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hard drive problem

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by randycgaz

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I am/was running windows98.After some big problems I ran the recovery disk. I coudn't get it to boot after that. Something about com.dll or something missing. If I get it booted, will I have any data left on my hard drive, or did I lose everything?

6 replies

by tbragsda

Dont worry too much. Your data is there.

How comfortable to you feel working in DOS? Boot to a floppy and look around. Your files will be there. You can copy them off, but the easy thing to do right now, is just reinstall Win98.

If you reinstall, and leave the partitions as-is all data will be just where you left it. If you?re using an OEM recovery CD, be careful. It may reformat before you even know it.

The questions you need to ask yourself. How much confidence do I have in myability to reinstall without losing this stuff, and how important is it to me. You may want to pay-up for someone else to do it for you.

Final point. Don?t be too worried.

by djent

If you were prompted to confirm a format it is all gone. Backup is like religon, you get after a near death experiance.

by djent

YES! An OEM recovery disk reformats your HD, restores an image of the original OS install. MS's Lic. aggreement with OEMs forbid shipping the retail version of the OS. They do allow distribution of a "restore" disk. The restore disk has a canned utility that reformats the HD and extracts an image of the original OS install to the HD. The restore disk will not allow you to install over the OS as you can with the retail version, you cannot partition the HD, you cannot choose file systems, you cannot extract individual or groups of files. In short it is crippled, the only way to do the things forbidden is to get a retail version. In practice its like buying a Buick and getting a Geo Metro. If you like that concept you will love the terms of the EULA on XP, that includes digital rights management empowered by the Digital Millenium Act. If that doesn't overload your pacemaker go to ucita.com for comming attractions courtesy of the major software Mfg. lobbyists. After this exercise you maysee open source software from a whole new perspective, these are a few of the reasons for MS market leakage, there are many other reasons but thats a different discussion.

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