# windows 98 crashed can only deal in dos



## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

My sister and I both have the Compaq Presario 5834. My computer has always worked fine, but hers has had problem after problem. We finally found out that she had a program that was causing the problems, and deleted it. Her computer worked wonderfully for about 10 days, until her husband downloaded another program off of the internet. Anyway it shut her down and brought her back up in factory settings. I wasn't sure what had happened so I just went over and shut it down. The problem was that now it won't come back up at all. It stays in dos. So I inserted her windows 98 cd and ran scandisk and after two days we finally got it to go through scandisk without any errors, but guess what, now it says that we need to run scandisk for windows because it has an"invalid long filename" error. We entered through that because I didn't know how to fix it and it didn't give any options and then hit enter to run Windows 98 from the cd. Unfortunately the Registry Repair Results throw out an error saying - error in system files - delete files to free up disk space on windows drive. The problem is I don't know how to do this. Can anyone tell me step by step directions to fix this, and if you can is this even going to work? Please help me. Thank you.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

[tsg=welcome][/tsg]

Just out of curiosity what was the program that was downloaded??

Try running system file checker,,go to start and run then type sfc.exe and hit ok, that might work. What is the error exactly?


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

The program was a napster look alike. I don't think it was reputable at all. 

I can't even get into start. I am stuck in dos period. It doesn't go anywhere except the windows startup menu - in dos. There are two errors 1) correct the directory entry scandisk has found one or more invalid long filenames in the file allocation table run scandisk for windows to correct error.
2) Registry Repair Results: Error in system files. Delete files to free up disk space on Windows Drive. You may have to install Windows to a new Directory.

Do you think it can be fixed?


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Maybe,,Try to type in 
C:\>
then type
scanreg /restore
Make sure you get a space after scanreg, hit enter, then choose one of the dates to restore but not the oldest one,,but try to pick a date before this happened.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Okay, I just tried this c:\> it brought up C:\> so I put scanreg /restore - this just brings up BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME. Is there anything else I can try?


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Try Scanreg /fix

Are you sure you got it typed in right?


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Okay, I think I am doing it right but I went over and did it again and the new one you gave me and it also give me bad command or file name. Maybe I am missing somethings, because I have tried several dos commands that should work that don't. I am not sure what to do here. Is it possible that something wiped out some of the windows files? Is there a way to restore windows files?


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Try C:\>dir
Is anything there?


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Okay, I did what you said and a ton of things ran through but at the very end of the file it said Restore so I hit c:\>dir restore and this is what came up:
C:\>dir restore

Volume in drive C has no label
Volume Serial Number is 37AA-DE69
Directory of C:\Restore

. 01-19-03 7:32a
.. 01-19-03 7:32a
MSBatch Inf 2900 04-23-99 10:22p

1 File(s) 2900 bytes
2 dir(s) 9549.66 MB free

C:\>

So I thought I would try to do

C:\>dir scanreg

It came back

FILE NOT FOUND
What do you think?


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Well the actual name is rb001 thru rb005.cab.

By the tons of files and folders you saw pass by at least means the drive has not been erased. You did try to run scandisk.exe??


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Okay, I went over and tried dir rb 001.cab and I tried this all the way throught to rb 005.cab and it says file not found

Scandisk.exe does not run on the C drive but if I type it in on e: like this scandisk.exe/all it works. I have it running the surface scan now because everything else we fixed over the last two days.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Sorry I was so long getting back to you,,would you give us an update?


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

The only thing I did is posted right above your last reply. Scandisk.exe does not run on the c drive but will run if I type /all. That is the only way to get scandisk moving. Also I checked for files rb 001.cab all the way through to rb 005.cab and it says file not found. I don't know if I did it right though.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Go to the other computer,, go to the contol panel,,add/remove programs and click the startup disk tab,, insert a clean fresh floppy and click the create button,,then take the disk and insert it in the bad computer. When you get to the a:\> type in 
sys C:
and press enter when you get that it should say system transferred.

If that does'nt work type this and press enter 
fdisk /mbr 
What Happens?


