Incomplete startup of Me
 

My computer running Me will not finish booting up. It paints the box asking
for username and password, which I setup for different users, but does not
display the different valid usernames. When I close that box by clicking the
X, the music plays but it stops right there with a plain blue screen. I've
also tried booting in Safe Mode and it I get a grey screen with Safe Mode in
each corner. I assume that a file or 2 have become corrupted. How do I
recover? I have original Me CD, would reinstalling wipe out other
stuff.....would I need to reinstall everything? would I lose data? I've
also got an XP Upgrade disk. Is this original OS dependent, I think it was
used for 98 SE. Is there another solution that would keep me from having to
reinstall everything and not loose data files?

Incomplete startup of Me
 

You don't say what you might have done to cause this - e.g. did it suddenly
'just happen' or were you doing some work to your computer immediately prior
to the problem occurring? You *might* just be in with a chance of restoring,
especially as you can't (completely) boot into either Normal or Safe modes.
Do NOT try to over-install (re-install over itself) - this will very likely
cause you far more problems than you already have.

Boot using the Windows Startup (floppy) Disk and choose 4) Minimal Boot.
At the A:\ prompt, type "scanreg /restore" (no quotes and note the space
between the g and /) then press Enter.
Follow the screen prompts and when asked, select the last 'good' date prior
to your problems, continuing with the instructions.

Don't forget to remove the floppy disk BEFORE you tell the machine to
reboot.

If that doesn't fix it then you may well have lost or damaged/corrupted
critical files and be left with no other option but to completely "Clean
Install". NB There are several possible solutions to recovering important
(personal?) data or files BEFORE you attempt a fresh installation - assuming
you have access to a second computer.

Mart


"JNB" wrote in message
...
My computer running Me will not finish booting up. It paints the box
asking
for username and password, which I setup for different users, but does not
display the different valid usernames. When I close that box by clicking
the
X, the music plays but it stops right there with a plain blue screen.
I've
also tried booting in Safe Mode and it I get a grey screen with Safe Mode
in
each corner. I assume that a file or 2 have become corrupted. How do I
recover? I have original Me CD, would reinstalling wipe out other
stuff.....would I need to reinstall everything? would I lose data? I've
also got an XP Upgrade disk. Is this original OS dependent, I think it
was
used for 98 SE. Is there another solution that would keep me from having
to
reinstall everything and not loose data files?

Incomplete startup of Me
 

I had recently been forced to reinstall the newest version of my ISPs
dailer...People PC. It was up and running OK. The next day I was trying to
limit my exposure to unfriendly things that come with it with Spybot. I
powered down and could never get it to boot back up (see below). Another
clue may be that when I try a reguiar boot there is an error message that
comes up over the login box that says Validation Failed For
C:\windows\system\vsinit.dll Does this help diagnosis?
As you suggested, I tried the scanReg /restore and it ran, but the *.cab
files had dates a few years old. I know I have installed things like tax
software etc since those dates, so I did not try to use them. Within
scanReg, I did save a new .cab ...bit for now I'm still stuck and could use
some advice. Would the .cab of a few years ago would be OK? What about
upgrading to XP? I have the original OEM Me disk and an XP ungrade disk.
Also, when looking for the Me Startup floppy that I made when I first
installed it, I came across another Dell CD that looked like it had some
utilities on it....is anything there useful? And, while running the scanReg,
options 2 & 3 were to boot with a CD or boot without one. Would these
options look for good copies of the corrupted stuff? Thanks for you help so
far

"Mart" wrote:

You don't say what you might have done to cause this - e.g. did it suddenly
'just happen' or were you doing some work to your computer immediately prior
to the problem occurring? You *might* just be in with a chance of restoring,
especially as you can't (completely) boot into either Normal or Safe modes.
Do NOT try to over-install (re-install over itself) - this will very likely
cause you far more problems than you already have.

Boot using the Windows Startup (floppy) Disk and choose 4) Minimal Boot.
At the A:\ prompt, type "scanreg /restore" (no quotes and note the space
between the g and /) then press Enter.
Follow the screen prompts and when asked, select the last 'good' date prior
to your problems, continuing with the instructions.

Don't forget to remove the floppy disk BEFORE you tell the machine to
reboot.

