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#1
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Windows 98 boots to dos prompt only
When I boot up, It takes me directly to the c prompt. Cant sem to get it to
launch into windows (normal, safe mode, or anything Any suggsetions? Am I missing some file, or is there some command missing from Aotuexec or config sys or something? |
#2
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"pete" wrote in message
... When I boot up, It takes me directly to the c prompt. Cant sem to get it to launch into windows (normal, safe mode, or anything Any suggsetions? Am I missing some file, or is there some command missing from Aotuexec or config sys or something? The OP omitted why you think this PC has Win98. If the PC loads Win98 at boot and reverts to the DOS prompt, you should be able to shell to Windows via WIN and WIN /? ought to get you a help screen listing parameters. Standard Win98 installations do not need AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS. If these exist, try renaming them something else then rebooting. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
#3
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On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 12:26:04 -0700, "pete"
wrote: When I boot up, It takes me directly to the c prompt. Cant sem to get it to launch into windows (normal, safe mode, or anything Any suggsetions? Am I missing some file, or is there some command missing from Aotuexec or config sys or something? 1. Do you see the startup menu, or it boots directly to C: prompt? 2a. If you don't see it -- hold down the left Ctrl key when BIOS counts memory, and see if this menu appears. If yes -- can you boot normally using it? If yes -- run Notepad, and open Msdos.sys: File -- Open; type the file name: c:\msdos.sys What is its content (excluding the lines with ;xxxx)? 3a. If there is no Startup menu even with Ctrl key pressed -- are there any error messages on the screen while booting? 3b. And in this case I would boot from the standard Win98 Setup Disk (diskette), that can be prepared at any computer with Win98: Control Panel -- Add/Remove programs -- 'Startup Disk' tab and see the content of Msdos.sys first; type: edit c:\msdos.sys followed by Enter key. What is its content, excluding the lines with ;xxxx (there may be some lines below these lines, too)? Write it down by pencil. Exit Edit (press ALT or F10 key, and select: File -- Exit) 5. Then type: dir c:\win*.* What do you see on the screen after you press Enter? (It is only the first step to understand what happened; the other steps will depend on your answers). -- Mikhail Zhilin MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User) http://www.aha.ru/~mwz Sorry, no technical support by e-mail. Please reply to the newsgroups only. ====== |
#4
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I typed WIN and WIN/? and got "bad command or file name."
"Don Phillipson" wrote: "pete" wrote in message ... When I boot up, It takes me directly to the c prompt. Cant sem to get it to launch into windows (normal, safe mode, or anything Any suggsetions? Am I missing some file, or is there some command missing from Aotuexec or config sys or something? The OP omitted why you think this PC has Win98. If the PC loads Win98 at boot and reverts to the DOS prompt, you should be able to shell to Windows via WIN and WIN /? ought to get you a help screen listing parameters. Standard Win98 installations do not need AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS. If these exist, try renaming them something else then rebooting. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
#5
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Ok, the MSDOS.sys file in the root dir (c:\) has the following
;sys I see the WIndows directory when I type dir c:\win*.* "Mikhail Zhilin" wrote: On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 12:26:04 -0700, "pete" wrote: When I boot up, It takes me directly to the c prompt. Cant sem to get it to launch into windows (normal, safe mode, or anything Any suggsetions? Am I missing some file, or is there some command missing from Aotuexec or config sys or something? 1. Do you see the startup menu, or it boots directly to C: prompt? 2a. If you don't see it -- hold down the left Ctrl key when BIOS counts memory, and see if this menu appears. If yes -- can you boot normally using it? If yes -- run Notepad, and open Msdos.sys: File -- Open; type the file name: c:\msdos.sys What is its content (excluding the lines with ;xxxx)? 3a. If there is no Startup menu even with Ctrl key pressed -- are there any error messages on the screen while booting? 