My Bro's computer

[Jeber]

Stop me if you've heard this before, "I was downloading a free gallery on an adult site and the download started directing me to another page, and doing other weird things, so I deleted the download and thought everything was OK.............but now my computer won't start."This time he pooched it pretty good.Here's what happens: boots normally to desktop image, plays start up sound, curser moves around. That's it. No icons, no taskbar (it pops on and right back off again), no right click menu. Ctr-alt-dlt brings up task manager (for those of you new to this adventure, it's W98SE) showing ONLY DkService (diskeeper) running, no explorer, nothing else. If you choose "end process" it does, and leaves nothing showing in T.M. Ctr-alt-dlt again, and the BSOD pops up and says, "Fatal Exception 06 B301:00003FF4" (I Googled it, got nothing useful). Then you have to power down the computer. While the wallpaper is up, if you hit the Windows key, you get a "Kernal32 error".Here's what I've tried tonight: Ran Western Digital diagnostic tool from floppy, extended test, no problems found. Tried scanreg/restore from safe mode-command prompt, system restored a good copy of the registry, made no difference on reboot. Tried Morphix, no mouse support and "tab" wouldn't change focus...got nowhere (I thought at least we could save some of his files to CD-R from Morphix, but alas, no). After reading another thread, I wanted to reinstall Windows over current installation, but Bro doesn't want to risk losing his documents (backup? Whaaa?) and since I've never tried that particular operation, I couldn't offer 100% assurance it would preserve all his files.So...ChrisP, Fran, anyone else who knows for sure...if I boot from W98 CD-ROM and choose install windows, will it for sure ONLY reinstall the OS and leave his "My Documents" folder intact? His disk isn't partitioned, everything's on C:\. If all this is being caused by a virus, and it doesn't get eliminated by a reinstall, then a full install would be the only option...right?Does anyone want a(nother) brother?Oh, I also checked autoexec.bat from DOS, since the Windows KB mentions possible problems with Norton. But he doesn't have any Norton entries in there. At this point I've suggested he contact a data salvation company to at least get the data off the drive. But if I can be sure the reinstall will do the trick, safely, and can assure him of that, he's willing to try it.Feedback would be deeply appreciated.

[Jeber]

In keeping with my current avatar, perhaps I should just "Run Away!!".

[Rons]

Suggestion:Take out his drive and put it into another system as a slave.Backup his My Doc folderThen with the drive back in his computer - reinstall 98. If something does go wrong - his stuff will be saved.

[b2cm]

Yes, that's the best option. Backup can include Favorites, OE store, etc. (But I'd do a full format and then clean install Win98SE.)

[Jeber]

That's a good idea, Rons, but I have two problems. My main desktop is maxed out for HDs, so I'd have to remove one of mine and install his. I'm not sure I want to risk confusing my XP setup by changing hardware just for this. My other desktop machine is being used by my roomy for his school stuff, so I don't want to mess it up either. And my 3rd computer is my laptop.I did offer to do all that if he'd buy me a 120G 7200rpm HD for my machine (to replace my 60G, which I'd then clean off an give to him). He's willing to buy one, but only for his machine (and guess who he'd expect to install it?).Sooo, maybe, but not until I've made him suffer a bit more.

[b2cm]

Oh my, your brother is like my twin.

[b2cm]

Use a partition utility like PM7 and create a logical partition. Then copy all the documents to that drive. If you cant run Windows under sfae mode., then you can do this under DOS.

[Jeber]

I hadn't thought of that, and do have a copy of both PM6&8, but he's only got 4G of free space left on the drive, and over 6G of files to save (he's an art teacher...tons of .jpeg's, etc,)

[Rons]

Well you are back to your first option:Run away ! LOL

[Peachy]

Well, PM can compress partitions up to 50% so that 6 GB of data is actually only a 3 GB image.Or, run away...

[Jeber]

I believe I see a consensus forming.

[lewmur]

If most of the data files are jpg's, compressing won't help. Jpg's are already compressed. I say, make him suffer. If the data is all that important, he can get a 30gb drive pretty cheap and install it as the C: drive and install Win98 on it. Then put the old drive in as D: and copy files from it.

[nlinecomputers]

If he was viewing an adult site then his system may simply have some kind of malware on it. If you can boot into safe mode and run Spybot and AdAware do so. If you can boot off a floppy then you can do a virus scan with F-Prot.If all else fails you can slave the drive on a known clean machine and try to run spy checks from it. Your system will not become confused as long as your other hard drives are data only drives. I use my system to scan client's hard disks all the time doing this. XP more flexible then you give it credit for.

