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**OldGrayGary** · 05-11-2008, 01:21 AM

Hi again

I think it might still be a good idea to run some diagnostics. Scandisk is a good start. If you can, try the memory diagnostics, and perhaps the manufacturer's disk diagnostics, those would help too - because they are more thorough (they give you a better indication of how healthy the hardware is).

The floppy-based diagnostics are easy to use, but you mention that booting from the floppy isn't working anymore. This could be because 1) the drive has failed 2) your floppy diskettes were damaged, or 3) the system's Bios needs to have the boot order set to the floppy drive as the first boot device (if your PC's Bios battery needs replacing, the Bios settings might not stay set correctly - which can lead to several problems. An easy way to check this is to see if the time & date have reverted backwards several years --- if so, the battery likely needs to be replaced).

Most of the diagnostics tools can be placed on bootable CDs nowadays -- so you can run the diagnostics even if your floppy drive no longer works. The full instructions are available from the same pages you download the diagnostics (or - you can download an entire "UBCD" in one download: it has many diagnostic tools included on it -- you burn the download as an image with a program like Nero or Roxio).

If the hardware passes diagnostics, next try some malware scans. I don't recommend trying an 'over-the-top' until you're fairly sure that no malware is present. When the system proves clean - you can boot with your Win98se CD (if it's not a "recovery disk", but is a true Windows installation CD) --- choose "start computer with CD-ROM support" to get a command prompt. Then follow the instructions in my first reply - but simply use the CD rather than the .cabs on the hard drive. If you only have a recovery disk, see if that C:\Windows\Options\Cabs folder has all the installation files - or not. There should be quite a few if they are all there (sometimes they aren't ... ). If there are all there, look for the setup.exe file to get things started.

Of course, if you simply want to start over from scratch -- you can run either a Recovery disk, or erase the drive & run a clean install of Win98se. Those methods require a lot more time.

Hope it goes well - let us know if you have more questions.
. . . Gary

05-11-2008, 01:21 AM	#9 (permalink)
OldGrayGary Mentor, Microsoft Support Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Woodland Hills, CA Posts: 1,979 OS: Windows 98se/2000/XP/Vista	Re: System Crash Hi again I think it might still be a good idea to run some diagnostics. Scandisk is a good start. If you can, try the memory diagnostics, and perhaps the manufacturer's disk diagnostics, those would help too - because they are more thorough (they give you a better indication of how healthy the hardware is). The floppy-based diagnostics are easy to use, but you mention that booting from the floppy isn't working anymore. This could be because 1) the drive has failed 2) your floppy diskettes were damaged, or 3) the system's Bios needs to have the boot order set to the floppy drive as the first boot device (if your PC's Bios battery needs replacing, the Bios settings might not stay set correctly - which can lead to several problems. An easy way to check this is to see if the time & date have reverted backwards several years --- if so, the battery likely needs to be replaced). Most of the diagnostics tools can be placed on bootable CDs nowadays -- so you can run the diagnostics even if your floppy drive no longer works. The full instructions are available from the same pages you download the diagnostics (or - you can download an entire "UBCD" in one download: it has many diagnostic tools included on it -- you burn the download as an image with a program like Nero or Roxio). If the hardware passes diagnostics, next try some malware scans. I don't recommend trying an 'over-the-top' until you're fairly sure that no malware is present. When the system proves clean - you can boot with your Win98se CD (if it's not a "recovery disk", but is a true Windows installation CD) --- choose "start computer with CD-ROM support" to get a command prompt. Then follow the instructions in my first reply - but simply use the CD rather than the .cabs on the hard drive. If you only have a recovery disk, see if that C:\Windows\Options\Cabs folder has all the installation files - or not. There should be quite a few if they are all there (sometimes they aren't ... ). If there are all there, look for the setup.exe file to get things started. Of course, if you simply want to start over from scratch -- you can run either a Recovery disk, or erase the drive & run a clean install of Win98se. Those methods require a lot more time. Hope it goes well - let us know if you have more questions. . . . Gary __________________