Win98SE broken - need to re-install

I am trying to help my neighbour. His installation of W98SE has "broken".
When booting from the hard drive, it says several files including
explorer.exe are missing and that windows should be re-installed.

So how to do it?

We can't get the hard disk boot to go far enough in either normal or safe
mode in order to get CDROM access.

I have tried using a Win98SE (and a WinMe )boot floppy with CDROM support -
When I try to run setup.exe (on the Win98 CDROM), I get a message saying -
"This program requires Windows"

The version of Windows SE is the upgrade CDROM. I tried putting my own full
version of Win2K in the CDROM drive , but the same message comes up.

I tried booting from the Win98SE CDROM, but it won't boot - get a message
that says "failure"

So question is:

How do I recover a corrupted version of Windows 98SE when I have only
upgrades of Windows 98SE/Win98/Win95 - Original was Windows for Workgroups
and it is on a floppy.

I do have originals of Win2K and WinXP and an upgrade Win mE. I also have
floppy startup disks for Win98SE and WinMe.

Graham

The Windows 98 installation CDs were generally not bootable.

If Explorer.EXE is missing then I would guess the disk is badly corrupted.
You could use DOS disk analysis tools to get an idea of what's happened.

If you can't get Windows started then about the only option is to install a
fresh version. You can install it to the same folder, overwriting the
existing installation. or to a new folder. The procedure is to use a boot
floppy disk with CD-ROM support and to run SETUP from the CD.

The message you are getting indicates that it's an update CD. What is the
exact labelling on the CD you are trying to use?
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Graham" wrote in message
...
I am trying to help my neighbour. His installation of W98SE has "broken".
When booting from the hard drive, it says several files including
explorer.exe are missing and that windows should be re-installed.

So how to do it?

We can't get the hard disk boot to go far enough in either normal or safe
mode in order to get CDROM access.

I have tried using a Win98SE (and a WinMe )boot floppy with CDROM
support -
When I try to run setup.exe (on the Win98 CDROM), I get a message saying -
"This program requires Windows"

The version of Windows SE is the upgrade CDROM. I tried putting my own
full
version of Win2K in the CDROM drive , but the same message comes up.

I tried booting from the Win98SE CDROM, but it won't boot - get a message
that says "failure"

So question is:

How do I recover a corrupted version of Windows 98SE when I have only
upgrades of Windows 98SE/Win98/Win95 - Original was Windows for Workgroups
and it is on a floppy.

I do have originals of Win2K and WinXP and an upgrade Win mE. I also have
floppy startup disks for Win98SE and WinMe.

Graham

"Jeff Richards" wrote
The Windows 98 installation CDs were generally not bootable.

If Explorer.EXE is missing then I would guess the disk is badly corrupted.
You could use DOS disk analysis tools to get an idea of what's happened.

Thanks for the reply Jeff. I am not sure if Explorer.exe is missing. The
message I get when trying to boot from HD is "Error Loading Explorer.exe.
You must reinstall Windows."

Then I get a small window that says something about msvcrt.dll - maybe it is
missing or cannot be loaded. At that point everything freezes up and I have
to CTRL/Alt/Del to restart. This happens from normal and safe mode.

If you can't get Windows started then about the only option is to install
a
fresh version. You can install it to the same folder, overwriting the
existing installation. or to a new folder. The procedure is to use a boot
floppy disk with CD-ROM support and to run SETUP from the CD.

OK - That's what I am trying to do. I tried several floppy boot disks and
even downloaded a fresh W98SE one off the net from Bootdisk.com. I can see
the W98SE CD and all it's files, but when I try and run Setup.exe, it gives
the message "This program requires Windows" and nothing happens. I copied
command.com from the HD to the boot floppy, but I still get same message.

I tried using my own WinMe rescue floppy with WinMe in the drive and it
works - I could install WinMe (but then I would have to give WinMe to my
neighbour!) So, perhaps the problem is with the version of Win98SE -
Perhaps the upgrade vs the full version? Unfortunately, I don't think we
made a rescue floppy for W98SE .


The message you are getting indicates that it's an update CD. What is the
exact labelling on the CD you are trying to use?

The W98SE CD is called Microsoft Windows98 Second Edition Updates CD SET
X04-12712 and it has a sticker with the product key. This was previously
used to upgrade the original W98 to W98SE - this was done a while back and
worked fine. But at that time W98 was functional and the upgrade was done
from within Windows.