If that doesn't fix it then you may well have lost or damaged/corrupted
critical files and be left with no other option but to completely "Clean
Install". NB There are several possible solutions to recovering important
(personal?) data or files BEFORE you attempt a fresh installation - assuming
you have access to a second computer.

Mart


"JNB" wrote in message
...
My computer running Me will not finish booting up. It paints the box
asking
for username and password, which I setup for different users, but does not
display the different valid usernames. When I close that box by clicking
the
X, the music plays but it stops right there with a plain blue screen.
I've
also tried booting in Safe Mode and it I get a grey screen with Safe Mode
in
each corner. I assume that a file or 2 have become corrupted. How do I
recover? I have original Me CD, would reinstalling wipe out other
stuff.....would I need to reinstall everything? would I lose data? I've
also got an XP Upgrade disk. Is this original OS dependent, I think it
was
used for 98 SE. Is there another solution that would keep me from having
to
reinstall everything and not loose data files?

Incomplete startup of Me
 

Validation Failed For C:\windows\system\vsinit.dll

This is part of the Zone Alarm firewall.

I'll let Mart continue trying to help but am somewhat concerned that when
using scanreg you weren't offered a recent date. What worries me is that
this suggests that you may have chosen to remove the startup entry that
backs up the registry each day and so may have also disabled system
restore otherwise I would have said use scanreg /restore regardless of the
date and then run system restore and choose a recent checkpoint that
predates your problems. However if SR is not going to be available then
using an old copy of the registry could generate further problems.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

I had recently been forced to reinstall the newest version of my ISPs
dailer...People PC. It was up and running OK. The next day I was
trying to limit my exposure to unfriendly things that come with it
with Spybot. I powered down and could never get it to boot back up
(see below). Another clue may be that when I try a reguiar boot
there is an error message that comes up over the login box that says
Validation Failed For C:\windows\system\vsinit.dll Does this help
diagnosis?
As you suggested, I tried the scanReg /restore and it ran, but the
*.cab files had dates a few years old. I know I have installed
things like tax software etc since those dates, so I did not try to
use them. Within scanReg, I did save a new .cab ...bit for now I'm
still stuck and could use some advice. Would the .cab of a few years
ago would be OK? What about upgrading to XP? I have the original
OEM Me disk and an XP ungrade disk. Also, when looking for the Me
Startup floppy that I made when I first installed it, I came across
another Dell CD that looked like it had some utilities on it....is
anything there useful? And, while running the scanReg, options 2 & 3
were to boot with a CD or boot without one. Would these options look
for good copies of the corrupted stuff? Thanks for you help so far

Incomplete startup of Me
 

What started all this was when I tried to add new phone numbers to the list
that the dailer was using. That did something and I was able to use System
Restore successfully then...probably about a week ago. And I'm sure that
I've used System Restore several other times since the date of the .cab
files. Anyway, the PC seemed to work fine except that the dailer was screwed
up so I contacted People PC and they told me to load the new one. I guess I
could try getting a new vsinint.dll.

"Mike M" wrote:

Validation Failed For C:\windows\system\vsinit.dll

This is part of the Zone Alarm firewall.

I'll let Mart continue trying to help but am somewhat concerned that when
using scanreg you weren't offered a recent date. What worries me is that
this suggests that you may have chosen to remove the startup entry that
backs up the registry each day and so may have also disabled system
restore otherwise I would have said use scanreg /restore regardless of the
date and then run system restore and choose a recent checkpoint that
predates your problems. However if SR is not going to be available then
using an old copy of the registry could generate further problems.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

I had recently been forced to reinstall the newest version of my ISPs
dailer...People PC. It was up and running OK. The next day I was
trying to limit my exposure to unfriendly things that come with it
with Spybot. I powered down and could never get it to boot back up
(see below). Another clue may be that when I try a reguiar boot
there is an error message that comes up over the login box that says
Validation Failed For C:\windows\system\vsinit.dll Does this help
diagnosis?
As you suggested, I tried the scanReg /restore and it ran, but the
*.cab files had dates a few years old. I know I have installed
things like tax software etc since those dates, so I did not try to
use them. Within scanReg, I did save a new .cab ...bit for now I'm
still stuck and could use some advice. Would the .cab of a few years
ago would be OK? What about upgrading to XP? I have the original
OEM Me disk and an XP ungrade disk. Also, when looking for the Me
Startup floppy that I made when I first installed it, I came across
another Dell CD that looked like it had some utilities on it....is
anything there useful? And, while running the scanReg, options 2 & 3
were to boot with a CD or boot without one. Would these options look
for good copies of the corrupted stuff? Thanks for you help so far

