Windows 98 screen freeze

[RacybabeUK]

Have got a windows 98 pc with pentium 2 belonging to a voluntary group i have started volunteering at. On start up there is no post test just the windows 98 screen with no programs or icons or start button. There is an option to Ctrl +Alt + Esc to enter set up where i changed the boot up options to try to run from the cdrom. This was not successful and the pc stalled at the cdrom drivers check point in the start up sequence. I can get the ms dos screen up (a:\ and c:\ with dir producing the directory list).

I managed to get it started in safe mode once and there are programs and files there. It did not work the second time i pressed F5 for safe mode though.

I did try to install/upgrade to Windows 2000 but it reached a certain point in installation and then froze. This happened several times.

The group are upgrading all their pc's to XP and pentium 4 as they are being networked but it would be nice to be able to get this pc up and running to retrieve the files that are on the hard drive.

I don't want to f disk as the manager wants the file information on the hard drive.

[Cricket]

If you only want to retrieve the files on the hard drive, pull it from that computer and install it in another computer as a slave drive. Once the computer is booted up, go into Windows Explorer and move the files.

Cricket

[GaryRouth]

. . . and if you copy the files while the drive is slaved in another computer (like Cricket suggested), make sure you have an antivirus program active on that computer, and scan the drive before copying over the old files.
. . . Gary

[RacybabeUK]

Thanks - many of the files were corrupted probably due to a virus but some were ok to save.