[Ed_P]

My suggestion is to partition his hd giving 3 GB to the new partition (Use the DOS option of PM). On the new partition create a folder called My Documents then copy 3GB worth of his current My Documents to it. This will free up 3GB on his current c: drive. Expand the new partition to 6BG. Copy the remaining files from the c: drive's My Documents to the new partition. RIGHT click on the desktop's My Documents icon then Properties and change the location of the My Documents folder to be the folder on the new partition.Expand the new partition again to 8GB. Create a folder on the new partition called BKUPS and into that copy the c: drive's Favorites, Start Menu and Start Up folders.Now you can do whatever you want to the c: drive. Try installing Adaware and see if it catches anything, let me rephrase that, run Adaware and delete all the junk it finds. Based on what you've said so far I'm sure there will be plenty. See it that resolves the problem. If not reinstall Windows. If still problems, format the c: drive and reload everything. But he won't loose any of his girlie pictures. If you can at some point get him another hd. Used will do. Install that, copy the My Documents on the new partition to the new hd, delete the partition on the old hd and reallocate the space to the c: drive.

[Guest LilBambi]

Jeber, I really feel your pain with your brother!I suggest the following:Have him get the new hard drive.Take an installation for a Linux distro with you when you go to do the work.Either tell him this will take some time and would go much faster if he just lets you do it and doesn't hang out over your shoulder -- or -- get him to let you take the computer home with you and you will bring it back fixed.Either way ...Remove the old hard drive and put in the new hard drive first. Make two FAT partitions -- one for Windows, one for his data files with fdisk and format these two partitions. Have these two partitions take up 2/3 or 3/4 of the new drive (depending on the size drive he gets), and then leave the balance unpartitioned/unformatted.Install Windows on the the first partition and do what EdP suggested about using the second partition for his data files by redirecting My Documents to the second partition. I seem to remember that your brother is an AOLer, so you'll need to install AOL (GAG!) so you can get to the Internet.Be sure to download and install antivirus software firewall software, Ad-aware and SpyBot S&D, and SpywareBlaster --- be sure to get the latest updates for each before going on to the next step. Might also want to download the Linux version of f-prot and the latest defs and put into a directory that you will be able to find easily after booting into Linux.Then, install a Linux distro on the free space but have it put lilo on a boot floppy as the only way to get into the Linux partition which will be basically hidden from your brother. Install f-prot for Linux and then replace the defs with the new ones.Then change the jumper settings on the old drive to slave, and attach it as a secondary drive and use the boot floppy to boot into Linux.From Linux mount the old drive, run f-prot on the old drive or at least the area of the drive where his documents are.After doing this and taking care of anything it comes up with. Then mount the second partition with My Documents in Linux (which should show up under /mnt). Copy his files to the My Documents folder AND copy all his documents to a directory in your home directory in Linux.Then reboot into Windows, run a full virus scan on the second partition checking ALL files and inside zips. Run Ad-aware and SpyBot S&D to catch any files it finds, which it might do if some are trojans, malware or dialers lurking that weren't picked up by AV software.Take your Linux boot disk and your 'new' 60gig drive home and wait for the next round.

[beeTee]

WOW, Fran, I guess Jeber would be up do date for Christmas presents, birthday presents, Easter presents, etc after going through all of THAT!! sounds rather painful!! I'd go for the "making said brother take some responsibility" avenue on this one: new drive, new install, retrieve data files (ART pictures??) , then wipe the old drive clean. maybe twice!! Make him use a "data" partition. Make him become aware of spyware, malware, virus' menace, etc. in other words, a more informed computer user. Make him a little responsible for his own computer destiny.[/humble opinion]

[Guest LilBambi]

I hear ya beeTee, but from the posts in the past about Jeber's brother, I don't think that's gonna happen, if you know what I mean.Some folks just never learn, no matter how painful the experience is.To tell you the truth, I think Jeber has been all caught up on presents for his brother for the next 10 years even before this incident! LOL!Just trying to make it easier for the next time ... since there is always a next time when one has a brother that refuses to learn anything!

[RichNRockville]

Stop me if you've heard this before, "I was downloading a free gallery on an adult site and the download started directing me to another page, and doing other weird things, so I deleted the download and thought everything was OK.............but now my computer won't start."This time he pooched it pretty good.Here's what happens:  boots normally to desktop image, plays start up sound, curser moves around.  That's it.  No icons, no taskbar (it pops on and right back off again), no right click menu.  Ctr-alt-dlt brings up task manager (for those of you new to this adventure, it's W98SE) showing ONLY DkService (diskeeper) running, no explorer, nothing else.  If you choose "end process" it does, and leaves nothing showing in T.M.  Ctr-alt-dlt again, and the BSOD pops up and says, "Fatal Exception 06  B301:00003FF4" (I Googled it, got nothing useful).  Then you have to power down the computer.  While the wallpaper is up, if you hit the Windows key, you get a "Kernal32 error".Feedback would be deeply appreciated. 