Incomplete startup of Me
 

If you think system restore is OK then there is no real harm in restoring
an older copy of the registry using scanreg /restore and then running
system restore as SR will replace the old restored version of the registry
with a copy made at the time the system restore checkpoint was created.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

What started all this was when I tried to add new phone numbers to
the list that the dailer was using. That did something and I was
able to use System Restore successfully then...probably about a week
ago. And I'm sure that I've used System Restore several other times
since the date of the .cab files. Anyway, the PC seemed to work fine
except that the dailer was screwed up so I contacted People PC and
they told me to load the new one. I guess I could try getting a new
vsinint.dll.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

I would still like to hear someone weight in on options 2 & 3 of scanReg.
What do they do?.....and on the concept of upgrading to XP. Thanks.

"Mike M" wrote:

If you think system restore is OK then there is no real harm in restoring
an older copy of the registry using scanreg /restore and then running
system restore as SR will replace the old restored version of the registry
with a copy made at the time the system restore checkpoint was created.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

What started all this was when I tried to add new phone numbers to
the list that the dailer was using. That did something and I was
able to use System Restore successfully then...probably about a week
ago. And I'm sure that I've used System Restore several other times
since the date of the .cab files. Anyway, the PC seemed to work fine
except that the dailer was screwed up so I contacted People PC and
they told me to load the new one. I guess I could try getting a new
vsinint.dll.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

To the best of memory (which isn't as good as it should be) Scanreg has no
options 2 or 3. Do you perhaps mean the options (four) presented when
booting to DOS using a Win Me boot floppy? If so with or without CD
support is I would have thought self explanatory, if you need to read from
a CD then choose the option for CD support, if not then ignore it.

and on the concept of upgrading to XP

For which there are a multitude of XP newsgroups. The decision whether to
upgrade or not depends on a multitude of factors most especially your
hardware and to a lesser extent the software you use. There is an XP
Upgrade Adviser that used to be available for download from Microsoft (it
may have been withdrawn with the release of Vista but is included on all
XP CDs) that should be able to help you determine whether you have any
hardware or software that is unsupported in XP and if upgrading, rather
than clean installing, that will need to be uninstalled before starting.
This will include all AV applications, firewalls and CD/DVD mastering
applications. You can reinstall them afterwards although some will need
to be updated.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

I would still like to hear someone weight in on options 2 & 3 of
scanReg. What do they do?.....and on the concept of upgrading to XP.
Thanks.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

There's not much else offer other than what Mike and I have already posted.
You are running out of options regarding getting your current WinMe system
to restore and at least run again (albeit requiring further work), with
scanreg /restore being the last tool in the box.

Regarding options 2 & 3 of scanreg (probably not much use in this case) see
:-
"Changes to the Registry Checker Tool (Scanreg.exe) in Windows Me"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/273889/en-us

And for Scanreg in general, see :-
"Description of the Windows Registry Checker Tool (Scanreg.exe)"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/183887/en-us

As for upgrading to XP, you should address that issue to one of the XP
groups. Personally, I would be inclined to concentrate on WinMe until you've
got a good working system (re-install if necessary) - even if that only
means that you proved the rest of your PC (hardware) is functioning
properly, in readiness for a potential XP upgrade. For all we know at this
time, you might well have a virus or malware, or worse still you *might*
even have a failing HDD.

Mart


"JNB" wrote in message
...
I would still like to hear someone weight in on options 2 & 3 of scanReg.
What do they do?.....and on the concept of upgrading to XP. Thanks.

