I have an old computer with files on it that I would very much like to salvage if possible. I would really appreciate any help with my problem that anyone could give me. Here's my situation:

The computer operates using Windows ME. I hadn't used it in awhile and recently, upon trying to start it I found that it no longer boots.

If I start the computer up without the Emergency Boot Disk, I get the following:

This program must be run under Win32
WININIT.EXE: Missing/Unable to load
Press any key to continue...

I hit a key and then it says the following:

Cannot find SYSTEM.INI
Boot with emergency boot disk and type SCANREG /RESTORE

So I do...I restart with the boot disk in the floppy drive and I now get the following screen:

Microsoft Windows Millenium Help and then lists about four options that I have followed through including a Help Menu that doesn't answer any of the questions that I have.

I scan the registry in all different drives and it tells me everytime that there are no backup files to restore. This concerns me because all of the help that I've been seeking says that it should find dates in the registry and I should select the one that appears to be prior to my install.

It's basically missing pieces that I don't know anything about or even where to begin. I would really like to save what I can off this hard drive, if not get it up and running again. Could someone please help me?

Thank you so much!

This post has been edited by defdumbandblind: May 13 2005, 02:21 PM

Does this make sense to anyone at all?

You should see what happens if you try to connect the disk up to another computer, and copy the files onto cds or another hard disk. I have tried this but it failed, I am currently getting lots of helpful solutions to restore my old files. Mostly MP3s and my programs and stuff. Try it and keep us updated.

when you start the computer start tapping the F8 Key this should give you the option to boot in to safe mode. highlight safe mode and press enter.
Also I assume you have another computer, if so what operating system are you using.

This post has been edited by peterm: May 14 2005, 02:25 AM

Okay....Pheww!!!

First of all, thank you all for your suggestions! I was freaking out.

So, here's where I'm at:

I have successfully started my PC in Safe Mode. Good. If I attempt to boot the computer regularly, it gives me the following:

This program must be run under Win32
WININIT.EXE: Missing/unable to load.
Press any key to continue...
_

Then, when I press a key it will now start in Safe Mode.

What do I need to do now? Do you think it's a virus (which I know there are present), or is it a missing file or something?

Thanks again for all the help, I'm almost there!

[ The computer I'm on at the moment is running Windows 2000 Pro. ]

This post has been edited by defdumbandblind: May 16 2005, 04:22 PM

you got a virus. Do you have ME startup disk?
have a look at this
winint
If you are not sure what to do after reading this DO NOTHING
let me know and I wil try to step you through it bit by bit.
Because you can't access the internet you can't run a virus checker.

Thanks for the suggested article. I figured it was a virus of some kind.

So, to bring you up to speed on what's happening, I'll walk you through what my computer's doing now.

I can start it up in safe mode and now, I can start it up regularly but it still appears to be in safe mode. Strange.

In the linked article you suggested, they said I should find win.ini by searching for it and then try and change the code to work around it. The lame thing about this is that for some reason I can't open anything. It won't even let me open win.ini. I can't open anything in my control panel or any extensions. It will only let me open certain programs.

I do have a Windows ME boot disk. If you have a clue as to what I could do next, please, by all means take a stab at it! I installed Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition 7.5 as suggested by a guy at work, but when I scan with it, it comes up clean every time. This sucks.

Thanks though, let me know if you have another idea.

Do you want to try this part? or do you have a cd burner on your other computer

To do so in Windows Millennium Edition, insert the Windows Millennium Edition Startup disk in drive A, restart your computer, when the Microsoft Windows Millennium Editon Startup menu appears, select Start Computer With CD-ROM Support, at the command prompt, type: C:, and then press ENTER.
2. At the command prompt, type the following commands (press ENTER after each command):
cd windows
del wininit.exe
3. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.
4. Extract new copies of Wininit.exe files from your Windows CD-ROM.

For additional information about how to extract files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
129605 How to Extract Original Compressed Windows Files

The annoying part of this is that I no longer have the original Windows ME CD although I do have a burner on the older computer.

I have other versions on windows on CDs that may contain wininit.exe, or there may be somewhere online that I could access that. What do you think?

I think that may be it though, I'll try removing and replacing it when I know where to get a clean wininit.exe copy.

Thanks.

ok if you have a burner go to computer accossiaties site they have
a virus protector you can download for 1 year free. burn it to the cd
then run it on your me computer.
do not replace without a proper me file.
Don't you have the ME cab files onyour computer that is how you ran
SFC so they must be there or their? But first try CA virus protector
if you can't find it let me know

Yes. I do have .cab files on the computer that I have been able to access and I am able to extract from.

ok can you extract the file to a floppy?

Yes. I'm going to try and figure that out right now.

Ok. I have extraceted wininit.exe to a floppy. Now what should I do?

Little steps
1) go to search and put in wininit.exe and write down the path name