Graham



--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Graham" wrote in message
...
I am trying to help my neighbour. His installation of W98SE has "broken".
When booting from the hard drive, it says several files including
explorer.exe are missing and that windows should be re-installed.

So how to do it?

We can't get the hard disk boot to go far enough in either normal or
safe
mode in order to get CDROM access.

I have tried using a Win98SE (and a WinMe )boot floppy with CDROM
support -
When I try to run setup.exe (on the Win98 CDROM), I get a message
saying -
"This program requires Windows"

The version of Windows SE is the upgrade CDROM. I tried putting my own
full
version of Win2K in the CDROM drive , but the same message comes up.

I tried booting from the Win98SE CDROM, but it won't boot - get a
message
that says "failure"

So question is:

How do I recover a corrupted version of Windows 98SE when I have only
upgrades of Windows 98SE/Win98/Win95 - Original was Windows for
Workgroups
and it is on a floppy.

I do have originals of Win2K and WinXP and an upgrade Win mE. I also
have
floppy startup disks for Win98SE and WinMe.

Graham

"Graham" wrote
OK - That's what I am trying to do. I tried several floppy boot disks and
even downloaded a fresh W98SE one off the net from Bootdisk.com. I can see
the W98SE CD and all it's files, but when I try and run Setup.exe, it
gives
the message "This program requires Windows" and nothing happens.

I tried another tack - I happened to have an old unused computer here that
still had Win98SE Upgrade installed. I booted it up and created a rescue
floppy. I then rebooted same old computer using this floppy. I then put the
Win98SE upgrade CD in the drive, switched to drive E: and tried to run
setup. I get the same message as on the my neighbour's computer "This
program requires Windows"

So it has nothing to do with the hardware. This does not happen if I use a
WinMe floppy and the WinMe Upgrade CD, so it seems to be Win98SE specific.

I am at a loss as to why this happens.

If I could just get Win98SE to boot from HD with CDROM support, I could then
probably run setup, but how do I fix the missing or corrupted files on the
HD?

Graham

I think I have "discovered" the problem!

The Win98SE CD, is actually the Update CD and does not have the full
operating system. I have now started re-installing Win98 and will re-install
SE over it - seems like pain, but what can you do!

Graham

"Graham" wrote in message
...

"Graham" wrote
OK - That's what I am trying to do. I tried several floppy boot disks
and
even downloaded a fresh W98SE one off the net from Bootdisk.com. I can
see
the W98SE CD and all it's files, but when I try and run Setup.exe, it
gives
the message "This program requires Windows" and nothing happens.

I tried another tack - I happened to have an old unused computer here that
still had Win98SE Upgrade installed. I booted it up and created a rescue
floppy. I then rebooted same old computer using this floppy. I then put
the
Win98SE upgrade CD in the drive, switched to drive E: and tried to run
setup. I get the same message as on the my neighbour's computer "This
program requires Windows"

So it has nothing to do with the hardware. This does not happen if I use a
WinMe floppy and the WinMe Upgrade CD, so it seems to be Win98SE specific.

I am at a loss as to why this happens.

If I could just get Win98SE to boot from HD with CDROM support, I could
then
probably run setup, but how do I fix the missing or corrupted files on the
HD?

Graham

I thought it was probably the update CD - that message is a giveaway.

As you don't know what happened to cause all this, I would recommend doing
some thorough hardware diagnostics (especially disk drive diagnostics)
before doing the re-install.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Graham" wrote in message
...
I think I have "discovered" the problem!

The Win98SE CD, is actually the Update CD and does not have the full
operating system. I have now started re-installing Win98 and will
re-install
SE over it - seems like pain, but what can you do!

Graham

"Jeff Richards" wrote As you don't know what
happened to cause all this, I would recommend doing
some thorough hardware diagnostics (especially disk drive diagnostics)
before doing the re-install.
--

Jeff,

I suspect that I answered "yes to all" when un-installing some old
software - It probably took out msvcrt.dll which showed up as one of the
problems.

If this was my own computer, I would have done a clean install (or junked it
), but it belongs to a 75 yr old neighbour and has all her data on it.

I tripled the RAM from 32MB to 96MB and it now just flies

Just one nagging problem - occasionally right clicking on the desktop
produces an hourglas that remains for a very long time- somehow the context
menus seem messed up. But then, it works fine again. I have read a lot of
stuff on Google about this, but I can't make it my life's work to track down
the problem!

Thanks for your interest

Graham