"Mike M" wrote:

If you think system restore is OK then there is no real harm in restoring
an older copy of the registry using scanreg /restore and then running
system restore as SR will replace the old restored version of the
registry
with a copy made at the time the system restore checkpoint was created.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

What started all this was when I tried to add new phone numbers to
the list that the dailer was using. That did something and I was
able to use System Restore successfully then...probably about a week
ago. And I'm sure that I've used System Restore several other times
since the date of the .cab files. Anyway, the PC seemed to work fine
except that the dailer was screwed up so I contacted People PC and
they told me to load the new one. I guess I could try getting a new
vsinint.dll.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

Thanks guys for the suggestions....so I guess my approach will be to use the
scanreg /restore to get back to a very old registry, assuming Me boots then
I'll use Sytem Restore and hopefully there is a much more recent checkpoint
available. Before this though, will it be possible to backup my data files
and other downloaded executables (esp updates) to CD? How? And then if this
doesn't work, I'll use scanreg /restore to get back to where I was just
yesterday and try the XP upgrade. Please comment one last time.

"Mart" wrote:

There's not much else offer other than what Mike and I have already posted.
You are running out of options regarding getting your current WinMe system
to restore and at least run again (albeit requiring further work), with
scanreg /restore being the last tool in the box.

Regarding options 2 & 3 of scanreg (probably not much use in this case) see
:-
"Changes to the Registry Checker Tool (Scanreg.exe) in Windows Me"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/273889/en-us

And for Scanreg in general, see :-
"Description of the Windows Registry Checker Tool (Scanreg.exe)"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/183887/en-us

As for upgrading to XP, you should address that issue to one of the XP
groups. Personally, I would be inclined to concentrate on WinMe until you've
got a good working system (re-install if necessary) - even if that only
means that you proved the rest of your PC (hardware) is functioning
properly, in readiness for a potential XP upgrade. For all we know at this
time, you might well have a virus or malware, or worse still you *might*
even have a failing HDD.

Mart


"JNB" wrote in message
...
I would still like to hear someone weight in on options 2 & 3 of scanReg.
What do they do?.....and on the concept of upgrading to XP. Thanks.

"Mike M" wrote:

If you think system restore is OK then there is no real harm in restoring
an older copy of the registry using scanreg /restore and then running
system restore as SR will replace the old restored version of the
registry
with a copy made at the time the system restore checkpoint was created.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

What started all this was when I tried to add new phone numbers to
the list that the dailer was using. That did something and I was
able to use System Restore successfully then...probably about a week
ago. And I'm sure that I've used System Restore several other times
since the date of the .cab files. Anyway, the PC seemed to work fine
except that the dailer was screwed up so I contacted People PC and
they told me to load the new one. I guess I could try getting a new
vsinint.dll.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

Forget about the XP upgrade PERIOD
If your system isn't booting this is the last thing you should be doing.
Once you've corrected the booting problem and you've run the XP Upgrade
Advisor then perhaps you should consider upgrading to XP but not before.

And then if this doesn't work, I'll use
scanreg /restore to get back to where I was just yesterday

Scanreg offers no such escape route OR are you saying that when running
scanreg /restore you can see a backed up copy of the registry from
yesterday and then no others except for four (a total of five should be
visible) from "years ago"? If so that is indeed very strange and begs the
question as to why the registry started being backed up yesterday having
not been so for a year or more.

Data backup. If you can only boot to DOS using a boot floppy then this is
probably easiest done using an external USB drive which should I think be
available provided you enable USB Legacy Support in the PC's bios.
--
Mike Maltby




JNB wrote:

Thanks guys for the suggestions....so I guess my approach will be to
use the scanreg /restore to get back to a very old registry, assuming
Me boots then I'll use Sytem Restore and hopefully there is a much
more recent checkpoint available. Before this though, will it be
possible to backup my data files and other downloaded executables
(esp updates) to CD? How? And then if this doesn't work, I'll use
scanreg /restore to get back to where I was just yesterday and try
the XP upgrade. Please comment one last time.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

OK....will a memory stick in a USB port work? Also, I have a ZIP drive on
the computer. Please guide me, I speak some the language but as you can tell
I really am a novice.

"Mike M" wrote:

Forget about the XP upgrade PERIOD
If your system isn't booting this is the last thing you should be doing.
Once you've corrected the booting problem and you've run the XP Upgrade
Advisor then perhaps you should consider upgrading to XP but not before.

And then if this doesn't work, I'll use
scanreg /restore to get back to where I was just yesterday

Scanreg offers no such escape route OR are you saying that when running
scanreg /restore you can see a backed up copy of the registry from
yesterday and then no others except for four (a total of five should be
visible) from "years ago"? If so that is indeed very strange and begs the
question as to why the registry started being backed up yesterday having
not been so for a year or more.

