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System wiped out

Started by beenthere, June 30, 2005, 12:46:20 PM

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beenthere

Yesterday I managed to wipe out a SYTEM.INI file in my computer (Win 98SE) and now thousands of files, many that were not backed up, are not available. However, I have a notebook (laptop) that I can use to communicate, that without it, I would be in cktate's situation.
I went through some real depression (I think I am spoiled), trying to figure out what to do next. Have decided to get a new tower with XP operating system and shove my old hard drive in there as a slave drive and access the files that way. Any thoughts that this will, or won't, work? Thinking of going Dell.

This happened when I decided (while renewing my Norton Antivirus subscription) to jump up to the Network Security version. Big mistake. It hauled my system down to a snails pace, so I then decided to send it back, and just go back to the Norton Antivirus. To do this, Symantec (Norton) said to remove the Network Security version using the Windows uninstall Add/Remove feature. Wow, it wiped out the all-important SYSTEM.INI file and I was done, finished. Two hours on the phone with Symantec (that is a feat in itself, to even reach a human there) and another hour on the phone with Gateway, and their conclusion was re-format the hard drive and start over. Excuse me, but I didn't want to lose a years worth of photo's and a few other hundred things. So my $10 decision to upgrade my Norton subscription will get me into big bucks for a new XP system. Wanted it anyway, but not this way.  :)   Thanks for listening. Appreciate any thoughts for proceeding along this path.  (I don't really like computers, but they are in control of me, as Brad pointed out so well).   ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Buzz-sawyer

I feel your pain.I have sucessfully done what you re describing.....I keep a few old hard drives around and would Just Restore system on one of them....set it up as master to my corrupted drive..walla fixed up in an hour or so....... 8) 8) 8) 8)
I have a suggestion...............

that would be cheaper and still be in line with future system up grades.
Buy a 120-160 gig hard drive....then use you reformat/system restore disk on that drive.
Then you will have PLENTY of room to retrive catalog and restore your files....then you can install it as slave in your new system when the proper time comes.
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

DouginUtah

Beenthere,

I've beenthere!  :D I wrote about it in a thread called A Boring Computer Tale... or something like that.

I'm pretty sure you can save all the files on the hard disk. Send me an IM if you need some specific help.

-Doug
-Doug
When you hang around with good people, good things happen. -Darrell Waltrip

There is no need to say 'unleaded regular gas'. It's all unleaded. Just say 'regular gas'. It's not the 70s anymore. (At least that's what my wife tells me.)

---

beenthere

Buzz
That was a real thought earlier this morning, and I had a spare drive lined up. Glad to hear from you that it is a possibility. I suspect I'd need to disconnect the old drive, put in the spare, then restore the system on it, and then re-connect the old drive as a slave.
But, I remember the torturous days spent with Gateway when trying to correct some shut-down problems with the Win98SE operating system. It was gruelling.  With those recollections, I think I may not go there with the restoration.
I have been wanting to load the XP system for some time, but beginning to realize that it may not like the speed and antiquity of the things on this motherboard. I may go peacefully on to a new tower and system.

Per your suggestion, (bigger hard drive), I was told that the BIOS likely would not permit using but about 30 gig of a larger drive.  But it is here where I get lost and confused real fast. I need just a tad bit more 'intrique' and time to get excited about 'experimenting' with these various approaches. Too many blank spots in my brain when it comes to what is 'within' the computer. :)  Thanks for the thoughts.

DouginUtah
I will look up that thread, and thank you for the IM invite and the encouragement.

