Strange Startup - Win 98 SE

Good afternoon!

After an OS reinstall (done by someone else) booting up is really
irritating. I get the Compaq screen followed by a black screen with a
blinkink cursor, the windows loading screen, another black screen with a
blinking cursor, then the windows desktop background, THEN the icons appear
and it finally finishes booting.

I update and run regularly: Spybot S&D, Spyware Blaster, AdAware6, HJT,
CWShredder, CleanUP, and Avast AV.

I have pared down my start up programs through MSCONFIG, and it made no
difference to the weird and slow startup.

Also, before the major crash... my TS files were wiped out. I understand
that MS caused this through a security patch, so I searched in the MS KB and
it directed (through a link) to a DL file fix. I DL'ed in, but it was
exactly the same. No files.

Thank you very much in advance for any possible fixes!

~Rose )