Data backup. If you can only boot to DOS using a boot floppy then this is
probably easiest done using an external USB drive which should I think be
available provided you enable USB Legacy Support in the PC's bios.
--
Mike Maltby




JNB wrote:

Thanks guys for the suggestions....so I guess my approach will be to
use the scanreg /restore to get back to a very old registry, assuming
Me boots then I'll use Sytem Restore and hopefully there is a much
more recent checkpoint available. Before this though, will it be
possible to backup my data files and other downloaded executables
(esp updates) to CD? How? And then if this doesn't work, I'll use
scanreg /restore to get back to where I was just yesterday and try
the XP upgrade. Please comment one last time.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

A USB stick should work provided USB Legacy Mode is enabled in the bios.
This may or may not be an option and depends on your motherboard.

A Zip drive may or may not be usable depending on whether DOS drivers are
required and if so whether they are available. It does rather depend on
how the Zip is connected. If internal it may need no special drivers.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

OK....will a memory stick in a USB port work? Also, I have a ZIP
drive on the computer. Please guide me, I speak some the language
but as you can tell I really am a novice.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

I totally concur with your conclusions Mike (thanks for chipping in mike),
however there was a niggling point which I overlooked from JNB's original
post and consequently I (we?) made an ASSumption.

JNB, you wrote :-
.... tried booting in Safe Mode and it I get a grey screen
with Safe Mode in each corner.

But you didn't say whether you could progress beyond that point - i.e. have
you tried to access System Restore in Safe Mode? Can you do anything in Safe
Mode?

If Safe Mode just 'hangs' with the "grey screen with Safe Mode in each
corner", how do you close down? And what happens when you re-boot? Does
WinMe attempt a Scandisk? And if so, what - if anything - does it report?

Regarding rescuing your data, if Mikes plan doesn't work due to the driver
issues discussed, you may have to remove your HDD and connect it to your
'other' PC (a couple of options available), but don't expect to transfer
*INSTALLED* downloaded executables, only the pre-installed files. Updates -
as in WinMe updates - are all still currently available from MS - I think!!

Mart


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
A USB stick should work provided USB Legacy Mode is enabled in the bios.
This may or may not be an option and depends on your motherboard.

A Zip drive may or may not be usable depending on whether DOS drivers are
required and if so whether they are available. It does rather depend on
how the Zip is connected. If internal it may need no special drivers.
--
Mike Maltby



JNB wrote:

OK....will a memory stick in a USB port work? Also, I have a ZIP
drive on the computer. Please guide me, I speak some the language
but as you can tell I really am a novice.

Incomplete startup of Me
 

Mart,

I had thought along much the same lines as yourself, that is, that Safe
Mode had "hung" at around the point the desktop is usually displayed.
Whenever that has happened to me the problem has always been cleared by
scandisk running automatically following a reboot.
--
Mike Maltby



Mart wrote:

I totally concur with your conclusions Mike (thanks for chipping in
mike), however there was a niggling point which I overlooked from
JNB's original post and consequently I (we?) made an ASSumption.

JNB, you wrote :-
.... tried booting in Safe Mode and it I get a grey screen
with Safe Mode in each corner.

But you didn't say whether you could progress beyond that point -
i.e. have you tried to access System Restore in Safe Mode? Can you do
anything in Safe Mode?

If Safe Mode just 'hangs' with the "grey screen with Safe Mode in each
corner", how do you close down? And what happens when you re-boot?
Does WinMe attempt a Scandisk? And if so, what - if anything - does
it report?
Regarding rescuing your data, if Mikes plan doesn't work due to the
driver issues discussed, you may have to remove your HDD and connect
it to your 'other' PC (a couple of options available), but don't
expect to transfer *INSTALLED* downloaded executables, only the
pre-installed files. Updates - as in WinMe updates - are all still
currently available from MS - I think!!

Incomplete startup of Me
 

Mike wrote :-

Whenever that has happened ... the problem has
always been cleared by scandisk running
automatically following a reboot.

Unless of course one cancels the 'forced' scandisk operation as being
irrelevant, totally unnecessary and a compete waste of time VBG (Not
exactly unheard of - and not that long ago, either)

BTW - WinMe Auto-update is still working - just tried it this morning.

