Re-Formatting the hard drive on an old laptop

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Dale D. - 10 Jul 2003 22:21 GMT

I have an old Hitachi Notebook computer with a Pentium 100
processor. Quite a while ago, I tried to install Norton
Antivirus on it and the whole thing just stopped working.
I can't get it to reboot so I'd like to just reformat the
hard drive, reinstall Windows 95 (I have the original
disk) and just start over. Can someone help me with this
process?

Many Thanks.

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philo - 10 Jul 2003 22:33 GMT

> I have an old Hitachi Notebook computer with a Pentium 100
> processor. Quite a while ago, I tried to install Norton
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Many Thanks.

what type of error message did you get, it might be repairable

also, if it comes down to a reinstall, does your machine have a cd drive?
and if so, do you have a cd support boot floppy?

if not, you can get one from www.bootdisk.com but it may or may not work on
your
machine, so if you are installing from cd, do not format your drive until
you are sure you
can access your drive

at any rate, if you have a boot disk, it is possible that you can get your
system booted up
again bt simply renaming autoexec.bat and config.sys

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Dale D. - 14 Jul 2003 05:12 GMT

>-----Original Message-----
>
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>system booted up
>again bt simply renaming autoexec.bat and config.sys

When I installed the Norton Antivirus software I think I
may have changed some of the settings in my attempt to get
the darned thing to work. When I turn on my laptop it
tries to go throught he normal startup sequence (Showing
the Windows 98 screen) but then it gets stuck with the
folowing:

"Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run
Windows or a Windows application.

The windows registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to this
device file, but the device file no longer exists.

If you deleted this file on purpose, try unistalling the
associated application using its uninstall or setup
program.

If yo still want to use the application associated with
this device file, try reinstalling that application to
replace the missing file.

C:\ANTVIRUS\WIMMUN32.VXD
Press a key to continue"

I got this message after I deleted the DIR C:\antvirus.

When I press a key, I get another message which is very
old that states:

"File could not be found.

Module C:\NOVELL\CLIENT32\LSLC32.NLM did NOT remain
resident.
Press any key to continue ..."

When I press a key, I get the following:

"NAV Auto-Protect
Unable to determine the location of the virus definition
files.

[OK}"

I press enter and it takes me to the desktop with "Welcome
to Windows" and asks for a Username and Password. This is
because I used to use this machine on my corporate network
at my office. I click "Cancel" and I get an error message
that says:

Display

Your display adapter is not configured properly. to
correct the problem, click OK to start the Hardware
Installation wizard.

When I click OK, it takes me to the Add New Hardware
screen but then it immediately goes to a blue screen
with "Windows" at the top and it reads:

"Invalid VxD dynamic link call from VWIN32(01) + 00000714
to device "0009", service 1.
Your Windows configuration is invalid. Run the Windows
Setup program again to correct this problem.

To continue running Windows press Y or ENTER. To quit the
current program press N. If you continue running Windows,
your system may become unstable. Do you want to continue?"

Press Y for Yes or N for No:

I press N and the computer shuts down.

My machine has a CD drive. It also has a 3 1/2 inch
floppy drive but it doesn't work.

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philo - 14 Jul 2003 09:23 GMT

> "Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run
> Windows or a Windows application.
[quoted text clipped - 63 lines]
> My machine has a CD drive. It also has a 3 1/2 inch
> floppy drive but it doesn't work.

first off, on the very last step instead of pressing N press Y
and see if you can even get windows started.

if you can, then you will need to adjust your video settings
(and possibly reinstall your video drivers) but for the time being
you can just set the machine at some minimal configuration.

if windows does *not* start, reboot and hit F5 while booting to enter safe
mode
and you should be able to readjust your video from there
(just set at some minimal display good enough to at least get the machine
booted to windows)

if you can at least get windows started, then you should actually reinstall
your anitvirus
program and then rather than delete it *uninstall* it (from the control
panel)

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