I've also been told that the new computers will have Serial ATA hard drives and I need to be sure that a newwhich  system will accept and talk to my old IDE drive. The thought was that because the CD drives are still IDE, that it should work and there will be connectors in the tower to which to connect the IDE drive. Hopefully that is true, cause I don't understand much about what I am talking about.  :) :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Buzz-sawyer

Per your suggestion, (bigger hard drive), I was told that the BIOS likely would not permit using but about 30 gig of a larger drive

I have put large drives into machines as small as 200mghtz.........Although I cant speak to your systems BIOS....I did PARTITION my larger drive to about 30 gig per partition when I set the drive up initially........So a small machine would view it as 4 seperate 30 gig drives. :)\
I am no fan of XP....you will be suprised how slow, and redundant........fat it is :(
:D :D :D
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

Jeff

There is probably an easier and much simpler fix then reformating. I wish I was there to explore it. Gateway Techs have a list to go through, if they cant fix it by the manual, the answer is reformat.  Back when I knew nothing, they had me reformat and I lost photos of paintings I did that I can never replace. All I would have had to do is a simple file reassociation. Those techs are twits.

Our last computers were from Walmat. Got everything incluging 2gig processors and 60 gig hard drives, dvd burners, for way less then 400 each (we bought two).  I have my gateway hard drive in this computer as an extra drive.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

SwampDonkey

Beenthere,

Too bad it wasn't the XP version because you could insert the CD-Rom and reboot holding down the 'C' key and then fix the install. Did you by chance have your Win98 boot floppy handy? Not sure weather the System.ini file is on that or not.  :-\
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

mike_van

Can't you just restore the registry on win 98?  I've done it before. You can pick a date going back to when it started right. 
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

Rod

I now use those little removable hardrives for storage.You know,the kind you can plug into a port.My old laptop blew up last week and it was gona cost to much to fix it so I went to circty city and bought a new one.It's super faster then the old one.Has one of those AMD 64 proccessers in it.

Minnesota_boy

Beenthere,
What you are describing isn't catastrphic, only a minor inconvenience.  Most people do not realize how easy it is to restore a file in Windows 98.  It can be doen manually if it is only one file, but I find it to be easier to just install Windows over itself.  This only restores the files that belong in Windows, not the others so you don't lose your pictures or other files that aren't backed up.  Use your Windows 98 startup disk to start your computer and choose "Start with CDROM support".  This will put the system utilities files on a RAMDRIVE, which will make your letter designation for your CDROM to increase one letter in most systems and will leave you at a DOS prompt.  At that prompt, type in the new letter of your CDROM followed by a colon, then press enter.  You should now be staring at a different letter for a prompt.  Type setup and hit enter and Windows will begin installing.  Make sure you have your serial number for Windows handy as you will be asked for it.  If you have more problems, you can IM me and I'll walk you through it.
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

Rod

I think the restore CDROM should work also if all you are missing is a file and your hard drive is still working

Rod

And mose compter companies have some sort of tech support.And one tech person might be better then another tech person.I've had one tell me one thing and another tell me something else :D

Flurida_BlackCreek

Boot your computer. Before it tries to load the OS press F8, try the last good boot option or boot into dos mode if windoze 98 has a dos option. If you get a dos prompt type, dir system*.* and press enter.  If no files show up, type cd\windows (or whatever your windows directory is) and press enter.
Then type dir system*.* again. Something should show up. may be something like system.in0, system.bak, etc.. look at the one with newest date. type edit (and whatever the file name is) and hit enter. assumming there is not one with the name system.ini. save that file as system.ini and exit the dos editor. then reboot.

The file should look something like this;

; for 16-bit app support
[drivers]
wave=mmdrv.dll
timer=timer.drv
[mci]
[Password Lists]

[TTFontDimenCache]
0 4=2 4
0 5=3 5
0 6=4 6
0 7=4 7
0 8=5 8
0 9=5 9
0 10=6 10
0 11=7 11
0 12=7 12
0 13=8 13
0 14=8 14
0 15=9 15
0 16=10 16
0 18=11 18
0 20=12 20
0 22=13 22
[driver32]
[386enh]
I'm happy anywhere south of the mason-dixon line.
-- cdb

tnlogger

ya beat me to fla that'll work  or as said just reinstall win 98 over it's self and that'll fix it too

now dont laugh but on older pc's get a copy of windows ME and use it it's not the best but it does have a restore on it and it has drivers for most of the new plug and play items.  ::)
gene

