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Windows Forum / Windows 98 / Setup / July 2006Windows 98 reinstall from c: drive
I have an old machine that had windows98. Recently, we had a power out and when I restarted the machine, it went through the usual blue screen "scan for errors" routine. Foolishly I eXited from this (as I often did!) but I subsequently received an error message (in DOS) that GDI.EXE couldn't load and that I would have to reinstall windows. The PC then, within a fraction of a second, turned off. Having researched the on-line resources, I booted up into DOS and reinstalled the fonts in c:\windows\fonts from the copy of the WIN98 disk that I have on my c: drive. This did not solve the problem. So, I thought, OK, let's reinstall windows from DOS, and I proceeded to run SETUP from the copy of the windows98 disk that I have on the c:drive. (I have lost the actual CD!). Setup went through the scandisk routine and identified a problem with a long filename that would need scandisk for windows to resolve, but other than that, was OK. Setup then wento on to scan the system registry... ...and it said "Cannot create a temporary directory. This may be caused by too many files in the root directory"...and stopped! So, I went to the root directory and stripped out all unnecessary files and folders and tried again, and again... Nothing that I have done seems to have made any difference. Any ideas?? > I have an old machine that had windows98. Recently, we had a power out and > when I restarted the machine, it went through the usual blue screen "scan for > errors" routine. Foolishly I eXited from this (as I often did!) but I > subsequently received an error message (in DOS) that GDI.EXE couldn't load > and that I would have to reinstall windows. The PC then, within a fraction of > a second, turned off. This is normal. Power outages can easily corrupt files that happen to be system files. If you can boot into Safe Mode (via key F8 during boot process) you may be able to identify damaged files and replace them using SFC.EXE = System File Checker. > Having researched the on-line resources, I booted up into DOS and > reinstalled the fonts in c:\windows\fonts from the copy of the WIN98 disk > that I have on my c: drive. This did not solve the problem. This appears normal. (a) Only a couple of fonts are critical to normal Wiin98 startup. (b) You did not mention how you reinstalled fonts in DOS (which requires EXP and knowledge of the CAB files.) > Setup went through the scandisk routine and identified > a problem with a long filename that would need scandisk for windows to [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > folders and tried again, and again... Nothing that I have done seems to have > made any difference. 1. It may be worth while identifying that particular LFN file and renaming it so SCANDISK runs cleanly. 2. You did not mention drive space, empty space, etc: but this is a clue to delete all unneeded and junk files (e.g. Temp Internet Files) before you run SCANDISK and before you reinstal. If the foregoing would not allow you to reinstal Win98 your fastest solution may be to add a new hard drive and either (a) instal it as C: so that your old C: becomes D:, and then instal Windows on the new C:, or (b) copy all old C: to new D:, then format C: and instal afresh, after checking all steps listed in http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html  SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) Thanks for your input, Don! Regrettably, it won't start into safe mode - I can only get into the machine in DOS so I am unable to run SFC. In order to reinstall the fonts, I followed the instructions on support.microsoft.com article number 146904, using the extract command and specifying win98_22.cab as the cabinet file. The hard disk is nominally a 4Gig drive with 1,136MB free (since I stripped out lots of junk files!) How can I identify the offending LFN from within DOS? It had ocurred to me that renaming this might help. Do you think that renaming the windows folder and trying to reinstall a new one might work? Thanks again for your thoughts! Much appreciated!! > > I have an old machine that had windows98. Recently, we had a power out and > > when I restarted the machine, it went through the usual blue screen "scan [quoted text clipped - 48 lines] > afresh, after checking all steps listed in > http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html I am not sure the LFN is the problem but a way around it is to type: setup.exe /is and this will bypass scandisk during installation. SignatureRegards Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98 Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour Knowledge Base Info: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo > Thanks for your input, Don! > [quoted text clipped - 77 lines] >> afresh, after checking all steps listed in >> http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html Thanks, Ron! Tried that already. Didn't work. Same as before, Setup went on to scan the system registry... ...and it said "Cannot create a temporary directory. This may be caused by too many files in the root directory"...and stopped! Any thoughts on the idea of renaming the windows folder and tying to install a new one? > I am not sure the LFN is the problem but a way around it is to type: > setup.exe /is and this will bypass scandisk during installation. [quoted text clipped - 80 lines] > >> afresh, after checking all steps listed in > >> http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html