Non-system disk error 1

[RockyRR]

My daughter's PC (she thinks she has Windows98, but maybe she has Windows95) won't boot now....she gets the "Non-system disk error" message. Her boot sequence is A, C, and there is no floppy in her A drive, so it's not that. Here's what, most likely, caused her problem. In an effort to free-up hard dik space she deleted a lot of files. It sounds like she also deleted some .sys files, among others (ugh!). The next time she tried to use her PC she got the above error message.

My question is this: I assume those files went to the recycle bin; and if they did, is there a way to use a program on a floppy to restore those files? If so, what program?

Thanks,
Rocky

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

HUH! Kids eh?

Most of the important system files can't be deleted by Windows, but let's give your notion the benefit of any doubt.

First things first. Put the Win98 startup disk in A drive and boot. Now it depends upon which system files got wiped as to what happens next, but let's hope you can get into safe mode. If so, it might just be a case of RESTORING files from the RECYCLE BIN.

Alternatively, can you restore the OS from the Win98 CD. I note you did not mention another drive letter other than A&C in the boot sequence.

What's available at your end? Regards
Phil

 

[wolluf]

RockyRR - If your daughter was trying to free up space, is she aware that putting files in the recycle bin doesn't? If so, she's likely deleted them. However, they'll still be recoverable - but best by installing her hard drive as a slave in another PC and using a recovery app. There's a free one here

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

(not guaranteed to work, or even if you restore files to make it bootable again). But if you do slave the drive, you can copy any data that needs saving in case you do need to reinstall the operating system.

 

[davidelnormal]

Turn the machine on and press F8 while booting. this should bring up a menu. Choose Start in MSDos, I think it is No.5 on the menu. When in DOS, type scanreg/restore and press enter.Choose a date before the machine was altered and press enter. This will resstore the registry to it's previous state and all should be well. If you cannot boot into DOS by pressing F8, use your boot disk and follow the above instructions. Good Luck.............Dave

 

[Mulga]

Safe mode as suggested by Phil may be the answer, but if it is not then if you have a win 95 or 98 boot disk boot from this and at the A: prompt type sys C: and hit enter. This will restore the boot files to the HDD, however may not solve the problem completely depending on what else she deleted. You may have to do this as well as the registry restore as suggested by davidelnormal Help us to help you, please post back and tell us if this helped.

All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

I personally do not see that a registry restoration is going to be helpful in this situation, however there's no harm in trying. Please note to do this, you need to type scanreg /restore at the DOS prompt (NB the all important space), and not the previous version in Davidelnormal's post. Regards
Phil

 

[Mulga]

Phil,
Well picked up, I missed that one. It annoys me how many command lines are posted incorrectly here.... an experienced user may work them out but then probably would not need to be told in the first place. Help us to help you, please post back and tell us if this helped.

All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.

 

[RockyRR]

Thank you all for your replies. But, I didn't get a chance to use any of them. My daughter was to impatient and went and bought a new PC.

Thanks again,
Rocky

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Great news, now she can take the old HDD out and place it in the new PC as a slave. Then she can move all wanted files from the old PC onto the new HDD. No problem formatting the old HDD when in situ, and it will provide some valuable extra disk space. Regards
Phil

 

[James2210]

For future reference, you can usually boot from a WIN9x boot disk and get to the C:\RECYCLED folder (it is a hidden system folder) to retreive the files which you deleted. Only trouble is that you need to remember where you deleted them from and it involves a lot of typing etc.