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

I just created the boot disk and I am running over to the other computer right now I will write back in about 5 minutes. Thank you for taking so much time for this.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

No problem,, good luck. I may be visiting other sites for a few minutes but go ahead and post the result.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Okay, I inserted boot disk and got to the a drive. I typed in sys c: but it just shot out bad command or file name. So I typed in fdisk/mbr but it just looks like this:

A:\>fdisk/mbr

A:\> 

This is what it did right after I typed in the fdisk/mbr command


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

A space after fdisk. then hit enter and reboot.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Okay I am not sure I did the right thing but I put in fdisk /mbr
enter and then I shut the computer down to reboot. It brought up the Windows setup file I chose the WITHOUT CD SUPPORT option and then it started up it said that it was running and it may take a little while. When it did come back up it said THE DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY TO E:


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Is E your hard drive? Power off,, Remove the floppy and see if it will start.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

No E: is not my hard drive c: is or at least was. I will go and see if it powers up. B right back.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

I'll be here a little while longer,, 30 minutes anyway.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

I turned it off and it brought up the windows options. 1, normal mode I chose this option but it won't go further than the blue Microsoft Windows screen.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

try the safe mode. do you get to windows then?


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

nope it didn't work


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Ok do you get the step by step choice? Try that and hit enter and watch to see if you can catch where it fails to load properly. Its important that you read each step so you can see which one fails.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

As soon as I hit 4. step by step it came up with the bootlog but right above that it already had an error it said WINDOWS HAS DETECTED A REGISTRY/CONFIGURATION ERROR. CHOOSE COMMAND PROMPT ONLY, AND RUN SCANREG. But I tried this and it shot out Bad command or file name.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Its asking you to either run scanreg /fix or scanreg /restore.

That Letter E coming up threw me,, I wonder if it thinks that E is the hard drive. Just for the heck of it you might try running those two commands from E:\> But I really don't think it will work. I sent a Private message to a friend who has had a lot of experience with this kind of thing,, don't give up we'll get it.

I have to go to bed for now but I will check and see if he has posted in the morning. And I will sleep on it too.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Thanks and have a great night. Your awesome!


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

You have a lot of faith let me tell ya,,but I do appreciate the compliment.

Just hang in there. We'll do our best to help you get it back with all the files. If I did'nt have to work tomorrow I'd stay on but I have no choice you have a gnight too.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Oh and whatever you do do'nt run fdisk,,its really hard to get through that on a compac.


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Dannyiell, when you are at the c:\> prompt, try entering each of these bold lines:

*cd windows\command* (are you now at c:\windows\command> ?)

*scanreg /restore* (does scanreg run now?)

Just for clarity, I'm putting a ^ where the spaces go:

cd^windows\command
scanreg^/restore


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

ROLLIN' ROG: The last time I checked scanreg /restore didn't work at all. I don't have access to the computer anymore tonight but as soon as my sister gets up in the morning I will run over there and try that. Thanks a bunch.

BANDIT429: I did try to run both commands on e:, and just to be on the safe side, d:, but neither one worked. Thanks again. Lots of faith!


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

I did what Rollin' Rog told me and scanreg /restore is still not working but cd windows\command worked just as he said.


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

What you are saying is you got to c:\windows\command but when you ran scanreg /restore you still got a bad command or filename message?

Try this from a c:> prompt

*dir /a /s scanreg.exe*

space after dir after /a and after /s

Do you get any hits? Let's say you get a hit in *c:\windows\options\cabs* -- then enter:

*copy c:\windows\options\cabs\scanreg.exe c:\windows\command*

there is a space after copy and after scanreg.exe in the above command line

Then run scanreg /restore again


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

I tried to run dir /a /s scanreg.exe with your spaces but it just says FILE NOT FOUND.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Did you do this from the C:\>


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Yep and I did it from c:\windows\command>


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

I just happened to read this so if it don't work out don't be disappointed, its not something I have tried, but it won't hurt.

Boot with your floppy and get yourself back to the C:\> and type this and hit enter.

scandisk /LfnCheck

A space after scandisk.


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

If you have Win98 on the system you are using, you could copy it to a floppy, put the floppy in the drive on the problem system and at the a:> prompt enter:

copy a:\scandisk.exe c:\windows\command

then remove the floppy and enter:

c:\windows\command\scanreg.exe


and see if you can get the option to restore a recent registry.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

BANDIT: Okay I tried scandisk /LfnCheck it just said BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME

ROLLIN' ROG: I tried copy a:\scandisk.exe c:\windows\command and it said FILE NOT FOUND. Is my boot disk bad? Maybe there is another way to make a boot disk from my computer that I can put on her computer. I went to my computer, right clicked on a: and ran format. Then I clicked on full and start. Is this right or not? Please let me know.


