Jonto

Hi

Last night i manage to shaft my computer.

I deleted some system files by accident. My computer won't boot up to windows either normally or in same mode.

I can get to dos prompt and look at the contents of my hard drive but guess now that i will need to re-install windows again. I know that i had "CAB" settings but i am not sure if i can re-install windows from my C:/. If i can what exe files do i need and where will it be.

If i need to re-install windows from cd disk how do i do that ? I can get to c: and A: (disk drive) but don't have D: (cd)

Any ideas ?

Cheers
Jonathan

Markus

I don't think that windows puts the install (CAB) files on the drive itself.

Do you happen to have a 98 Boot Floppy? if you do then boot from that, it should give you an option to start with or without CD drivers, choose the 'with' option, this will allow you to access the cd drive.

What I then do is create a new directory on the C drive, usually call it win98. I then copy the contents of the Win98 directory that is on the CD to the local win98 folder. This copies the setup files for windows.

Then it is simply a case of going into c:/win98 and typing 'setup' this will launch the windows setup installer.

When it runs it will detect that windows is already installed, I *think* it might let you repair the existing install, but I'm not 100 percent sure on this as I've never really tried this as when things go bad I usually do a complete reinstall from a backup.

hope this helps.

lightning101

If you boot using a windows sturtup floppy, A: is Floppy, C: is Hard Drive, D: is a RAM drive and E: onwards are CDROMS.

Jonto

one probelm, i do not have a windows 98 boot floopy disk.

where could i get one from ?

Cheers

suba

www.bootdisk.com

Fig

If the install files are on your hard drive (which is probable if the machine was originally bought with WIN98 pre-installed (assuming you have not reformatted since)), they are usually put in: C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS
If present, just run setup.exe from there. IIRC Windows 98 does not give the option to repair the installation, it will simply reinstall over the top of the original. You will need the CD key.

ChrisB

If you're stuck mate, let me know and you can wheel it round to mine or something

Jonto

cheers chris might take up on that offer.

will drop you a mail if i get that desperate !

Jonto

right, i have got my computer to boot to dos with a cd drive. just need a windows 98 disk from or windows upgrade disk.

any ideas ?

cheers
jonathan