How many files does a DIR of the root directory from DOS find?? I suspect that anything over about 70 may have problems - anything over about 85 certainly will have SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > Thanks, Ron! > [quoted text clipped - 101 lines] >> >> afresh, after checking all steps listed in >> >> http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html Thanks Noel! 25 files including hidden, and 24 folders. I don't get it! I already moved most of the files to a temporary folder, although there were never that many to begin with. > How many files does a DIR of the root directory from DOS find?? > I suspect that anything over about 70 may have problems - anything over [quoted text clipped - 105 lines] > >> >> afresh, after checking all steps listed in > >> >> http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html Hmmm - that does sound a low number to get so fussed about! All I can think of is that for some reason one of the critical files is marked as 'read-only' when it shouldn't be, or there's a naming conflict. can you list all the files and folders? - and whether any are marked as 'read-only'?? SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > Thanks Noel! > [quoted text clipped - 124 lines] >> >> >> afresh, after checking all steps listed in >> >> >> http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html Hi, Noel, The read only files that I can see when I list using the "attrib" command are as follows: SUHDLOG.TXT SUHDLOG.--- SUHDLOG.BAK MSDOS.SYS IO.SYS ASD.LOG DBLSPACE.BIN MSDOS.BAK SYSTEM.1ST DBLSPACE.INI DRVSPACE.BIN These are the read only files - there are others that are system files, but not read only. Does this give you any clues?? Thanks for your help! Ben > Hmmm - that does sound a low number to get so fussed about! > All I can think of is that for some reason one of the critical files is [quoted text clipped - 130 lines] > >> >> >> afresh, after checking all steps listed in > >> >> >> http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html That could explain it! SUHDLOG.TXT should NOT be read-only - and neither should the backup files SUHDLOG.--- and SUHDLOG.BAT - nor should ASD.LOG, MSDOS.BAK, DBLSPACE.INI, or DRVSPACE.BIN BTW - are you using, or have you used, drive compression on this drive? - if so, then you will destroy the compression during the install, IIRC, corrupting all files in the process! My advice would be to rename them to aaaaaOLD.xxx (just in case!) and remove the read-only attribute The only read-only files in root a default install are IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS SUHDLOG.DAT (!!) SYSTEM.1ST HTH - good Luck! SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > Hi, Noel, > [quoted text clipped - 169 lines] >> >> >> >> afresh, after checking all steps listed in >> >> >> >> http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html Just what I thought as the LFN should not be generating a notice like that. I assume that the .cab files (and setup.exe file for W98) are not in the Windows folder. If so and if you cannot otherwise fix the problem, try deleting the Windows folder from a DOS prompt and then reinstalling the system. This will be a clean install and all settings will be lost, any programs installed will have to be reinstalled, etc. SignatureRegards Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98 Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour Knowledge Base Info: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo > Thanks, Ron! > [quoted text clipped - 101 lines] >> >> afresh, after checking all steps listed in >> >> http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html Create a temporary directory manually using "md". md c:\temp Then run setup with the "/t:" switch. setup /t:c:\temp Ben > I have an old machine that had windows98. Recently, we had a power out and > when I restarted the machine, it went through the usual blue screen "scan for [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > Any ideas?? Thanks, Ben! What does the "/t:" switch do? I am not familiar... Ben > Create a temporary directory manually using "md". > [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > > > > Any ideas?? It specifies the temporary directory to which the Windows installer puts the files during the install (I had to look it up, too!) SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > Thanks, Ben! > [quoted text clipped - 49 lines] >> > >> > Any ideas?? OK, Guys - we have progress! with the /t switch as suggested, setup starts to copy the files needed for windows setup, but then stops after telling me that it "Cannot open source file: c:\win98\deltemp.com" I checked, the file really does not exist. It then tells me that it "Cannot copy setup files to temporary directory" and suggests that I "Run setup again without any options..." I tried this - back to square 1. ...so, I copied deltemp.com from another machine, and copied extract.exe to the win98 folder... ...and tried setup again, with the /t switch... ***SUCCESS!!!*** Thanks to each of you for your support and contributions! I truly am very grateful! BenL > It specifies the temporary directory to which the Windows installer puts the > files during the install (I had to look it up, too!) [quoted text clipped - 52 lines] > >> > > >> > Any ideas?? Great news, Ben! persistence pays off :) SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > OK, Guys - we have progress! > [quoted text clipped - 86 lines] >> >> > >> >> > Any ideas?? |
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