DanG

BT, all that stuff those geeks are talkin' about is well and good.  But if you're like me(hardly anybody is ::) ) you might just want to buy a new one.  If you go that route, think twice before going with Dell.  My buddy, Jim went that route.  He got the $499 special, but by the time he paid for all the "extras" he wanted it was almost a Grand.  When I had to get one, I went to Walmart and bought a Compaq system off the shelf. It was $498 and had all the "extras" that Jim paid more for.  He has had several service calls and has bought at least 3 new modems.  I have had no problems.  He had to wait 3 days for UPS to bring his, and I was on the ForestryForum within 2 hours of purchase.  Just a little food for thought. ;)
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

rebocardo

If you want to recover the data, here is what I would do.

Buy a second drive and a CD-R if you do not have one. Install the new drive on IDE1 as the master and the CD-R on IDE2 as the master. Totally disconnect your older drive. Install your new drive and CD-R with Win98. Once running correctly, install your old drive on IDE1 as a slave. Copy your data to the CD-R.

In the future always keep your valuable data on a second separate hard drive in case of system crashes or viruses. If running an operating system (example NT or 2000) with ADMIN access, only allow the ADMIN access to the drive with data and create a USER for internet access that only has access to the C drive as a user and not your data drive.




DouginUtah


Beenthere,

I agree with what rebocardo says, except when you have both drives installed on IDE 1 there is no reason not to just copy your data directly from old drive to new drive. Use the CD drive just for backup of the data--and installing the operating system on the new drive.

-Doug
-Doug
When you hang around with good people, good things happen. -Darrell Waltrip

There is no need to say 'unleaded regular gas'. It's all unleaded. Just say 'regular gas'. It's not the 70s anymore. (At least that's what my wife tells me.)

---

Jeff

Reinstall windows if that dont do it hit walmart and plug your old drive in as an extra drive on the new wally world machine. That easy. Buying this and that to install this onto sumpthing to save that onto those is just something to do if you dont have anything else in the world to do and just want to do technolaps.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

UNCLEBUCK

A years worth of pictures lost ?  Well atleast you have 2 pictures in your forum gallery that are safe !  :)
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Rod

I think it would cost to much o fix old computers.You can't build them for the price they sell them for.Their wasn't no why I could f fixed my old compter to work like the new ones they have out now.I can donate my old laptop,and the aprized price is $42 they said.

beenthere

Thanks all for the 'variety' of suggestions.
I've tried the one to go back to the last system "scanreg/restore" and it will let me 'see' the files, but will not recover enough to let me into any programs.
I have been led to believe that restoring Win98 will (may) wipe out the files I want to save. Rather than risk that, I will either buy a new hard drive ($100) or borrow an old one that I can format, then restore the system on that drive and afterward, plug in my old hard drive as a slave to get at my files. Then I'll back them up on a CD on the CD-R drive.  That is probably the fastest 'recovery' (and it will give me back my computer so I can pick up the Webcast next Wed of my son at the Barbershop Int'l convention in Salt Lake City where he is competing in quartet competition this year. :) For $50 I can get audio and video of their contest performance).

The Walmart route may happen as well.  Or the Dell computer online may happen.

I am intrigued by the thought of going the DOS route, but it's been too long for remembering the commands, albeit I kinda like doing that. I think when I get my files saved and safe, I may find time to play around with that. But no extra time at the moment.

Appreciate the ideas and suggestions.  :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

beenthere

Update, back in business and I have a new hard drive as a Master and have access to the 'old' hard drive as a slave-drive.
Briefly (I could put in a lot of detail, but will save you from the full 'tale'):
  Took quite a few hours of time, no thanks to trying to install Norton Internet Security onto a Win98SE OS (and even though Symantec indicates this is okay, it isn't).  It is what precipitated the problem in the beginning.
Bought a new 40 Gig drive (per Jeff's suggestion) at Wallyworld  for $50 (Seagate), installed it as the Master, left the old drive disconnected while loading the original OS from back-up discs.
When getting the system up and running, and then back on the Internet, thought it time to download some anti-virus, so picked Norton AntiVirus 2005. Installed it and spent a full day with Symantec techs to get it to function properly so it would scan the files. Apparently NAV 2005 doesn't like to be on or around Win98 either. (Mention as a warning for others with this 'old' OS of 5 years  ::) ).
Finally, connected the old drive in as a slave drive and had access to my old files. Proceeded to back the old files up to a CD.
Have downloaded many updates from Microsoft and other software mfgs., and have the system back at last.
Thanks all for the help. Wish I would have had the nerve to follow some of the 'techy" advice given, but I seem to do more damage than good, when I mess with the system.  ::)

