When I tried to start my computer I get this message. My brother said he was downloading something and all of a sudden the computer froze up. He powered off the system and then powered up again, only to see this message...

The message:
Type the name of the command Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)
C>

I tried to use a Win98 boot disk and was able to boot fine and get to C: prompt. But when I tried to change to the C: drive all I could see was a bunch of weird characters http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif My C: drive folders and files do not show up. I also tried to use fdisk and it still shows a valid and working partition. But when I used Scandisk C:, the blue scandisk came up but never started, it just has a blank blue screen with the "Scandisk" header but doesn't start scaning as if C: never exist!!! HELP!!!

system spec:
win98 se, intel 500 p3, 192mb pc100 ram, 10gig hd, tyan tiger mobo

Weird characters...smells like a virus. I hope you had an antivirus program installed, and I hope you made an emergency rescue disk...otherwise it sounds like time to dig out the Windows CD, format and reinstall...

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Before you reformat and reinstall Windows, try this:
-Boot with the Windows startup floppy, get to the C:\> prompt, type 'fdisk /mbr' (without the ', note the space between fdisk and the /), press Enter.
-If that does not work, then at the A:\> prompt with the floppy inserted type 'sys c:' and press Enter.

Try running a anti-virus program at bootup. If it has the updated dat then hopefully it will at least identify the virus, that is if your system is infected. It's possible that the anti-virus program might not be successful in removing the virus. As I understand it these programs don't contain the same number of virus pattern files as the full program. I believe they can't remove such things as virus WORM. I also had a similar problem with the command interpreter. I simply put my 98SE disc into the CD-ROM then booted using a disc. Chose boot with CD-ROM support.You should be looking at the A:\>
punch in E:\ and enter. You should be looking at E:\> Then punch in
CD WIN98 and enter. Should be looking at E:\WIN98> Next type in SETUP.EXE and enter. This will start the setup for windows. Before it installs it will backup your present systems settings. Hopefuly once it is installed you can run windows and if everything is ok then delete the backup.