I have a client who did exactly the same thing on his personal machine at home.No desktop. blank screen, 3fingers got me the shutdown option and nothing explorerrunning.I booted to safe mode and tried changing to 640x480 in the hopes that this would help.NODid a re-install of windows 98/SE and when it finished, there was no change in the desktop.No start bar or icons.BTW: re-installing the os has never deleted any data in my documents or any of the otherdata directories. In fact it still kept all the programs that were installed.I had to boot to dos and rename the desktop folder and then do a re-install and reboot.When I finally got a virgin desktop back, there was a wonderful file named xxx.exe as in F&&k youin the windows directory. I removed that of course and cleaned it up.There were no virus's, trojans or spy pgms on the disk after that.He said, that all he did was access a porn site and this all happened.good enough reason to do good backups.

[Guest LilBambi]

RichNRockville, wow, that was a terrible way to learn a lesson, huh?Thanks for sharing the incident because it can be helpful to all of us! Yep, certainly shows the need for reliable backups!

[Guest LilBambi]

Hmmmm, if that might be the case with Jeber's brother, he might be able to boot from a Knoppix CD, and do the same thing you did about removing the desktop.ini and find the xxx.exe stuff and get back in without damage to the existing system??Might be worth a shot!?

[Ed_P]

he might be able to boot from a Knoppix CD, and do the same thing you did about removing the desktop.ini and find the xxx.exe stuff

He can do that from booting to DOS / Command Prompt also.

[Guest LilBambi]

Very true EdP ... just do F8 on boot and boot to the DOS prompt.But I was thinking more of the search functions which are less limited in Linux than DOS, and the ability to do this within a GUI would be nice since it is easier to look around the drive from the file manager in X than a DOS prompt.But you are exactly right. ---Jeber, in answer to the simpler question you had ... if you do a refresh (looks like you are doing a real installation during the process) using the \Win98\setup.exe instead of the main setup.exe on the CD, even a new PC only install disk will work to do a refresh of Windows without damaging the data files.However, if the problem is the one mentioned by RichNRockville, then refresh won't make any difference. Would probably be better to definitely delete the desktop.ini (which will recreate on boot) and remove the directory that contains xxx.exe.

[Ed_P]

you are exactly right.

Gad, I do love hearing those words.

[Jeber]

if you do a refresh (looks like you are doing a real installation during the process) using the \Win98\setup.exe instead of the main setup.exe on the CD

That's the part I didn't grasp. Since all he has is a restore CD, I was using a full Win98se disk I have, and when choosing "install", it looked like a regular installation routine, that I feared would reformat the entire disk. What exactly is the diff between setup.exe on the CD and \Win98\setup.exe (and where do I find that last one?)?

[Guest LilBambi]

Hold down the left shift key to prevent the CD from auto starting, or just close the box when it comes up and go to My Computer, right click on the CD drive and choose Explore instead of open. you will find several folders/directories there. Choose Win98. and double click on the setup.exe.The biggest difference I have seen is the main setup.exe for a NEW PC Installation disk, will tell you you already have Windows on the computer and not continue. This particular type will only install on a NEW PC with NO OS.Regardless of whether it is a NEW PC CD, or an upgrade CD, I just use the one in Win98 directory because I know it will do what I want when doing a refresh. ;)If you can't get to the GUI at all. Boot from a floppy, and type the following:cd win98 [enter]once there:setup.exe [enter]And go! (be sure to have the CD Product Key with you!)

[Guest LilBambi]

The easist way to make sure the CD is available is to use a Win98 Startup disk (choose start with CD support). ;)I am not totally sure whether refresh will work as well when started outside of the GUI. I have not tried that ... or at least it was so long ago, I can't remember!Anyone else know for sure whether refresh only works if started from within the gui (normal/safemode)?

[Guest LilBambi]

http://www.tek-tips.com/gpviewthread.cfm/q...lev2/67/lev3/70Above link has info on refreshing install. Note it doesn't always work, depends on how screwed up the install is!

