98SE boot problem

[GSXdan]

I am working on a computer(old gateway-233MHz era), running 98se, and when booting, it gets to a black screen where it says "Windows 98 is loading your MS-DOS based program", or something to that effect, then goes on to load the ATAPI cd-rom drivers and the windows plug-and-play crap, then it just sits there. they left it at that screen overnight and it didnt move.

I booted into safe mode fine, ran a virus scan with no results. Checked the system files in msconfig and there didnt seem to be anything out of order.

Second thing, if i do end up having to format, there are a couple files that are too big to go on floppies that they need saved, so what are my options for doing that? no cd-burner. Can you install programs in safe-mode? If so i can install winrar and split the file...


Thanks ^dan

[edfair]

I'm reading between the lines here, but I suspect that the installation was either an upgrade from something else or loaded from DOS on the hard drive. 98 shouldn't need to load the drivers from config.sys or anything from autoexec.bat but they do if the installation medium had an existing config and autoexec and the older ones were modified for SE since they existed.
Most 98 has a zero length config and autoexec.

[GSXdan]

This wasnt a new install, it had been working fine, albeit slowly, since i first went to work on their computer, around 2 months ago. This just happened out of the blue.

[Panama Red]

If you want to save their files before reformatting, pull their hard drive, install it in your machine as a slave and copy the files to be saved to a location on your drive. After reformatting, put theirs back in your machine and copy the saved files back to their hard drive. I do it that way all the time. Have a couple partitions reserved on my 80Gb hard drive just for that purpose.

[GSXdan]

good idea! ill use that as a last resort, but at least i have one.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Panama Red If you want to save their files before reformatting, pull their hard drive, install it in your machine as a slave and copy the files to be saved to a location on your drive. After reformatting, put theirs back in your machine and copy the saved files back to their hard drive. I do it that way all the time. Have a couple partitions reserved on my 80Gb hard drive just for that purpose.

I save files from other people's hard drives this way too. But I use my "bench machine"...it's a computer I keep around just for this and to test programs and stuff with. I format and reinstall the OS as necessary. Nothing important is ever kept on the hard drive. It's a lot less stressful than sticking a suspect hard drive into my main computer.

Cricket

[glc]

Boot it to the boot menu, choose "safe mode command prompt only".

When you are at the C prompt, type the following:

ren config.sys config.sav

ren autoexec.bat autoexec.sav

3 finger it and you will be in Windows.

The problem is it's stuck in the "dos=single" mode, and renaming the files will let it boot with no config.sys and autoexec.bat. You can then edit the 2 saved files in Notepad to make them right again.

[ROYP123]

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Originally posted by Panama Red
If you want to save their files before reformatting, pull their hard drive, install it in your machine as a slave and copy the files to be saved to a location on your drive. After reformatting, put theirs back in your machine and copy the saved files back to their hard drive. I do it that way all the time. Have a couple partitions reserved on my 80Gb hard drive just for that purpose.
______________________________________________

Panama Red and Cricket: What does copying the files to your hard drive achieve that burning to a CD doesn't? I just burn them to an external burner and then replace after reformat.
What am I missing?

[GSXdan]

What if you dont have a external cd burner?

[Panama Red]

Originally posted by ROYP123 Panama Red and Cricket: What does copying the files to your hard drive achieve that burning to a CD doesn't? I just burn them to an external burner and then replace after reformat. What am I missing?

Merely a matter of choice. I don't have an external burner and don't want to waste cd's. Sometimes I will connect the machine being serviced to my home network and just transfer the files that way. Whatever method you chose, the point is to find a way to save data that may get destroyed.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by ROYP123 Panama Red and Cricket: What does copying the files to your hard drive achieve that burning to a CD doesn't? I just burn them to an external burner and then replace after reformat. What am I missing?

Well, if the OS doesn't boot up in the problem system, you can't burn to a CD-R until you put the hard drive into a working system. I guess I could just burn the files to a CD-R, but I've always just moved the files to the hard drive of my bench machine. Once I get the problems sorted out in the problem system, I just move my hard drive to the other system and transfer the files back to the original drive. I guess I could just burn the files to a CD-R, but I've always moved files from hard drive to hard drive. Swapping the hard drives between systems doesn't bother me.

Cricket

[ROYP123]

I have always been worried about getting a virus on my " good " machine, but I like the idea of using the bench machine. With not much on it besides the OS , it won't hurt if I have to reformat. I do use up a lot if CDs with just a little data on them. Thanks

[glc]

Dan, did my suggestion help?

[GSXdan]

No i actually couldnt even get into command prompt... It gave me the same error that i got when trying to boot normally. First time that ever happened to me.

I took the hd out and copied all the files they needed, then formatted it(it needed it anyways).

but ill have to remember that trick for next time something like this comes up

^dan

[Izumui Abriel]

I don't suppose anyone's still reading this but, if you wanna cut back on cd-r use, buy some rws, they're a bit more expensive but, like i've been known to say, five rw's are worth fifty cd-r's.

Cheers,
Aaron McClellan