boot problem(command interpreter)

[crashnburn]

Help!!!

My wife's laptop was booted up with a 3.5 floppy in it's drive, I'm not sure what my wife did after that (she says "nothing"), but now I get this message "Type the name of the Command Iterpreter (e.g., C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)" and then shows the "c" prompt.

When I type the command interpreter in, it just repeats the original message. I have looked on many forums, as well as this one, and have found a few solutions, but none of them work.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[Sylvander]

Have you tried THIS (http://www.easydesksoftware.com/news/news11.htm) sort of thing?

Which version of Windows is the laptop running?
Do you have a Startup floppy made by the Windows installation on the laptop?

[crashnburn]

I did not try it before, however I zjusr tried it and it didn't work.

I am running windows 98.

[Sylvander]

What EXACTLY did you do I wonder?
Try this...

1. Write-protect your floppies in case your laptop is infected.

2. Use a Startup floppy made by your present Windows version [Win98] to enter the commands...
a:\>sys c:
a:\>scandisk.exe

3. If you still get the error message, then enter the commands...
a:\>attrib -r -s -h c:\command.com
a:\>copy a:\command.com c:\
a:\>attrib -h -s -r io.sys
a:\>copy a:\io.sys c:\

4. If you still get the error message, then enter the commands...
a:\>fdisk /mbr

[crashnburn]

Hi Sylvander,

I appreciate your time on this.

This is what I am currently doing (exactly)

I made a boot disk for win98 OS.

I placed it in the laptop and booted it up

It gave the following options:
1. Start Computer with CD-ROM support
2. Start Computer without CD-ROM support
3. View help file

I selected #2, since I do not have the CD-ROM hooked up.

It read for awhile then gave me the a prompt

I then typed sys c:

It gave the message " Invalid media type reading drive c....abort,retry,fail?

This is where I am currently at

[Sylvander]

HDD "Invalid Media Type" leads to this conclusion...

The hard disk's file structures have become corrupted or the data on it is unreadable (an existing disk volume is acting as if it is unformatted, or there are very serious disk errors) (http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/hdd/file_BadCorruption.htm)

Go down the list in order...
First use a [write protected] bootable floppy [or a bootable CD] with an anti-virus program to scan for viruses.

[crashnburn]

Thanks for the help.

I'll read your link and see what else could be done.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again