98SE is probably the best at doing an "over the top" reinstall into the same directory.If it works like it should you won't lose anything. It will overwrite the windows stuff but won't touch your programs or data.The absolutely worst reinstall I've had with SE was last week when it took 3 over the tops to clean out some problems. (this was a major hardware upgrade)There have been reports that sometimes \windows\win.com needs to be renamed, but I haven't run across one that needed it.But like everything in computers, Murphy rules. Have a floppy EBD that works, you may need it. Ed FairGive the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

lupini,Okay -take out your HD. Visit a friend. Install your HD as slave (slave is set with a jumper) on his/her PC with a CDR. Copy your work files to a blank CDR.Back home -set the jumper on the HD back to be master drive. Boot on a floppy with FDISK on it. Run FDISK. Delete all partitions (assuming you've got a backup of all you need on that CDROM). Create a new partition. Set it to be active. Boot the PC. Go to BIOS setup and set CDROM as first boot device. Insert the Win9x Installation boot CDROM. Boot the PC....Then it's just a bunch of boring hours installing Win and your favorit programs  §;O)Good LuckJakob

Others there too.

[Guest LilBambi]

And here:http://oldlook.experts-exchange.com/Operat...Q_20728727.html

Comment from PeteLong  Date: 09/04/2003 02:17AM PDT  Hi darkreaper,Not a problem dont touch your existing setup - but it would be sensible to back up your important data to CD or floppiesThen put in the CD and reboot (depending on your setup you may need a boot floppy to kick it of - download one from www.bootdisk.com)simply install windows over the top of itselfPeteL 

darkreaper,Knowledge Base  How to Reinstall Windows 98PSS ID Number: 250928Article Last Modified on 3/14/2003--------------------------------------------------------------------------------The information in this article applies to:Microsoft Windows 98 Second EditionMicrosoft Windows 98--------------------------------------------------------------------------------This article was previously published under Q250928SUMMARYThis article describes how to reinstall Windows 98 or Windows 98 Second Edition. MORE INFORMATIONBefore you run the Windows Setup.exe program to reinstall Windows, you may need to complete the following steps: Disable programs and tools.Disable any programs or tools (such as screen saver programs, antivirus programs, or tools that run automatically). In addition, uninstall any programs or tools that protect or encrypt the Master Boot Record (MBR) or partition table (such as Bootlock that is included with Symantec Norton Your Eyes Only). For information about how to disable these programs or tools, contact the manufacturer.Back up the data.Back up all critical data on your hard disk. Although it is unlikely that you will encounter a serious problem when you reinstall Windows 98, it is always a good idea to perform a complete computer backup before you install a new operating system. When you upgrade your computer's operating system, it is possible that an error can occur (such as incompatible hardware or a power failure) that can temporarily or permanently prevent access to the data on your hard disk.How to Reinstall WindowsTo reinstall Windows: Start Windows, and then insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.Click Browse This CD, and then double-click Setup.exe.Follow the instructions to complete the Windows Setup procedure.NOTE: If Windows does not start and you need to run Setup from an MS-DOS prompt, click the Installing Windows 98 From MS-DOS link on the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/support/windo...W98setuptxt.aspHow to Troubleshoot After the Installation ProcedureAfter the installation procedure is finished, you may need to use the following steps: Replace updated Microsoft files.You may need to reinstall some of the Microsoft updated files on your computer. To update these files, click the Product Updates link on the following Microsoft Web site:http://windowsupdate.microsoft.comReinstall Outlook ExpressWhen you reinstall Windows 98, Microsoft Outlook Express 4.x may be installed on your computer. If you were previously using Microsoft Outlook Express 5 or later, you may need to reinstall the program.REFERENCESFor additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 188881 How to Install Windows 98: Helpful Tips and Suggestions 193902 How to Install Windows 98 Into a New Folder 221829 How to Install Windows 98 on a Computer with No Operating System 232681 Windows 98 Second Edition Updates Setup.txt file Additional query words: w98settop w98sesettopKeywords: kbenv kbhowto kbinfo kbsetup KB250928 Technology: kbWin98 kbWin98SE kbWin98search kbWin98SEsearch

Edited December 21, 2003 by LilBambi

[Jeber]

I am not totally sure whether refresh will work as well when started outside of the GUI.

There's the rub. His GUI is useless. So anything I do has to be from the safe mode/command prompt or the DOS prompt you get when booting from a floppy.That last link looks good, I'll read some more.Thanks everyone.

[Guest LilBambi]

If you can get to safemode, you may still be able to do this.First though, you could check msconfig.exe and unclick everything not related specifically to the OS and rebooting first to activate those changes before starting the installation.Also, while in safemode, you might want to delete the desktop.ini as well and look for that xxx.exe just to be sure that isn't the problem while you are there.Then try to reboot to normal mode after doing these things.Might work...then install windows over itself if you can get there.I really wish you could back up the data first!