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pokersk8trshark · 09-28-2006, 01:05 PM

Hi and thanks for the quick reply. I will go through your questions so you can kind of see where I am coming from.

Were you ever able to run any diagnostics at all? Yes If you weren't able to get the Toshiba diagnostics to run (no, this would not work. It would only go to "starting windows98...and then hang there), I suppose you could try some generic diagnostics. The Ultimate Boot Cd (the Linux-based version) creates a DOS-floppy-diskette emulator, and can run diagnostics from that - since it would make sense to see if there isn't a hardware problem complicating things http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ (I tried this and there were no hardware problems at all)

You could also see if the system will boot & run from any versions of the CD-based distribution called "Knoppix". If it does boot from that (which it will do very slowly, since it runs entirely from the system memory & the CD-drive), then you might be able to get online with the FireFox included in most Knoppix CDs (most do a fairly decent job of detecting the networking chip on modern motherboards - and provide a working driver). http://www.knoppix.org/ (if the webpage displays in German, click on the US/British flag icon to read it in English - several other languages are available as well). I tried this but could not get online at all. I am still only able to boot in safe mode.

Were you able to discover if you had the .cab files on the hard drive? (Yes, I have .cab files on my hard drive, but not sure what I should do with those. They are there though)

Or did you find anyone willing to let you borrow their Win98 CD so you could reinstall? (No one I know has the Win98CD. I found all of my original documentation and the only thing that came with my laptop was the Toshiba Companion Diskette and a Microsoft Windows 98 Book that has my Product Key printed at the bottom. Does not have a CD of the OS though.)

Can I get a bootdisk that is not a floppy drive? I do not have access to a floppy drive at all.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me!

09-28-2006, 01:05 PM	#8 (permalink)
pokersk8trshark Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 6 OS: Win98 & WinXP	Hi and thanks for the quick reply. I will go through your questions so you can kind of see where I am coming from. Were you ever able to run any diagnostics at all? Yes If you weren't able to get the Toshiba diagnostics to run (no, this would not work. It would only go to "starting windows98...and then hang there), I suppose you could try some generic diagnostics. The Ultimate Boot Cd (the Linux-based version) creates a DOS-floppy-diskette emulator, and can run diagnostics from that - since it would make sense to see if there isn't a hardware problem complicating things http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ (I tried this and there were no hardware problems at all) You could also see if the system will boot & run from any versions of the CD-based distribution called "Knoppix". If it does boot from that (which it will do very slowly, since it runs entirely from the system memory & the CD-drive), then you might be able to get online with the FireFox included in most Knoppix CDs (most do a fairly decent job of detecting the networking chip on modern motherboards - and provide a working driver). http://www.knoppix.org/ (if the webpage displays in German, click on the US/British flag icon to read it in English - several other languages are available as well). I tried this but could not get online at all. I am still only able to boot in safe mode. Were you able to discover if you had the .cab files on the hard drive? (Yes, I have .cab files on my hard drive, but not sure what I should do with those. They are there though) Or did you find anyone willing to let you borrow their Win98 CD so you could reinstall? (No one I know has the Win98CD. I found all of my original documentation and the only thing that came with my laptop was the Toshiba Companion Diskette and a Microsoft Windows 98 Book that has my Product Key printed at the bottom. Does not have a CD of the OS though.) Can I get a bootdisk that is not a floppy drive? I do not have access to a floppy drive at all. Thanks again for taking the time to help me!