20 Gig or better on good system. good luck.

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