My father decided to remove some files from his computer through Add/remove programs. When he was finished he restarted the computer.

It started fine but before the desktop shows up an error saying "Error loading explorer.exe you must reinstall windows" appears.

He clicks "ok" and then another window pops up saying "A required.dll file, MSVCRT.dll, was not found" and then the computer stalls.

It doesnt do anything. He cant get the start up button to come on or anything.

Does anyone have any advise for us?

Hi cherished79...

Do you have the Win98 istallation cd? What we need to do is replace a file on the machine with one from the cd.

wannabe1

OH! Thank you for replying!

Yes, We tried to put the cd in to reinstall it but it doesnt do anything. We tried to put it in after the boot up and then we tried putting it in while it was booting up and neither one did anything.

HI cherished79...

You have the CD... Now, is it a retail version of the OS or is it an OEM (branded like Dell or HP) recovery CD that came with the machine?

There are a couple of ways we can go with this depending on what type of CD you have...

No matter which you have, I'm pretty confident we can get you up and running again.

wannabe1

Hi Wannabe1,

Yes, he said he has a rescue recovery cd and the original win98 cd. He said he tried both and the computer just sits there. (He has them at his house so I am unsure of exactly what he has.)

It's a bit more complicated than just putting the cd in the drive

However, Win98 is one of the few operating systems that will "overlay" quite nicely...this is much less complicated than extracting files. You will need the product key for this procedure...it should be located either on a sticker on the machine or on the booklet that came with it.

You are going to need a startup disk to do this. Download this Win98SE OEM Startup Disk and save it to your desktop. Double click on the downloaded file and put a floppy disk in the drive when prompted to do so. to create the Startup Disk.

Put this floppy disk in your dad's machine and restart...it will boot to the floppy. Choose the option to "Start with cd-rom support" and press "Enter". This should load some drivers and take you to a command prompt (A:\) Put the original Win98 cd in the drive and type the following commands at the prompt, pressing "Enter" after each command:

• e:
• setup.exe

Follow the prompts to reinstall Win98 to the default directory (C:Windows). When the machine gets to the point to where it needs to restart, remove the floppy disk, but leave the cd in the drive. Windows will complete the installation and boot to windows.

You may run into a few driver issues after the install, but these are easily taken care of. If you run into any problems or have any questions, please post back...

wannabe1

This post has been edited by wannabe1: Apr 10 2006, 08:33 AM

LOL. I am sorry. I didnt realize what the steps were to take. Thank you for making this easier. As you can tell, I dont know much about this sort of thing.

I downloaded it onto my desktop and I am looking for a disk to put it on and I will have him do this tonight!

Thank you Wannabe1!

You are very welcome...

Let me know how it goes....

wannabe1

My dad tried what you said last night. As soon as it booted up it went to the set up page and then it went to a second page which said this:

Diskette Drive A 1.44M, 3.5 IN Display type EGA/VGA
Diskette Drive B None Serial Ports 3F8
Pri Master Disk LBA, UDMA 2, 12839MB Parallel Ports 378
Pri Slave Disk None SDRAM at ROWS 2.45
See Master Disk CD ROM, UDMAZ Power Management: Enabled
See Slave Disk Non

PCI Device Listing
Bus NO. Devise No. Func. No. Vendor ID Devise ID Devise class IRO
0 7 1 8086 7111 IDE Controller 14
0 7 2 8086 7112 Serial Bus Controller 10
0 9 0 11C1 0440 Simple Comm. Controller 5
0 11 0 1274 1371 Multimedia Devise 10
1 0 0 8086 7800 Display Contoller 11
ACPI Controller 9

Verify DMI Tool Data
Non System Diskette
Microsoft Back up diskette
Replace and press any key when ready.

He did press a key and it repeated "Replace and press any key when ready"

Any other suggestions?

Yep...

The Startup Disk didn't create properly. Try a brand new floppy disk. Double-click the downloaded file, but don't put the floppy into the drive until it asks for it.

wannabe1

Wannabe1,

ok, he will go buy a new disk. Yesterday I found some disks and just deleted what was on them and then downloaded it onto the disk.
Thanks again.
He will try it again tonight.

-Carissa

Wannabe1,

Just wanted to let you know that he tried it and got to the point of putting in the key # but he couldnt find the number. I found it here at work so he will finish trying it tonight.

Thanks again and I will let you know how it goes.

-Carissa

IT WORKED!!!!!
He asked me to tell you Thank you.
You're great!

Off hand would you know how he could delete everything on the computer (besides windows 98)? He wants to clear it out and bring it to work for one of the guys to have but he doesnt want to give him any sort of personal things.

Great news!

The best way to clean a machine is to format the drive and reinstall Windows...if there is banking information or other critical information on the machine, this is what I would recommend.

If the information is of a less critical nature, he can do the following:

• Open My Documents and delete everything out of each folder he finds in there (leaving just the empty folders).
• Click Start, point to Programs, then to Accessories, then to System Tools, and click on Disk Cleanup...run the utility.
• Navigate to C:Windows\Temporary Internet Files and delete everything in this folder.
• If he used Outlook or Outlook express, open the application and delete all e-mails...then open the Address Book and delete all e-mail addresses. (Be sure to include the Drafts, Sent, and Trash folders)
• Open Internet Explorer, click on "Tools" on the Toolbar, and select "Internet Options". Under the "General" tab, click on the "Use Default" button, the "Delete Cookies" button, the "Delete Files" button, and the "Clear History" button. Click "Apply" then "Ok". Do the same for any other Browsers or e-mail clients installed on the machine. (ie: Firefox, Thunderbird, Netscape, AOL, etc...)
• Empty the Recycle Bin

Reboot.

Click Start, point to Programs, then to Accessories, then to System Tools, and click on Disk Defragmenter...run the utility.

Reboot.

The machine should now be pretty well free of personal information...at least that which can be located by most folks.

wannabe1

This post has been edited by wannabe1: Apr 14 2006, 11:38 AM

Thanks again for EVERYTHING!!!!!
Have a Happy Easter!