lost all access to DOS in 98

[mitch88]

I have 2 almost identical systems;
P3, 256Ram. Asus Mobo, one is 450mhz, one 550mhz

One has lost all DOS functionality (that I can find)
Attempt to open any DOS prog (incl the 'MS DOS' icon) get this;
"a device attached to the system is not functioning".
And it can not be opened thru tapping 'F8' on bootup.

The second machine has apparently "created" a partion
on the only, (and as far as I knew, unpartioned) hard drive.
It will not allow any defrager to work (windows, Nortons, etc).
It says there is an error in the bootlog.

I have no DOS bacground but am able to do almost anything else in Win.
I am very comfortable in the registry as well.

If you can not help me can you direct me to a source?

Thanks for your time

 

[edfair]

Try [F5] or [Shift]+[F5] at the starting windows to see if you can get to dos and possibly [Shift]+[F8] for menu. Can't remember the combo offhand. Sounds like you are a candidate for OS reload on this machine.

Your Win is on a partition. It was created at installation. Then the drive was formatted. then Win was loaded. So you have to debug the bootlog error. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Alt255]

One way to boot to the MS-DOS prompt is to add a PAUSE command as the last line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You will be prompted to "Press any key when ready...". Do a CTRL+C. It will dump you to the DOS prompt without allowing the Windows GUI to load. If your drive is controlled by compression software, you might not have full access to all files.

You should check the integrity of your C:\MSDOS.SYS file. It could contain a funky entry. If nothing else, make a backup and copy the file from one of the other systems.

All in all, Edfair probably hit the nail on the head. You might be looking at a re-installation.

Alt255@Vorpalcom.Intranets.com
​

 

[mitch88]

Hi guys,

I have not yet tried the suggestions.
I have tried a straight re-install but it will not work, can't remember what
it says the error was-something to do with DOS I think.
Don't all these things (mentioned above);
"One way to boot to the MS-DOS prompt is to add a PAUSE command
as the last line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You will be prompted to
"Press any key when ready...". Do a CTRL+C.""
amount to the same thing as hitting 'F8' on bootup?
And if I do this, how do I choose to go into windows after the next boot.
It seems the pause will not give that option unless I know the right syntax.

I have a copy of the contents of the "no DOS" comps msdos.sys file;
NOTE: "2nd comp" refers to the one with DOS working right.
Here is the MSDOS.SYS file; (Could it be that first line ?)

[Paths]
UninstallDir=C:\ ***(not in 2nd comp)***
WinDir=C:\WINDOWS.000
WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS.000
HostWinBootDrv=C

[Options] ***( 1st line of 2nd comp says "BootMulti=1&quot***
BootGUI=1
DoubleBuffer=1
AutoScan=2 ***(has value of "1" in 2nd comp) ***
WinVer=4.10.1998
;
;The following lines are required for compatibility with other programs.
;Do not remove them (MSDOS.SYS needs to be >1024 bytes).
***(the 'x's are all there I was just saving space in post)***

BootMulti=1 ***(2nd comp has nothing after the 'x's)***
Logo=1
BootKeys=1
BootMenu=0
BootWarn=0
BootDelay=1
BootMenuDelay=0

 

[edfair]

Alt's suggestion on the pause is the same as [F8] plus installing all the drivers in config.sys + all the drivers in autoexec.bat except the one calling windows. And after kicking out you start with "win".
Your msdos.sys file on #1 is corrupted. The file should end with the x's. And the fact of the windows.000 listed means that it tried to reinstall in a new directory since it found an existing copy and didn't want to overwrite it.
So to reinstall correctly you have to figure out what keeps it from going into \windows. Sometimes renaming win.com (i use

http://www.com)

will do it, sometimes all win*.* to

http://www*.*,

sometimes removing the desktop subdirectory, sometimes \win\system\user.exe. Several threads are in here telling of different things people have found that keep a reinstall from going on correctly. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Alt255]

Now it begins to unravel.... Follow Ed's suggestions. I have seen systems loading Windows from Windows.000 folders (and others, depending on the severity of previous installation SNAFUs). But this isn't the natural order of things. Windows and Windows applications like to find a "\Windows" folder (whatever the X: might be - I've been running Windows from d:\windows for ten years with only the "usual" problems).

Worst case and, possibly best case scenario would be to retrieve your active data, reformat the drive and reinstall Windows. Leave this for last. Tinker first.

I know... that sounds painful and I'm sure that plenty of members will disagree. A reformat is often the last best hope. It's just that I have had much more satisfaction tweaking the beast rather than clubbing it senseless.

Regarding the PAUSE command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT... CTRL+C will drop you to DOS. Any other key will start Windows.

Alt255@Vorpalcom.Intranets.com
​

 

[mitch88]

Ok...as best as can understand, you guys kind of talk in short hand..
esp Ed. I agree; I do not want to club it if I can finess it.

About the " .000" ,
My system has been running w/o any real problems for 2 years
since I reinstalled and it created "windows.000"
I am certain this is not this issue.

1st, about the corrupted file, I 'rem'd out the extra stuff and DOS is back
so is my F8 path...However when I try the "MSDOS Prompt" in
win/programs it give me this; "C: win.......promt.pif.
"A Device Attached To This System Is Not Working"
The path in the DOS shortcut is C:\WINDOWS.000\COMMAND.COM

2nd
refering to a comment in the 1st reply...
How does one 'debug a bootlog error' ?

3rd
A friend that took a dos course a year or so ago told the prof
of my window.000 thing.
He said trhat this could be edited to delete the '.000' in DOS
I do not suppose this is documented or simple, but if anyone know
any source on this please let me know.

Thanks for all this help.

 

[edfair]

When you reinstalled 2 years ago it put the new install in the windows.000 directory. So when windows starts it gets any files it needs and any drivers from the directory chain by that name. So you don't want to change anything there.

When I see anything about the .000 directory I immediately assume that it is from a failed reinstall since they are almost 100% of the cause.

The professor is wrong. This is a directory. It can be changed, but then you would have 2 directory entries by the same name and files needed would come from the first directory listed, which would be the old one, and 95 wouldn't work. And notice that I didn't tell you how to do it.

Actually you can't debug a bootlog error. You can debug the problem that is causing a bootlog error. Something like the file being read only or no more room on the hard drive or some other system error, or pointing to the wrong place.

sorry about the shorthand. I do tech stuff and deal with other techs and I need to realize that the world isn't technically oriented. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.