Mart


"Mike M" wrote in message

Mart,

I had thought along much the same lines as yourself, that is, that Safe
Mode had "hung" at around the point the desktop is usually displayed.
Whenever that has happened to me the problem has always been cleared by
scandisk running automatically following a reboot.
--
Mike Maltby

Incomplete startup of Me
 

Sorry for the delay guys....i'm having to use someone elses
computer/connection so there is a delay between reading you comments and
trying/checking stuff and replying. Anyway...scandisk did run automatically,
i've learned that when the system hangs and I have to use the power button to
shut down that scandisk finishes alot faster if i start in Safe Mode. Then I
do an orderly shutdown from Safe Mode and then it has always powered up
normally. However, now after scandisk finishes it goes to the grey screen
that I mentioned before and hangs...I cant do anything. I dont recall now if
scandisk runs automatically anymore after i use the power button to shutdown
from the hung state (I'll have to go back and try it) Also, one mystery that
I can clear up is the reason there is a very recent .cab available from
scanreg /restore is that I after you guys turned me on to scanreg I noticed
its "backup" option and used it to create the .cab. The other 4 that show up
in the list now are several years old.
Is this still the right way to proceed? I'm deathly afraid I'll blow away
data etc if I try this and it doesnt work. For now though from DOS, I've
looked around on the C: drive and it looks like all is still intact and the
HDD is OK. I havent tried saving to the memory stick yet but that will be my
next step...or should I just take the HDD to another computer and back it up
there first?

"Mart" wrote:

Mike wrote :-

Whenever that has happened ... the problem has
always been cleared by scandisk running
automatically following a reboot.

Unless of course one cancels the 'forced' scandisk operation as being
irrelevant, totally unnecessary and a compete waste of time VBG (Not
exactly unheard of - and not that long ago, either)

BTW - WinMe Auto-update is still working - just tried it this morning.

Mart


"Mike M" wrote in message

Mart,

I had thought along much the same lines as yourself, that is, that Safe
Mode had "hung" at around the point the desktop is usually displayed.
Whenever that has happened to me the problem has always been cleared by
scandisk running automatically following a reboot.
--
Mike Maltby

Incomplete startup of Me
 

No 'solutions' I'm afraid but a couple of further pointers which might be
worth looking at :-

"How to Troubleshoot Windows Millennium Edition Startup Problems"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/273738/en-us

Virus has to be a (strong?) contender - as mentioned in the KB article.
Try F-Protect for DOS from http://www.f-prot.com/download/

BTW - May be worth throwing as much hardware off as you can (especially
USB), leaving minimal kit - Monitor, Keyboard and (preferably) serial or
ps/2 Mouse.

Also :-
"How to Start the System Restore Tool from a Command Prompt"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279736/en-us

But the fact that you haven't got any *recent* .CAB files (typically 5) - as
Mike has already pointed out - is a major worry, especially for the days
leading up to the day on which your PC went down.

..or should I just take the HDD to another computer
and back it up there first?

If you've got some serious (personal) data which you can't afford to lose,
then Yes!

Mart


"JNB" wrote in message
...
Sorry for the delay guys....i'm having to use someone elses
computer/connection so there is a delay between reading you comments and
trying/checking stuff and replying. Anyway...scandisk did run
automatically,
i've learned that when the system hangs and I have to use the power button
to
shut down that scandisk finishes alot faster if i start in Safe Mode.
Then I
do an orderly shutdown from Safe Mode and then it has always powered up
normally. However, now after scandisk finishes it goes to the grey screen
that I mentioned before and hangs...I cant do anything. I dont recall now
if
scandisk runs automatically anymore after i use the power button to
shutdown
from the hung state (I'll have to go back and try it) Also, one mystery
that
I can clear up is the reason there is a very recent .cab available from
scanreg /restore is that I after you guys turned me on to scanreg I
noticed
its "backup" option and used it to create the .cab. The other 4 that show
up
in the list now are several years old.
Is this still the right way to proceed? I'm deathly afraid I'll blow away
data etc if I try this and it doesnt work. For now though from DOS, I've
looked around on the C: drive and it looks like all is still intact and
the
HDD is OK. I havent tried saving to the memory stick yet but that will be
my
next step...or should I just take the HDD to another computer and back it
up
there first?