Only get 98 splash screen

[mchenney]

I have a TOS laptop that has W98 and will only boot to the splash screen. I can view files in DOS using the SETUP floppy. It came without a CD, but does have the i396 dir and CAB files.

I understand that W98 can be reinstalled w/ out a CD from the CAB files, any tutorials on how to do this?

[mchenney]

Also, have <1 GB of files would like to get off.

Has USB 1.1

has Serial and Parrallel ports

NO CD burner

6 G HD

[glc]

Will it boot to safe mode? Will it boot to a command prompt (C)? Do you have a notebook to IDE adapter (see below)?

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HD-108&cat=HDD

[mchenney]

Not sure if an IDE, but what was standard 6 GB in the TOS laptops in the pre- w98 SE era. Does have CD-ROM drive.

It won't get to safe MODE, gotta us 98 setup disc and then can read all drives.

[calypso]

Try booting using the startup disk, changing the directory to the i386 directory, type setup, and press enter. From what I understand you are implying that the i386 directory is the folder that contains the windows setup files. If this is true the windows 98 setup should begin.

-calypso

[glc]

An i386 directory is for NT-based operating systems.

Can you answer the rest of my questions? I'm asking if it will boot from the hard drive to a command prompt, and if you have or have access to one of those adapters. It's used to connect a laptop hard drive into a desktop computer, please check the link out. This is the surest way to recover files, without a working OS using a USB link is not possible and cramming a GB of files through a parallel or serial port using Laplink or similar will take days.

Reinstalling from cabs installed by a name brand factory preload is generally not possible, because they leave out setup.exe. The only reason the cabs are there are for reconfigurations that would normally require the CD. That laptop predates today's restore partitions.

Bottom line - you are going to have to find a CD to do an OS reinstall on that laptop.

[mchenney]

More , more detail info;

Hard or Ctrl+Alt+Del reboot only get the TOS flash screen and then the W98 flash screen and dies there.

reboot and hold Ctrl gets W98 startup menu, but only command prompt (5) works. Can also get to this with W98 startup Floppy.

NORMAL, logged (\BootLOG.TXT) and SAFE ends up with the W98 flash screen.

Safe mode command promt only also gets to command prompt { C:\> }

Step-by-step confirmation dies after Load all Windows drivers [Y], goes to next line and nothing.

So it looks like I can save some of the files with transfering. Wondering if best to do that and then go to W98, W98 SE or XP??????? Will my applications or files still be there if I reload OP System over the top? W98 SE CD about $ 40 on e-bay?

[glc]

If you need to save files, get one of those adapters, remove the hard drive, and temporarily install the drive in a desktop computer to get the files. Then you can reinstall the drive and play with it to try to get Windows working again without worrying about losing your files.

Being that you CAN get to a command prompt, there's hope. You can run Scandisk, you can run Scanreg and restore a previous registry - things like that - but get the files copied off first.