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Ok  make your bootdisk in the control panel.. add/remove programs Icon and click the startup disk tab and click create. use a new floppy if possible.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

I got some advice that I am not sure about trying will you take a look real quick and see if this could hurt anything?

Look in the C:\windows\temp folder and delete all the files there.

type 
del c:\windows\temp\*.*
and try
deltree c:\windows\temp

answer n if it asks you to delete directory c:\windows\temp

then download a dos based anti-virus from f-prot.
What do you think?


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

I don't know that much about viruses,, I'm just learning. But by you not getting past the first step in the step by step loading process it sure seems really strange that you can do almost nothing in dos.

I would try the new bootdisk and give a few of Rollin Rog's commands first. It appears that all your being asked to do is delete the temp files,,which should'nt hurt anything. Also F-Prot is a company I have used before for an antivirus, but my opinion is extremly limited there as I did'nt keep it long enough to know if it was good or not.


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

I guess Rog wanted you to copy the file *scanreg.exe* and not scandisk.exe.

You can also copy the scanreg.exe file directly from Windows if the current computer's OS is Win 98. Insert the floppy in the drive, then go to My Computer->C:\->Windows->Command. Copy the file scanreg.exe. Remove the floppy.

Start the other computer, once at the C:\> prompt insert the floppy and type -

*copy a:\scanreg.exe c:\windows\command* [enter]

Now try the *scanreg /restore*.

Sorry if I missed something here, what happens if you boot to Normal Mode? Any error msg?

BTW, I dont think deleting the contents of the Temp folder will help anyway(starting windows...). But if you dont need any files in the Temp folder, you can definetely delete it.


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Thanks, yes scanreg.exe was what I was meaning; that's what runs DOS scanreg /restore

Don't know how I got scandisk in there, sorry for the boner.

What's confusing me is that if scanreg.exe is not present, I'm not sure how a registry could have been replaced. As I understand it Scanregw.exe must run scanreg.exe to do that.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Okay I did the boot disk the way you said and tried what rollin rog said but it still says file not found. 

On the off chance that the advice I told you about worked I did try to do del c:\windows\temp\*.* and deltree c:\windows\temp but the first one said no file found and the second one said bad command or file name. I did try dir and a lot of things ran past including config sys and config win, setuplog old, setuplog txt, scanreg.ini, scanregw exe, runhelp cab, win ini, win com, win386 swp, winfile exe, winhelp exe, winhelp ini, and many more but every time I put a command in it would bring up 0 files found. Whats up with that?


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

PVC9: Okay when I try to log on with the 1)Normal option it just sits at that blue windows 98 screen. Same thing happens if I try safe mode. It just won't go anywhere except dos. 

ROLLIN ROG AND PVC9: My sister locked me out of her house so I cannot go over there anymore but please send as many suggestions as possible so I can try them tomorrow and let you know. 

I was also told that her drive is damaged and that she may have to install a new hard drive. Do you think that is a likely possibility?


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Danyiell, you said you copied scanreg.exe to c:\windows\command and received no error message? It should be there then. Or was the "file not found" message returned when you tried to copy it? If so then you didn't copy it to the floppy first. If it was successfully copied, what happens if you enter these lines:

*dir /s scanreg.exe* (enter)

*cd c:\windows\command* (enter)

*dir scanreg.exe* (enter)

is scanreg.exe found either way?


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

ROLLIN ROG: I don't think I copied scanreg I think I copied scandisk. I am not sure but I will have to try it again because I don't have anything written about it. I am so sorry. I will try it as soon as I can.


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

I dont think the del/deltree files would be present in a bootdisk. Copy the files manually in Windows itself from the C:\Windows\Command folder.

Did you copy the file *scanreg.exe* in Windows? Thats the important file not del/deltree.

Also you didnt ans my q about Normal Mode.

I know you've tried it all but did you type -

*dir/s scanreg* [enter]

at the *C:\* prompt?

Rog,
Guess you're right. I'm not sure how that file got deleted/removed in the first place.

edit : Slow typing


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

If you do get scanreg /restore to run, verify the date of the registry files it finds, because you don't really want to restore a very old one if you have a choice. Another way to check this is to enter these lines from a c:\> prompt.

