I installed Slax Linux but now I lost my Windows 98, please help

[cgkeller]

How can I retrieve my Windows 98 on my machine #2? Actually I was just experienting with Slax Live CD without installing it, but somehow in the process my Windows screen 98 disappeared.
How can I revive it, short of re-installing it?

Luckily my Windows 98 on my other machine #1 on my little Network still works, so does the Internet on the Slax Machine #2.

But I certainly would like to have my Windows 98 working again on machine #2.

Thank you for your help.

Charles.

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

Charles,

We're gonna need a little more infor than that to help. What happens when you boot this machine? How far does the boot process get? Are there any error messages?

Trojan.

 

[stevexff]

Assume you mean that the MBR has been hosed on machine 2, and it now only boots Linux? This is easier to get out of in 98 than in 2000 or XP.

If you have Partition Magic, boot from the rescue diskette, and use PM to make sure that your partition(s) are still OK. One of the PM rescue diskettes has a restmbr utility which will restore your MBR. If you don't have PM...

You can restore it by using your Win98 emergency boot disk (you didn't skip this step in the install, right?). Boot from the disk, which will give you a DOS prompt. You can then run fdisk with the /MBR option to restore it. It won't format the disk, it just fixes the MBR.

If you don't have a rescue diskette, you may be able to make one from the other Win98 machine. While it won't necessarily match your #2 machine, you should be able to boot it and fdisk /MBR. There are some hints and tips at

http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy29.htm

which might help.

 

[cgkeller]

Memo to TrojanWarBade and Stevexff:
Thank you very much for your prompt input. This help me greatly to solve my problem.

For anyone who has or will encounter a similar problem, here is what I did:

How to revive your Windows 98 program-Jun,10.05
File \\586\E\Data\Linux\*.doc
--------------------------------------------------------------
I was trying out Linux-Slax-Live CD on my Windows 98 desktop machine and somehow Linux-SLAX stubbornly stayed on and to my dismay, my Windows 98 died on me.

I posted a notice on Tek-Tips and fortunately “STEVEXFF” led me to the solution of this problem without any need of re-installing Windows 98.

This is what I did:

1. Put WIN98 original disk in the CD-ROM drive
drive).
2. Screen says:

1. Boot from HD
2. Boot from CD-ROM (Select #2)
3. Screen says:
1. Start Win 98 from CD-ROM
2. Start computer with CD-ROM support
3. Start computer without CD-ROM support
(Select #2)
4. The A: will appear
a) Put you EBD Disk (Emergency Boot Disk), with
about 19 files on it, including FDISK.EXE
b) Use the “undocumented” feature from
Microsoft they don’t want you to know that)
to refresh the MBR (Master Boot Record) by
using the following command:
FDISK /MBR <Enter>
5. Exit the computer.
6. Start the computer and it will ask you if you want
to start your Win98 as “Normal”.
7. In my case, Win98 was resurrected successfully
without re-installing anything.
8. Thank you “STEVEXFF” for your excellent suggestion.
I will ask the Tek-Tips Moderator to give you
TWO STARS.
Charles Keller.

 

[stevexff]

No problem Charles...