Through all this, I had a 'laptop' handy to keep in touch with the FF and with information about software, etc. Very glad I could keep in touch, as it seems to be important, anymore.  :) ::)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Jim_Rogers

I can understand your situation completely.

A while ago I got an automatic notice that there was available a new upgrade to my windows 98se system.
I reviewed the risk and decided I should accept and install the upgrade.
Well that upgrade seemed to have screwed my system up to no end.
It took hours to figure out what to shut off and not automatically load at start up to prevent this new upgrade from working/not working/screwing up my system.

I got so frustrated with this "potential risk" to windows explorer users, that I went and download "Firefox" and started using that.
I've been somewhat happy with Firefox for a while.
On Friday I got an automatic notice that Firefox had an upgrade available. I downloaded that as it seemed to make sense to me at that time.
Since then I've seemed to have lots of problems. Some automatic program keeps popping up trying to report my problems to Firefox but can't seem to contact them and transfer the info.
I don't know what the correct proxy setting are suppose to be to change or create the proper link to get this info to them as they say they like to know what's going on with everyone's problems. (Hopefully to make it better for future versions).

I have not downloaded any newer auto upgrades to windows explorer and don't intend to.
I'll run the risk.

One of my friends, who is a computer tech guy, says that no hacker is going to want to hack my computer as I'm just one little guy who does very little on line.
But, you hear all these horror stories about things being stolen, like names, ids, account numbers, and such that you have to think about them sometimes.

There was a thread on another website that talks about the risk, to you, of upgrading systems. And how that effects the bottom line of your business. It had quite a bit of info in it about how many dollars and cents it costs you to do any upgrade and how one little thing affects everything else.

So, I guess you should think things through before you decide what should you upgrade or not.

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

SwampDonkey

Jim, I upgraded to Firefox 1.0.6 on friday and everything seems fine. But, the usuall automatic update through the browser didn't work. I uninstalled the 1.0.4 version of Firefox after i backed up the profile. It turns out that the profile was not overwritten in the older version, which was fine, but I had a backup in case.

When I went from XP SP1 to SP2 there was supposedly potential problems. I have isolated two that were to root of some odd behaviour and have been fine since. One of these is that the windows firewall must be disabled in order to run the ftp client within Dreamweaver and the other was that the Norman Virus Control (on access scanner, specifically) had to be temporarily disabled in order for synchronization to work properlly with my PC and WinCE devices. It would mess up the tables and they wouldn't Sync.  :-\ ::) Since then, I think Norman has sorted the problem.

cheers
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Jim_Rogers

I thought I was at version 1.0.6 before last Friday's auto update procedures, as I was trying to download some extensions and they said they wouldn't work in v .6 and I checked and I had that version.

Maybe you should send me a private email explaining to me how to " after i backed up the profile. " That way I can back my up and have a good working copy if a new upgrade/download screws up my system again. Any help I can get to understand all this will  help.

My laptop has XP and I keep that isolated from the Internet and only use my desktop on line, with windows 98se. I suppose sometime soon I should upgrade this desktop to a newer model with more memory, and XP as this system is 5 years old, at least. And it gets frustrating trying to keep it working, properly.
Today everything loaded fine at start up (keep your fingers crossed). ;D
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

SwampDonkey

Jim, this link from the Mozilla site explains how I do it.

Installation Procedures
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Jim_Rogers

Thanks, I went there and printed all the steps to do.
I'll try it later when off line.....

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

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