Win98 Will Not Boot Up

Darknight · 11-26-2003, 06:08 PM

Greetings Everyone,

I'm having a real problem with my PC that I can't fix and I'm hoping that some of you good folks might be able to help me.

I have a 200mhz PC with 64ram and 2 hard drives (2GB master & 20 GB slave) running Win98. I had a recent virus problem but disinfected it with Norton Antivirus '03. I suspect that I had something lingering as my PC was still acting strange despite NA's insistence that there were no viruses.

I ran NA from my floppy disks and didn't get any error msgs. Nor did it mention finding any infected files. Yet when I rebooted my PC, the computer starts to bootup but stops when it gets to "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." I did see a bluescreen "VFAT Device Initialization Failed" error msg one time.

I booted the PC from my Startup disk and only get 3 options: Start Win98 w CD-Rom Support, Start Win98 w/o CD-Rom Support and Help. When I select option #1 or #2, I get the Dos A prompt.

I've run the Sys:C command at the A prompt and rebooted to no avail. I've seen a suggestion online to use a text editor to open the Config.sys file, but have no idea how to do that in DOS mode.

I suspect that NA deleted a Win98 system file, but am not sure how to correct this. I did make three different boot disks from Bootdisk.com but my PC rejects them as non-valid system disks.

The only other info I can think of is that I updated Win98 with all of the patches that were available from MS.

I am at wits end and would really appreciate some help. I'd like to save the info on the master drive as it contains my schoolwork. I will reformat the drive if I have to, but I'd rather just get the system to start properly if I can.

Regards, Tony B.

**jgvernonco** · 11-27-2003, 10:47 AM

Can you boot to safe mode?

Darknight · 11-29-2003, 09:57 AM

Hello Jgvernonco,

Thanks for responding. I cannot get the PC to boot up in safe mode at all. In fact, my PC isn't completing the boot up sequence. (BTW, I'm using a borrowed PC from work in the meantime.)

Again, any ideas you may have would be welcome.

Regards, Tony B.

11-26-2003, 06:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
Darknight Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Providence,RI Posts: 2 OS: Win98	Win98 Will Not Boot Up Greetings Everyone, I'm having a real problem with my PC that I can't fix and I'm hoping that some of you good folks might be able to help me. I have a 200mhz PC with 64ram and 2 hard drives (2GB master & 20 GB slave) running Win98. I had a recent virus problem but disinfected it with Norton Antivirus '03. I suspect that I had something lingering as my PC was still acting strange despite NA's insistence that there were no viruses. I ran NA from my floppy disks and didn't get any error msgs. Nor did it mention finding any infected files. Yet when I rebooted my PC, the computer starts to bootup but stops when it gets to "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." I did see a bluescreen "VFAT Device Initialization Failed" error msg one time. I booted the PC from my Startup disk and only get 3 options: Start Win98 w CD-Rom Support, Start Win98 w/o CD-Rom Support and Help. When I select option #1 or #2, I get the Dos A prompt. I've run the Sys:C command at the A prompt and rebooted to no avail. I've seen a suggestion online to use a text editor to open the Config.sys file, but have no idea how to do that in DOS mode. I suspect that NA deleted a Win98 system file, but am not sure how to correct this. I did make three different boot disks from Bootdisk.com but my PC rejects them as non-valid system disks. The only other info I can think of is that I updated Win98 with all of the patches that were available from MS. I am at wits end and would really appreciate some help. I'd like to save the info on the master drive as it contains my schoolwork. I will reformat the drive if I have to, but I'd rather just get the system to start properly if I can. Regards, Tony B.

11-27-2003, 10:47 AM	#2 (permalink)
jgvernonco Old Timer Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Northern Arizona Posts: 7,958 OS: Vista Home Premium, SP 27	Can you boot to safe mode? __________________ Donations keep TSF moving forward. Please help. http://www.myspace.com/speedbumpthecelt

11-29-2003, 09:57 AM	#3 (permalink)
Darknight Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Providence,RI Posts: 2 OS: Win98	Hello Jgvernonco, Thanks for responding. I cannot get the PC to boot up in safe mode at all. In fact, my PC isn't completing the boot up sequence. (BTW, I'm using a borrowed PC from work in the meantime.) Again, any ideas you may have would be welcome. Regards, Tony B.