Win 98 bootup problem...Please help!

[sathya9]

My pc won't bootup...it gives me an error msg that some .386 file is missing and when i hit enter it says that a file from the iosubsys directory is missing and hangs....i tried the boot disk and was able to get to the command prompt. When trying to start windows i got the same error message. The problem started when i downloaded a file from the internet...looks like it was a malicious file.

I don't mind reformatting my hard disk except that I have my pictures and some other documents on it. I can get to the files from the command prompt. Is there a way for me to copy these files to a secondary hard disk or something and then I could try the reformat?

Any suggestions?
I have been told that I could connect the hard disk to a machine running Windows 2000 and it would recognize it....is that true? I have a laptop running windows 2000...

[Jacko]

Your Best bet at this point is to just do reinstall of windows. Hopefully this might solve the problem, or atleast get you a little further into windows.

Just boot to your startup/boot disk and then insert your Win98 CD ROM. Switch drive letters (eg. type "D:") so it can see your CD Rom Drive and then type "setup".

This kind of reinstall, simply refreshes your current windows installation and no personal files should be affected! Hope that helps.

[sathya9]

I tried and looks like the reinstall worked but it brought me back to the same error msg i.e. file missing in iosubsys directory.

[Budfred]

Welcome to PCGuide!

If you suspect that you got a malicious file, the first thing you need to do is run an Antivirus boot disk to check and clean your system. DO NOT connect to another computer until you are sure you have cleaned up your system or you will have 2 infected systems. You can download a free antivirus and make a boot disk if you don't already have one. If you don't find anything that way, you may want to run a spyware and trojan scan. Check the 2nd link under the Security Forum for links.

Budfred

[YODA74]

sounds like somethingkeeps deleting it?? have you checked to see if you have a Trojan ? There's a little freeware shell extension program called "Peek" which will display all text strings in a COM or EXE. It's handy for looking at a suspected file for a trojan.

found here, It's a windows based program.

http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/peek11.zip

Caution this is a direct down load

Peek v.1.1 [peek11.zip : 17 KBytes]
Excellent little file viewer - Shows the contents of any binary file.
PEEK is a Shell context menu extension which allows you to extract only the
text
portion of files.
After installation you are provided with 3 different setups called:
- Standard
- Unicode
- Binary Files Installation Download Peek 1.1 and unzip it.. Right click on
the PEEK.INF file and then Install. It is added to your Explorer context menu
as a right-click option.

obviously you'll loose the text format. and the file will end up in plain
ascii.

I have never used this so you might want to wait maybe someone else has?

But if you have reformated and reistalled either your CD is dirty, bad and is not installing all the files or somthing is deleting that file??

[mjc]

Did you do a clean install?

If not try a installing after running a forma on the drive......you may also wnat to grab the diagnostics utlities from the drive manufacturer and give them a run or use them to zero out the drive. This will overwrite everything on the drive with zeros.

[sathya9]

Is there a way for me to copy files from my current hard disk to another? Once my personal files have been copied over I can reformat the disk and install clean....Any suggestions?

[Budfred]

If you run a DOS based virus scan and it comes up clean, you can copy your files from DOS, but I wouldn't do it until you make sure you are not copying a virus with your files.

Budfred

[sathya9]

How do I copy files from DOS that are over 2MB in size? The floppy won't handle that file size.

[Budfred]

You would need to copy them to a Zip, tape, or some other drive that could handle larger files. There are programs that will safely break larger files down, but I am not sure any of them run from DOS. It may be possible to compress them, but I am not sure if you can do that is DOS either. Others will know more...

Budfred