*cd c:\windows\sysbckup

dir rb**

You "should" get hits for several rb....cab files; these are the backups. If none are there, then scanreg.exe has been missing for a long time.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

PVC9: I'm sorry I thought I answered you. When I try to boot up windows in normal mode it just locks up on the blue windows 98 screen. The same thing happens when I try the safe mode. 

The closest thing I have come to running dir /s scanreg is dir /a /s scanreg.exe. This didn't work but I will try the other one if you think it will run. 

ROG AND PVC9: Now should I just try to copy scanreg from the Windows 98 cd or is that even possible. Where should I go from here. I will try all of your commands but what if they don't work?


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Are you on a Win98 computer now? You will find scanreg.exe in c:\windows\command 

You can just navigate there using Windows Explorer. Right click on the file and select copy. Or even easier, do a Find Files for it.

You can copy it to any floppy, it doesn't have to be a boot floppy.

It's also on the CD and can be copied from there, but that is more complex.

Try running the last commands I gave you to see if the rb* cab files are there and what their dates are. If none are present or are not recently dated and you have a Win98 installation CD for the system, I would just do a reinstall. You will probably need your ProductKey to do it.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Okay I copied Scanreg - scandisk - boot disk - do I need to copy the registry? or did scanreg take care of that?


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

You can't copy the registry from one system to another. You just have to hope that you have valid backups on the problem system. 

Please make sure any registry you try restoring (if there is one) is a recently dated one or you will make things worse than if you just do a reinstall.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Alright you guys here is what is going on:

I copied scanreg.exe from my computer onto a disk and I copied it onto hers, and it worked. I ran dir /s scanreg and it showed 

SCANREG.EXE 165,502 4/23/99 10:22PM
1 FILE 165,502

I typed C: \WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM and it said

CONFIGURATION SPECIFIED IN YOUR CONFIG.SYS FILE IS TOO LARGE FOR MEMORY. REMOVE SOME DRIVERS AND TRY AGAIN.

Next I tried c:\windows\sysbckup and it worked but then I typed in dir rb* and it said NO FILE FOUND

I tried scanreg /restore and it goes to the Blue Microsoft Registry Checker screen and that is where it stays. It freezes. 

I tried scanreg /fix and this brings up an error :

THERE IS NO EXTENDED MEMORY DRIVE LOADED ON YOUR COMPUTER. MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE A HIMEM.SYS FILE ON THE DISK FROM WHICH YOU ARE STARTING YOUR COMPUTER, AND THE RESTART USING COMMAND PROMPT ONLY. DEPENDING ON LOCATION OF HIMEM.SYS FILE, YOU MAY NEED TO ADD A LINE SUCH AS DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.SYS OR DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS IN CONFIG.SYS FILE ON YOUR BOOT DRIVE.

Okay I do not even have a clue as to what I am supposed to do there.

So this is where I am now. Any suggestions? Thanks again!


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## bandit429 (Feb 12, 2002)

Here is a link that contains a couple of more commands,, and also states that scanreg can be run without extended memory.

click here

Also some command line switches.

Here

Conventional memory issues are Here

These are links that I found which may be helpful, I am so lost at this point its all I can do to help.


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## Danyiell (Jan 19, 2003)

Thanks Bandit. I will look at those. Your still awesome and thanks for all your help.


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

I think the problem with running scanreg /fix may be how you accessed the c:\> prompt. If you used a boot disk to get there, then himem.sys is not loaded. However if you just pressed and held the ctrl key starting up and selected "command prompt" from the startup menu, NOT "safe mode command prompt" (which does not load himem.sys) then scanreg /fix should run.

Also you say you did this:

"Next I tried c:\windows\sysbckup and it worked but then I typed in dir rb* and it said NO FILE FOUND"

You must first enter :

cd c:\windows\sysbckup so that the prompt you get to reads:

c:\windows\sysbckup>

then you enter:

dir rb*

If there are no rb...cab files in that directory, then there are no backed up registries to restore. I don't know whether that would cause scanreg /restore to freeze, it really shouldn't. 

cd stands for "change directories"

Are there any problems with trying a reinstall? I believe you said you have the Microsoft CD, do you have the ProductKey for it, if needed?

A reinstall can be done by booting with the startup floppy, accept CD-ROM support, inserting the Microsoft CD and entering:

e:\setup


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

Danyiell,
Sorry I didnt check your earlier post about the Normal Mode...ok!

Just wanted to tell you that you're in the safest/best hands now, so np at all.

I too will follow this thread and will post if required.


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