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July 31st, 2004 11:00
Dual boot system: Cannot open Win98
I recently upgraded my XPS T500 [see below] and have a dual-boot setup that had been working fine until yesterday.
Yesterday when I tried to boot the C: drive [Win98] side, I got the following error message:
C:\SET BLASTER-A22 I5 D3 T4
C:\>LH C:\WINDOWS\AUDOS.COM
File not found
C:\>
Cannot find WIN.COM, unable to continue loading Windows.
The XP side is working fine and everything that is on the C: drive appears intact [I can access it from the G: [XP] drive.
I ran SpySweeper and Pest Patrol on both drives and came up with nothing.
I also went into system setup as it was booting up and did an F9 to restore the default setup [which has resolved issues in the past], to no avail. I can't get into Win98 @ all.
From the setup menu I also tried to boot from "Last good configuration," also to no avail. I also tried a system restore on the XP side--that didn't work either.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Message Edited by dg27 on 07-31-2004 07:27 AM
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dg27
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August 3rd, 2004 12:00
Not sure what that means--maybe it'll make sense when I'm in the syst setup screen...
>>>If it does support the CD drive then manually run the Windows 98 setup.exe program from the CD.
That's what baffled [and concerned] me most last night: That when I set the system to boot to CD as first device [with the Win98 installation CD in the drive], I got that "Disk I/O Error" message. That scared the pants off me and was when I ended my attempts for the evening...
Majestic
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August 4th, 2004 11:00
"Not sure what that means--maybe it'll make sense when I'm in the syst setup screen..."
What I meant is if the floppy boot disk doesn't include support to run the CD drive then it is a simple matter of removing the floppy from the floppy drive and rebooting the machine to exit out of MS-DOS and return to your present OS from your hard drive.
" That's what baffled [and concerned] me most last night: That when I set the system to boot to CD as first device [with the Win98 installation CD in the drive], I got that "Disk I/O Error" message. That scared the pants off me and was when I ended my attempts for the evening..."
The error could have come from a variety of things. Dirty or scratched CD, a problem with Win98 CD or the optical was dirty in the CD drive which cause a read error. The easiest way to test the drive and boot setup is to insert your Dell Resource CD and see if the machine will boot from it.
Another idea I thought was if Windows XP has a program like System File Checker. If it does you could use it to extract the win.com file from the Windows 98 CD and then copy the file over to the c:\windows directory of your Windows 98 partition. No need to re-install the OS then.
Jim C
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August 4th, 2004 12:00
dg27
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August 4th, 2004 12:00
Thanks Jim.
I have confirmed that the CD-ROM drive is working properly.
Not sure about the system file checker option in XP--will have to explore.
My major concern is that I not foul up the XP installation on the G: drive
dg27
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August 5th, 2004 13:00
This week I've been trying to restore Win98.
Yesterday in XP I suddenly lost browser and email functions [IE6, Mozilla, and OE]. I can open those programs but get "Cannot open page" type error messages. I've confirmed that my DSL and router are fine [XP's network connection box shows the time elapsing in the the current connection and ping tests confirmed that I do have access.
Ran SpySweeper, Norton, and Pest Patrol scans of both drives and ame up with nothing. Used XP's system restore to three previous "good" dates to no avail.
I'm at my wit's end @ this point and think I'm going to have to do complete re-installs of Win98 on the C drive and XP on the G.
Tonite I'll back up to removables anything I hadn't backed up previously. Then I'll try the Dell Hard Drive utilities disk to make sure the HDs are OK.
Will likely disconnect the G drive and reinstall Win98 on the 20 Gb C drive, then reconnect the G and reinstall XP.
If anyone can think of smarter solutions, pls advise. Thanks.
DG