Everything is GONE!! Help!

Okay, so everything in my computer is GONE. I was
cleaning out some things that I don't use anymore and all
of a sudden the whole screen went purple (the color of my
background). There are no icons, no start menu toolbar,
NOTHING. When I hit ctrl+alt+del to see what the problem
is, there are only 2 programs running: msgloop and msg32
or something. I don't know what these are and I can't
find my original Windows 98 cd to reinstall. Does anyone
know if there is still a chance I can recover all my
documents and if so, how in the heck do I do it?!

"pharon" wrote in message
...

Okay, so everything in my computer is GONE. I was
cleaning out some things that I don't use anymore and all
of a sudden the whole screen went purple (the color of my
background). There are no icons, no start menu toolbar,
NOTHING. When I hit ctrl+alt+del to see what the problem
is, there are only 2 programs running: msgloop and msg32
or something. I don't know what these are and I can't
find my original Windows 98 cd to reinstall.

1. Without a Win98 CD your chances are almost nil.
Search the hard drive for many CABinet files and SETUP.EXE
in the same folder in case you copied the Win98 CD.
2.. Run a virus checker first.
3. Then run DOS ScanDisk set / thorough.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"pharon" wrote in message
...
Okay, so everything in my computer is GONE. I was
cleaning out some things that I don't use anymore and all
of a sudden the whole screen went purple (the color of my
background). There are no icons, no start menu toolbar,
NOTHING. When I hit ctrl+alt+del to see what the problem
is, there are only 2 programs running: msgloop and msg32
or something. I don't know what these are and I can't
find my original Windows 98 cd to reinstall. Does anyone
know if there is still a chance I can recover all my
documents and if so, how in the heck do I do it?!

Most likely all can be saved.
Wait for other replies.
Msgloop is a sound card driver or program.
What happens when you try to reboot.
Have you tried rebooting yet?
It may be as simple as a registry restore or booting into Safe Mode
and seeing if you can 'restore' from the Recycle Bin, or other.
Perhaps you may even have to 'repait' IE.

1. Reboot if you have not already done so.
2. Restore a copy of the registry from the day before the problem
starting--see below.
3. Here's a way to get into the system when explorer.exe won't load:
Recovering From a Failed Internet Explorer Upgrade in Windows 98
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;249191
************
If this problem is less than five days old, restore a copy of the registry
that predates the onset of the problem and see if that helps. The five-day
limit assumes that the computer is booted every day. If it is not booted
every day, you may have an old enough registry backup that you can use even
though more than five days have elapsed. Any registry changes made after
the date of the restored registry will be lost.

Ways of restoring the W98 registry include:

On the Start Menu, select Shut Down and Restart in MSDOS Mode. At the
Windows prompt, type: scanreg /restore and hit enter.

Boot to the boot menu by holding down either the ctrl or F8 key after the
ram count occurs on the boot screen. Select Command Prompt Only and at the
C: prompt, type: scanreg /restore and hit enter.

Boot with the W98 start up floppy disk--CDRom support doesn't matter. At
the A: prompt, type: C: and hit enter. At the C: prompt, type: CD
Windows\Command and hit enter. At the Command prompt, type: scanreg
/restore and hit enter.

Once the registry restore screen appears, select the date of the registry
that you wish to restore by highlighting it and then click enter. If you
see a registry named: Rbbad.cab, that is a copy of the registry that has
already been replaced.

--
Regards

Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo

"pharon" wrote in message
...
Okay, so everything in my computer is GONE. I was
cleaning out some things that I don't use anymore and all
of a sudden the whole screen went purple (the color of my
background). There are no icons, no start menu toolbar,
NOTHING. When I hit ctrl+alt+del to see what the problem
is, there are only 2 programs running: msgloop and msg32
or something. I don't know what these are and I can't
find my original Windows 98 cd to reinstall. Does anyone
know if there is still a chance I can recover all my
documents and if so, how in the heck do I do it?!