3b. And in this case I would boot from the standard Win98 Setup Disk (diskette), that can be prepared at any computer with Win98: Control Panel -- Add/Remove programs -- 'Startup Disk' tab and see the content of Msdos.sys first; type: edit c:\msdos.sys followed by Enter key. What is its content, excluding the lines with ;xxxx (there may be some lines below these lines, too)? Write it down by pencil. Exit Edit (press ALT or F10 key, and select: File -- Exit) 5. Then type: dir c:\win*.* What do you see on the screen after you press Enter? (It is only the first step to understand what happened; the other steps will depend on your answers). -- Mikhail Zhilin MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User) http://www.aha.ru/~mwz Sorry, no technical support by e-mail. Please reply to the newsgroups only. ====== |
#6
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Pete,
It seems as someone replaced Msdos.sys by the wrong one -- it looks like Msdos.sys from the diskette. Boot from the diskette again now, and reset Msdos.sys attributes so you can edit it; type: attrib -h -s -r c:\msdos.sys Then run "edit c:\msdos.sys" again, and type, assuming your Windows folder is c:\windows (you can delete the existent line ';sys' -- but that is optional; don't print the lines with ;--- .... ): ;--- beginning of msdos.sys is at the line below --- [Paths] WinDir=C:\WINDOWS WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS HostWinBootDrv=C [Options] BootMulti=1 BootGUI=1 DoubleBuffer=1 AutoScan=1 WinVer=4.10.2222 ; ;--- end of msdos.sys is at the line above --- Save Msdos.sys and exit Editor (ALT -- File -- Save -- ALT -- File -- Exit). No need to restore its attributes, but you can do that later, when make sure all is Ok. And if all will be Ok -- it would be better to add 20 dummy lines like ;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to the end of this file: Then rename Autoexec.bat and Config.sys as, say, Autoexec.ba$ and Config.sy$ (that may be, the wrong files were copied along with Msdos.sys -- and, as it is said already, these files are not necessary for Win95/98 if there are no specific requirements -- like the non-English language settings for DOS). Type for that: ren c:\autoexec.bat autoexec.ba$ ren c:\config.sys config.sy$ Remove the diskette, restart (Ctrl-Alt-Del) and see if all is Ok now. We can analyze autoexec.ba$ and config.sy$ after that -- to see if there are some settings, which is better to leave in the startup files. Run Notepad, open (one by one) these files and copy/paste their contents to your reply here. -- Mikhail Zhilin MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User) http://www.aha.ru/~mwz Sorry, no technical support by e-mail. Please reply to the newsgroups only. ====== On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 15:59:02 -0700, "pete" wrote: Ok, the MSDOS.sys file in the root dir (c:\) has the following ;sys I see the WIndows directory when I type dir c:\win*.* "Mikhail Zhilin" wrote: On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 12:26:04 -0700, "pete" wrote: When I boot up, It takes me directly to the c prompt. Cant sem to get it to launch into windows (normal, safe mode, or anything Any suggsetions? Am I missing some file, or is there some command missing from Aotuexec or config sys or something? 1. Do you see the startup menu, or it boots directly to C: prompt? 2a. If you don't see it -- hold down the left Ctrl key when BIOS counts memory, and see if this menu appears. If yes -- can you boot normally using it? If yes -- run Notepad, and open Msdos.sys: File -- Open; type the file name: c:\msdos.sys What is its content (excluding the lines with ;xxxx)? 3a. If there is no Startup menu even with Ctrl key pressed -- are there any error messages on the screen while booting? 3b. And in this case I would boot from the standard Win98 Setup Disk (diskette), that can be prepared at any computer with Win98: Control Panel -- Add/Remove programs -- 'Startup Disk' tab and see the content of Msdos.sys first; type: edit c:\msdos.sys followed by Enter key. What is its content, excluding the lines with ;xxxx (there may be some lines below these lines, too)? Write it down by pencil. Exit Edit (press ALT or F10 key, and select: File -- Exit) 5. Then type: dir c:\win*.* What do you see on the screen after you press Enter? (It is only the first step to understand what happened; the other steps will depend on your answers). -- Mikhail Zhilin MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User) http://www.aha.ru/~mwz Sorry, no technical support by e-mail. Please reply to the newsgroups only. ====== |
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