Half Windows files vanished - what to do????

[grahambell]

Was doing some automotive web surfing on Saturday and suddenly couldn't go back to previous page. Computer has done a bit of this, and normally just restart and it's OK.

However, this time I got the start menu, a warning that there was a registry/config error, and finally told Win.com was missing so Windows wouldn't load.

Rigged HD as slave to old HD and seem to be able to access files OK, though have noticed a few damaged/corrupt.

Considered copying win.com from one HD to other (both win 98SE) but then noticed loads of files are missing. Most folders seem to be there, but hardly any individual files.

No idea how this happened, but can I simply re-install windows over what's there or copy from old HD to fix problem, or is it a HD format job?

Thanks

[grahambell]

Hello - anybody??

[Jinx]

You should be able to just reinstall windows (from the CD) over the top of the existing setup (assuming the HD isn't knackered). You'll probably keep all the data but you'll probably have to reinstall your applications.

[ThePassenger]

grahambell said:

Hello - anybody??

Ok. Win98 going bang and lots of OS files 'missing'. Sounds a bit weird to my mind; I've seen 98 do some really odd things but never eat itself. So I with that in mind.

Boot the compy up and tap drat... is it F8 to get the boot menu up? It's either that or tap CTRL. Select "Command Prompt Only" this will drop you in to DOS without loading any Windows stuff, hopefully the system has enough left to do this.

type scandisk and press enter, the DOS version is a bit different but all the options are there Tell it to check over the C: drive and to do a "check drive for physical errors", then go away for a while as this will take a long time.

If it starts marking blocks as 'B' go buy a new drive, they're cheap enough to be affordable and bad sectors only ever grow.

Wait for it to complete and if everything is fine, your clear to reinstall Windows. 98 will, unfortunately, blast the living hell out of it's registry so the programs you've got installed will no longer work, even copying C:Windows from another fresh install will probably do this I'm afraid.

Before going about a puka reinstall, get your internet connection going again and download something like Stinger, it's a quick A/V scan that hunts only for the most common viruses, let it rip through all your connected drives.

[grahambell]

Thanks for that. Looks like best best is get new HD and just use old one as slave drive for file back-up.

Did virus scan just a day or so before problem and nothing showed. Having said that there was a suspicious file in the IE temp folders that I couldn't get rid of, though that had been there for several weeks.

[ThePassenger]

grahambell said:

Thanks for that. Looks like best best is get new HD and just use old one as slave drive for file back-up.

Did virus scan just a day or so before problem and nothing showed. Having said that there was a suspicious file in the IE temp folders that I couldn't get rid of, though that had been there for several weeks.

Although if your using Win98 just remember it won't let you do a single huuuge partition on a new drive; I believe it gets prissy around the 40Gb mark from memory, so you'll have lots of smaller partitions on a 100Gb - 250Gb drive. Just a gotcha to keep an eye out for.

[Marc W]

My sisters Windows 98 pc did exactly the same thing. I suspected the hard disk had filed but I reinstalled windows for her anyway and all seems fine. I've done a scan of the disk and no errors.