Himem.sys error

[aw56001]

Hello
I'm having a real bad day.
Switched on my other computer that is running win98se and the following appears:
Error in config.sys Line 1
Emm386 is not installed. XMS manager not present.
Himem.sys missing. Make sure the file is in windows directory.
I have copied the himem.sys file (along with mem.exe and emm386.exe) into windows from the Command Prompt but still it won't boot.
Anyone offer any advice please?
aw56001

[Force Flow]

Welcome to PCMech, aw56001

Did you copy the himem.sys off of a 98SE boot floppy and place it in the C:\windows directory?

Can you boot in safe mode?

[aw56001]

Thanks for the welcome.
I have since been told that I hadn't copied HIMEM.SYS Originally I was told that extract.exe contained the file HIMEM.SYS because I searched the Win98SE CD and the file wasn't listed. I therefore uploaded extract.exe which was a waste of time.
I have since copied HIMEM.SYS from a floppy to WINDOWS folder with no luck.
I can't boot in any mode. Should I try and copy HIMEM.SYS to the WINDOWS folder again along with MEM.EXE and EMM386.EXE or can you suggest something else?
I am so confused as I have been offered conflicting information from friends and another forum.
Thanks
aw

[glc]

You have faulty RAM or a corrupted hard drive. Test the ram with this:

http://www.memtest.org/

Test the hard drive with a diagnostic utility from the hard drive manufacturer, it will be a free download.

[aw56001]

Unfortunately nothing loads at bootup and safe mode doesn't work either so I can't run anything. I tried to run scandisk but that wouldn't work. The system displays the errors shown previously and then shows a command prompt. Besides this computer has no Internet access, it is just used for other members of the family to play games, word process etc.
Is there anything else that you could offer please?
Thanks
aw

[Cricket]

What are the system specs and is this a home built computer or a store bought one?

Do you have floppy disks? If you do, you can put the utilities on the floppy disks and run them from the DOS prompt.

Cricket

[glc]

Both those utilities NEED to be run from a boot floppy anyway. You make them on another computer.

[aw56001]

I have established that himem.exe mem.exe and emm389.exe are present on the system.
I have tried to run the RAM check/Harddrive test floppy by putting them in the machine then starting up but I get "invalid disk" errors.
I am not familiar with DOS at all so could someone please explain step by step how I get the RAM check/Harddrive test utilities to run from the Command Prompt (which is what I end up with when the machine has trawled through it's error messages).
Apologies for being a dummy.
Thanks
aw

[glc]

No, you must make the bootable disk and boot with it. You cannot run memtest from a command prompt. Same goes for the hard drive diagnostics. There is no DOS knowledge required.

Download - Pre-Compiled package for Floppy (DOS - Win) - 62.2 KB - MD5 : fb61d0166435976c31399ed68d90ff16

It's a Zip file. Download it and extract it to a folder (directory) on another machine.

To install Memtest86:
- Extract the files from the zip archive
- Open the directory where the files were extracted and click on "install.bat".
- The install program will prompt you for the floppy drive and also prompt you to
insert a blank floppy. When done, simply remove the floppy.
- To run Memtest86 put the floppy in the drive on the test machine and boot to it.

NOTE: After the boot floppy has been created you will not be able to read the floppy
from windows. This is normal.

Preparing a bootable floppy for hard drive diags is very similar. What brand is the hard drive? You download the DOS version of the diags from the manufacturer.

[aw56001]

I went away for a while and returned to the machine with a clear head. I then ascertained that a re-install had been done on the machine without my knowledge. This meant that the OS was now located on Windows.000 and the normal Windows folder was virtually empty. I then uploaded the missing files to Windows.000 and the machine booted and has been running OK ever since. I did a full scandisk with no problems reported. I apologise for this it could have saved you contributors and myself a lot of time. I would like to thank you all for your valuable advice however, which I will note and will possibly use in the future.
Many thanks
aw56001
PS I prepared the floppies as you suggested originally but they didn't work. I may have used the incorrect file so I will look into it.