Psy-nox

Hello all. this one is really confusing to word my question but here goes:

I took a HD out of a Compaq tower PC and put it in a different PC so I could copy the conents of the Compaq HD over to the foreign PC which was successful.

When i took the Compaq's HD back into the Compaq and boot up, it gets stuck in safe mode with my chosen desktop background & No icons.

Then a warning window pops up that has Runonce (at the top) and says it has performed an illegal operation error and it only give mes the choice to OK it. So I OK it....

then another warning window pops up and says Windows (at the top) and it says it has perormed an illegal operation error and it gives me only one choice to OK it. It then stays with my chosen desktop background pattern, no icons, no start menu...just Safe Model in all 4 corners of the screen.

When I used the Compaq HD in the other PC, I think I booted off the Compaq's HD. Can doing what I did cause these problems with the Compaq PC not reading the HD now? oh dear ..damn

Jlp1928

Hi,

Can always happen when you set up the other PC's HD as the boot drive. Especially if they are different versions of Windows. It should be set up as a slave on the the primary port or either on the secondary. If you have a MS 98SE CD you can probably get by with an Over the Top re-install to straighten it out.

Good Luck, Jim

OldGrayGary

Hi Psy-nox


Jim mentioned the over-the-top. You can do this procedure if you have either a Windows CD, or the Windows installation ".cab" files on your hard drive. Here are the instructions for an "over-the-top" in-place reinstall of Windows 98/98se/Me....

Windows 98/Me "Over-the-top" Reinstall

Sometimes an over-the-top reinstallation of Windows can be a timesaver. On most recent computers the whole procedure can take as little as 30 or 40 minutes. A nice feature of this procedure is that your programs do not have to be reinstalled, and your data is not lost. You likely will need to visit Windows Update when finished, though, to download and reinstall some of the Security Updates. [Windows Update still works for Windows 98/Me, even though its period of active support by Microsoft expired in mid-2006 (all the updates up to that point can still be found there)].

Beforehand:

You may need to temporarily disable the Bios virus protection that is found on some motherboards (if your motherboard does not have this feature, you can skip this step). Enter Bios Setup by pressing the key displayed during startup, and somewhere on the first or second menu should be an item to Enable or Disable Bios Virus Protection (might be called BiosShield, or VirusGuard, or whatnot) ---> then, when you're finished with your reinstallation of Windows, re-Enable the Bios protection feature.

During the reinstall, it is also a good idea to be entirely disconnected from any networks, wired or wireless (unplug ethernet cables, disable wireless), and to be disconnected from printers, scanners, cameras, multifunction devices, fax machines, PDAs, memory card readers, USB flash drives, external USB/Firewire/eSATA drives, etc.

Over The Top ReInstall:

Place your Windows98/Me CD in the CD/DVD drive (or be ready to point Windows to the place on your hard drive where your Windows 98/Me installation files are stored).

Boot with a bootable floppy (or CD - "with CD-rom support"), and from DOS rename the win.com file to win.bak. Like this

C:
cd \Windows
rename win.com win.bak

If you have the Windows 98/Me CD in your CD/DVD drive, you can then switch to the drive letter of your CD drive [often drive D:], simply by typing the drive letter followed by a colon ( for example - D: ) at the command prompt. You can then start setup by typing setup from the command prompt.

If you don't have a Windows 9x/Me installation CD, but instead have the Windows 98/Me installation files on your hard drive, switch to that location (which is often C:\Windows\Options\Cabs - by typing cd C:\Windows\Options\Cabs ), and start setup (by simply typing the command: setup)

***Important!*** When Windows asks if you want to use the directory C:\Windows.000, instead choose Other and type in C:\Windows (without the .000 following).

Make sure that you have your antivirus, antispyware, and firewall running before you connect to networks afterward. Don't forget to visit Windows Update ASAP to get the Critical Patches the need reinstalling.
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Best of luck
. . . Gary

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Psy-nox

AAArrrh bugger. I have managed to get hold of a 98 se disc and everything seemd to be going well when right near the end of the install (before the pc restarts) a large WHITE rectangle window appears and says that it cant go any further because of uumm CWUIN or something...I cant remember exactly what it said but I have tried it a few times and it keeps happening.

