win 98 startup problem

[Julian]

Hello

My system wont boot up any more. It says that the system.ini file is missing or corrupt.

How can I restore my windows 98 SE.

Help

[Cricket]

See if you can boot to the Boot Menu?

Start your computer up and after the first boot screen switches to the next, start hitting the Ctrl key...that will bring up the Boot Menu.

Choose the option that takes you to the command prompt. From the command prompt, type scanreg /restore and hit Enter.

Cricket

[Force Flow]

I think that if you copy the system.ini file from another win98SE machine and put it on yours, it should work. I've done this with the win.ini file, but haven't tried it with the system.ini file.

When I put the win.ini file on my comp, it just filled in all of the missing information it needed.

(btw, you can either copy the file over from another comp onto yours via a floppy in DOS, or just slave you drive into another machine)

[reboot]

System.ini is just that, the contents of the system.
Copying it from another computer will screw things up nicely, because it's a different system. Not recommended.

[Force Flow]

Then what's in the win.ini file?

[GaryRouth]

Lots of settings and personal preferences in win.ini. Some of your desktop preferences go there, some startup programs (especially older 16bit ones) will use the load= command to start from win.ini, older printer drivers, older 16bit programs paths will be listed - - - stuff like that.

And julian - whatever else you do, run a complete system virus scan as soon as you can. [. . . and have you added any new hardware/software lately? -especially, have you added RAM recently?]

. . . Gary

[p.s. - some of the newer AntiVirus programs (like Norton 2003) come with a bootable CD. You put the latest virus definitions on a floppy, and run an emergency scan from the CD.]

[p.s. #2 - force flow - I think I laughed about 15 minutes after I first read your new sig with the sleeping grandma in it ]

[Force Flow]

Originally posted by GaryRouth [p.s. #2 - force flow - I think I laughed about 15 minutes after I first read your new sig with the sleeping grandma in it ]

Glad you liked it.

Anyway, so what's stored in the system.ini file? The names of drivers and devices?

[GaryRouth]

force flow - yes, something like that. System.ini is a lot like win.ini, but mostly just boot, password, video and audio driver stuff. Glad we don't have to mess with it much, it's cranky old architecture.

julian - any luck yet?

The kids tired me out today, so I'll be checking back after a night's sleep!
. . . Gary