Windows '98se boot up problem (another one) 1

[jungleland]

Windows '98 refuses to boot. Prompts to boot in safe mode, but won't. It justs returns to start up sequence. All remedies say to boot with start up disk. Is this the only way to recover? Could '98 have crashed one too many times? Are there other boot options?

 

[ski]

-Restart the computer, press the Del key(or whatever key is specified on the 1st screen at startup) to enter CMOS Setup, in the main CMOS menu, highlight Default, Standard, or Setup settings, press Enter, press Y at the warning(if it appears), highlight Save And Exit, press Enter, type Y at the warning, insert a Windows boot floppy disk, press Enter, select 'Start Windows Without CD-ROM Support', press Enter, at the A:\> prompt type dir c: and press Enter:

(1)If you do not see the contents of the hard drive, then it has a problem(defective drive, loose or defective cables, or bad IDE1 controller).

(2)If you see your hard drive's contents, then do the following:
-If your hard drive is using 3rd party overlay or compression software, make sure it's properly configured.
-Use an antivirus floppy to check the hard drive for a virus(see your antivirus program's instructions).
-Type scandisk c: at the A:\> prompt, and press Enter to fix any errors.
-If no good, then type C: at the A:\> prompt, press Enter, type fdisk /mbr at the C:\> prompt and press Enter to replace the master boot record.
-If still no good, then type sys c: at the A:\> prompt, and press Enter to replace the system files.
-If nothing works, then the memory may be bad.

 

[mainegeek]

jungleland,

Boot up with a Win98 boot disk, select "Boot with Cd-Rom Support", at the A: <prompt> type E: <press enter>

Put your Win98 cd in and run Scan Disk from it.

 

[DylanThompson]

jungleland,

My approach would be to boot from a floppy disk or Windows 98 CD and run the setup again. When you get to the option of selecting a destination directory for the install, the setup program will default to C:\WINDOWS.000. Change this to C:\WINDOWS. This will effectively do a repair install on Windows 98. If you get any error about 'Cannot overwite previous install' etc., simply boot into a command prompt and go:
c:
cd\windows
ren win.exe win.old

Then run the install again. Windows 98 only check the .exe file to see if it exists, otherwise, it assumes that Windows is not installed.

Would be a more than fantastic idea to make a ghost of the system before trying this apporach though.

 

[wolluf]

You could refresh your boot sector by booting from 98 boot floppy and running sys C: from A: prompt.

Also might be worth checking that msdos.sys file in root of C: is not corrupt (it holds some bootup parameters - see

http://www.mdgx.com/msdos.htm

for how it should look). You can access it by booting from 98 boot floppy. The command 'type' displays contents of files, 'edit' will edit them.

 

[jungleland]

Thanks to all who answered my question. Turns out, it was bad RAM. (thanks ski) Replaced it and all is fine! Appreciate it! jungleland...

 

[ski]

You're welcome.
Glad that you fixed the problem, and thanks for posting back with the solution.

 

[Skouser]

I've checked all the posts on win98 probs and don't see this one.

Old Computer 256 RAM, 1 x 4Gig and 1 x 14Gig HD's, Pen' 2.

Recently built new computer runnig XP. Want to network old one (above) as a backup. Original OS was XP on 14Gig as master. Formatted both drives and jumped 4Gig drive to take Win98 OS and 14Gig as slave. Checked configuration and all okay in Setup.

Now Win98 refuses to complete install, refuses to return on final restart. Sounds as though it's trying to load as the hard drive is going at it, but the screen stays blank. Tried all the usual stuff using msconfig and safemode (just for fun) but what's the point as it's a newly formatted drive? Sitting here laughing at it. Anyone think they know what's going on?

 

[ski]

Run ScanDisk from the Win98 boot floppy.

If the HD checks ok and you've installed Win 98 just once, then reformat and try another install.

If no luck, then it's possible that the Win 98 CD is scratched or dirty. Try a different CD if possible.

If no luck with another CD, then try a different CD-ROM drive.

If still no good, then install the HD as Slave in another system, and run the diagnostics at the HD manuf's site.
If it fails, then it may be bad.