Hi,

My old man pc seems to have lost windows 98.

Upon starting the pc, we get a message stating that due to non standard shutdown procedure, there is a problem. Once it performs a disk scan it pops up with a message - " Error Loading Explrer.EXE. You Must reinstall Windows".

It then jumps straight to another box titled "Error Starting program" with the message " A Required . DLL File , C:\windows\system\MSVCRT.DCC, was not found"

I have no idea as to where to go from here as the pc locls up and all i can do is "Ctrl+Alt +Enter" to rebbot the system but then I am back to square one.

Please advise me how i can proceed.

Thanks

Hi ped106...

Do you have the Win98 installation cd?

wannabe1

Hi wannabe1,

Thanks for your reply,

I have a restore pack cd and floppy,the packageing tells me that it contains my recovery version of windows 98 second edition.

Is this what you were asking me?

Actually, I was kinda hoping you had a retail version...

But let's try it with the version you have. First I need to know what files are on the floppy you have...or you could download This One. (Save it to your Desktop, double click on the file, and put a floppy in the floppy drive when prompted to do so.)

The game plan is to run a Windows Setup so that it "overlays" the current installation. Recovery cd's gernerally want to format and start you fresh, so we'll have to watch out for this feature and stop if that's what it tries to do. To let it continue would mean losing all data on the hard drive. The overlay would leave the data intact.

It's the best option at the moment. Your call...

wannabe1

Put the startup disk in the floppy drive and start the machine. It will boot from the floppy.

At the options screen, choose option 2 (Start with cd-rom support) and press "Enter". It will scan the PCI bus and install a bunch of drivers, then you will see a message about Windows starting up...not quite yet .

It will go to an A:\ prompt. Type c: and press "Enter" At the C:\ prompt, type dir /p (Note the space after dir) and press "Enter". In the resulting list, is there an entry Windows? (If not on the first screen, move to the next by pressing the space bar)

If yes, put the recovery cd in the cd-rom drive and at the C:\ prompt, type e:setup and press "Enter". (We may have to play with this command)

Here's where we have to be careful. If it starts a Recovery (Format) it should warn you about data loss...we don't want this procedure...cancel out. If it starts Windows Setup, we are off and running. This installation needs to go into the default directory...Do not change the location it installs to.

I'll be here for the duration...keep me informed.

wannabe1

This post has been edited by wannabe1: Feb 14 2006, 06:08 PM

I will be attempting what you told me.. The thing is i am going to have to switch the towers over to give it a go.

I will let you know how I got on.

Thanks for your help wannabe1

ok, you were right, we will need to play around with the command e:setup, it did not like it

Yeah...using recovery cd's can be a bit tricky.

I'd like to have a look at the directory on the cd...to find out what folder that setup file is in. Just so all your hard work (switching towers) doesn't go to waste, try these commands:

From whatever prompt you are at, type e: and prss "Enter". At the E:\ prompt, type dir /p and press "Enter". Look for a windows "folder" in the list and make note of the name. (Windows, Win98, etc...). (If not on the first screen, move to the next by pressing the space bar) That will be the key to get us in the door.

When you are back at the E:\ prompt, type win98\setup and press "Enter"

No joy? Type windows\setup and press "Enter"

No joy? What's the name of the folder you saw in the list.

This post has been edited by wannabe1: Feb 14 2006, 07:54 PM

i havnt tried what u have asked yet, but i do recall the name was windows when i first attempted the procedure. Is this relevant or should I, just do as u stated in your last post?

This post has been edited by ped106: Feb 14 2006, 07:57 PM

Try this one first...

Type windows\setup and press "Enter"

I tried what you stated by trying windows\setup, but it just said bad command.
I tried what you said in the previous post such as :From whatever prompt you are at, type e: and prss "Enter". At the E:\ prompt, type dir /p and press "Enter". Look for a windows "folder" in the list and make note of the name. (Windows, Win98, etc...). (If not on the first screen, move to the next by pressing the space bar) That will be the key to get us in the door.

When you are back at the E:\ prompt, type win98\setup and press "Enter"

No joy? Type windows\setup and press "Enter"

but that didnt work and there wasnt a windows folder in that e: list.

when at c: prompt and typing dir /p the list contains two folders with ref to windows - windows <DIR> & Window~1 BNK

Also whilst reviewing what you told me from the beginning to make sure I was doing everything correctly I noticed you asked me to turn pc on with floppy in drive so its boots automatically and then choose option 2 (Start with cd-rom support). The thing is start with cd rom support is option 1 on my pc, which is the option i picked, was this correct???

You did fine... Option 1 on both of my disks is "Help"...

I need a little more information. Do you have more than one hard drive on this machine? Do you (or did you) have a Simms game installed?

Once again, to make the best of the time on the bad tower, try this for me.

Boot with the startup disk and at the Options screen, press Shift + F5 to get an A:\ prompt.

At the A:\ prompt, type c: and press "Enter"

At C:\, type windows\command\scanreg /restore (Note the space after scanreg) and press "Enter"

You will (hopefully) be presented with a list of files we can restore to. Use the arrow keys and select a file 2 or 3 down in the list. Press "Enter"

Let me know if this will run.

Let's also see if we can replace the explorer.exe file and try booting into Windows.

Boot to the A:\ prompt as described in my last post. At the A:\ prompt, type the following commands pressing "Enter" after each one.

c: "Enter"
cd windows "Enter"
ren explorer.exe explorer.old "Enter"

Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to restart (with the startup disk in the drive). At the Options screen, choose to "Start with CD-ROM support"

Put the installation cd in the cd-rom drive.

At the prompt, type ext and press "Enter" and then follow the instructions on the screen to extract explorer.exe.

Take all disks out of the drives and try booting into Windows.

Let me know how you fare with this.

Hi wannabe1 , sorry I was away from the pc, when you posted your last two posts.

Answers to your questions, one harddrive and I do believe, my sister did install a version of sims.

what should i do first, the post you sent an hour ago, or the post you you sent last regarding explorer?

Try the last one (post 13) first.