Is this a problem with the harddrive or the motherboard?

I also did a scandisk in MSDOS and it said while scanning, cannot complete the scan because there is not enough critical memory. What should I do....Format the HD

thanks

OldGrayGary

Hi again


Sorry you've hit a roadblock. If you can get the exact error message, we might be able to track things down. The error as typed doesn't seem to relate to any known errors.

Were you able to check beforehand & disable any Bios antivirus present? That can lead to unpredictable behavior, but not usually at the end of the install. Another thing that you can check is that you have enough free space on the hard drive to run an installation (Win98se doesn't need that much room, but it's good to have a couple hundred free megabytes of space).

Also, was the Win98se CD you used a retail CD? Or? If it was an OEM disk for a system from a different manufacturer, that sort of disk can lead to problems.

If you have good backups, yes, you could simply wipe the drive & start over. You might want to run a few diagnostics beforehand, though, to make sure the hard drive and memory aren't failing by an unfortunate coincidence. Win98 era hardware is in it's old age, and sometimes unhappy surprises happen.

If you want an easy-to-use bootable CD to use to test your hardware, the "UBCD" is a handy, simple CD to try --- http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

Best of luck!
. . . Gary

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Psy-nox

Thanks for that. The error message does not come up until just before the compaq is suppose to restart. I dont have to type in the OEM code because the error message comes up long before that.

All antivirus software is OFF in the bios.

I will try it again and tell you exactly what this message says. You will not hear from me until Sunday or so.

Thanks. I will let you know.

Psy-nox

Below I have copied down all the things this pc is doing and copied the error messages it is giving me...see below-

When I type scandisk in MSDOS it goes into scandisk mode then a white MSDOS window appears and says:

There is not enough free conventional memory to perform a surface scan. You may need to remark (REM) some device drivers from your CONFIGSYS file. Or, in your CONFIG.SYS, you may need to load your other device drivers into Upper Memory Blocks using- DEVICE HIGH= statements

When it does a scandisk scan by prompting a windows 98 install, it does NOT do this. It accomplishes the scan successfully with no errors.

and the next problem is to do with re-installing windows 98...see below-

During the re-installing of Windows 98 (but before It gets to RESTART mode) a window appears that says:

Application Error
SUWIN caused a General Protection Fault in module KRNL386.EXE at 0001: 4DE7

thanks

OldGrayGary

Hi again


Usually, getting general protection errors during Windows Setup ("SetUp WINdows" = SUWIN) is an indication of faulty hardware, or misconfiguration of the hardware (such as incorrect Bios settings - which can throw timings off, etc.).

It's possible that the settings got a little tweaked (or perhaps the CMOS battery is getting weak & needs replacing) with all the coming and going inside the case -- make sure the battery is still fastened securely. Grab a system manual, too, and have a look through your Bios settings.

If you've a UBCD already, you can use that to test some of the hardware. Or you can use separate tools to test different things. MemTest 86+ is good for testing memory --- http://www.memtest.org --- and most hard drive manufacturers have downloadable diagnostic tools for testing their drives --- http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287 --- If your Compaq has built-in diagnostics (they'd be mentioned in your system manual), of course you can try those ... when present on the hard drive, many of the older models accessed them by pressing the F10 key at startup & choosing the diagnostics from a menu.

How did you reach DOS for the ScanDisk? Truthfully, I prefer using Scandisk in Windows Safe Mode where possible. Try the DOS command prompt you receive when booting from the Win98se CD "with CD-ROM support" -- this will yield a reasonably configured DOS from which you can run Scan Disk without having to worry about TSRs ("Terminate but Stay Resident" processes .. which use up those precious bits of memory in DOS).

Test as much as you can, change what Bios settings might need changing (and replace the CMOS battery if necessary) -- and try your Win98se again.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

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Psy-nox

Thanks for your help on this Gary. I got the problem HD into a different PC as a slave and copied all my files over to a different HD. I then sucessfully formated the Compaq problem HD in the Compaq. Scan disk found many problems...fixed them..did a FDISK...format and sucessfully re-installed windows. I had to go the long way around it but did it.

thanks heaps

OldGrayGary

Congratulations on your good work!
. . . Gary

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