I'm getting an MS Explorer "Illegal Operation" message when I try to boot up into WIN98 (safe or normal mode). It will boot up into Dos however. Computer software manuf. guy says my hard drive needs to be reformatted to Windows. Before I do so he recommendeded I learn how to save my files onto floppy using dos commands.
Could someone direct me to the Dos commands to do this, and also how to repartition my hard drive to Dos... Much appreciated from Hawaii

Also, is there a simpler way of saving or recovering my hard drive weekend... My tech help guy said to expect to spend a long time backing up these files....so much for my weekend....

The first thing to try is running windows setup from the cdrom. I can't remember the command line switch, but there is an switch you can use to "repair" windows. This will attempt to reload missing or damaged files.

Using dos, I believe you can use either xcopy, or xcopy32. At the prompt type xcopy /? for the switches.

You can also use pkzip, or rar for dos to back up the entire drive. www.pkware.com for zip and www.rarsoft.com for rar. Read the help files for command line switches.

Regardless of which method you choose to back up the data, the fastest way is to add a spare hdd if you have one. Diskettes are so cumbersome.

Keep in mind that you will need the media for any windows based programs that you currently have installed if you have to reformat in order to reinstall windows.

Well, before formating your HD, you should try a few things. In Dos, at the C: prompt, type CD \windows\command. This shoud bring you in C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND. Get a new diskette, insert it in the drive and type
FORMAT A: /S. This will create a system disk i.e. one you can use to start your computer. When the formatting is complete, type COPY FORMAT.COM A:
type COPY FDISK.EXE A:
type COPY SYS.COM A:
type COPY SCANDISK.EXE A:
type COPY EDIT.COM A:

This will put a few useful program on a system disk. Leaving the floppy in the drive, restart the computer. The computer should boot from the floppy. You'll know by having a A: prompt instead of a C: prompt.
Type SYS C:. Remove the floppy and restart the computer. It may solve the problem.

If you have to backup, backup only the data i.e. documents, mailbox, thing you have created, favorites etc. It will save time and floppies. It does not make sense to back up programs that will have to be reinstalled anyway.

Can you acceed your CD-ROM ? If you do not know, insert a CD, type D: or E: , whatever the drive letter it used to be.

Try to run Scandisk C: from the A: prompt.

Save reformatting for the last resort.

Claude

Claude and Ronin, thank you for your suggestions. I do want to exhaust all my options before reformatting my hard drive.
Can someone give me the exact Dos commands to repair windows from Dos? Ronin suggested to try it from my CD, but I also heard it might be accessible from my Dos files directory, because my computer is fairly new? Any further help or suggestions would be golden, atleast I know I tried everything.
Claude, I followed your suggestion of creating a system disk floppy to restart my computer. Unfortunately, that one didn't change my situation.
Scandisk C:(I ran full version) found no errors or bad sectors.
When I type D: or E: I get "invalid drive specification"....Did I type the right Dos commands?
I'm a novice at Dos (21 years old), and am grateful for all help. Aloha From Hawaii, Patrick

Did you try the SYS command ? This install the system files on a disk ( floppy ,HD ).

If at the C: prompt, you type D: or E: (dependind on how many HD or CD on your system) and get a invalid drive message, it is because the DOS driver for your CD is not loaded ). To reinstall a program or OS from the CD, you must be able to acces the CD-ROM.

Do you have a system disk or emergency disk with the CD-ROM Dos driver on it. Look in the bunch of manuals, disk or CD-ROM you've received with your system.

There is no DOS commnad to repair Windows. If the Windows installation files are on your HD, you might be able to reinstall Windows from it.

To find out, in the root of your HD (C:\), type dir *.cab /s /w

If they are on the HD, you'll get a list of files with the extension (ending) .CAB.
If not, you'll get a no files found message

If they are on the HD, the path (i.e. where the files are in the directory hierarchie) is the part from the begining up to the rightmost \.

Example : If the files are located in the WIN98 directory, the output of the DIR command would be

C:\WIN98

win98_01.cab and so on.

The directory where the files are is \win98.

Go in the directory by typing :

CD \WIN98

End of example

If the file are on your HD, go in the install
Type install /?. If the install program is there, you'll get an help screen.

It would help me if you could do a few thing:

At the C:\ prompt, type :

DIR C:\*.* > FILES.TXT

This will create a file with the names and locations of all files on your HD.

Put a floppy in the drive, type

COPY FILES.TXT A:
COPY AUTOEXEC.BAT A:
COPY CONFIG.SYS A:

The last two command copy some configurations files of your system.

Zip the files and send them to me by email. I'll check and see if I find something interesting.

Tell me more about your system (how many HD, how many CD-ROM)

What is exactly the error message you get when you try to start in Windows ?

Hang on

Claude

Thank you Claude (and anyone else with suggestions),
OK, heres what I did. I was able to reinstall Win98 through DOS commands. Setup went glitch free, I was able to get as far as my Desktop icons (at this point I thought I was successful). 30 seconds on and...
Then my computer screen went black, with a blinking white light in the upper left corner. When I reboot WIN98, same thing happens. Can still get to Dos.
I was just told by my MICRON PC (my manuf)that I reloaded A new version of Windows onto
my "dirty" version. They insisted since scandisk shows no problems, its a software problem, and that the only solution (My comp out of warranty on Software problems) is to:
1) Back up my hard drive (I will only back up stuff I've created) -Need detailed Dos command info to do this
2) set up an "F" disk and reformat my hard drive.- need detailed Dos command info to do this

As I mentioned, I don't know where to start by doing this through dos commands. I have a Super disk drive (120mb capacity)for my floppy, will I be able to use this to back up my work or must I only use a 1.4 mb floppy?
If you think I've exhausted all efforts for a sane return to computer life, I'm ready to recieve Dos commands to start back up, and if you can tell me if I can use my Super Disk or just my floppies...
System info: 1 CD Rom
1 CD-rw
1 120mb Super Drive (uses 1.4 mb or 120 mb)
1 13gb hard drive
WIN 98 os
Norton Virus Protection (could it be possible I recieved a virus?)
Original message I got before reinstalling new Windows just now was a Message Box (WIN EXPLORER- was the border around it) and inside said "Illegal Operation", then some info about Explorer and modules on the systemthe etc. It had three options: save, close, details
I did save this info if it would be helpful for troubleshooting, but would need directions to find it in dos now. Thanks for the encouragement Claude.

...For example I need to figure out to copy all my emails (inbox & outbox) in my MS Outlook program. Also important are my My documents Folder (with many files inside)

Patrick, sys c: would have done you no good in this case as you were able to boot to dos. You had an OS already. I agree with the Micron person at this point. If you can use your 120mb drive in dos, I would back up everything you need to using that. Use pkzip ver 2.5 as you can backup directories and subdirectories. Believe me, using floppy disks will give you fits.

You should copy mscdex.exe, format.com (exe), sys.com, fdisk.exe (just in case), and edit.com on the boot disk as Claude mentioned. These files are all found in the c:\windows\command directory.

You might be in luck with the cdrw drive. If it is an add on drive, the cdrom that can with the drive should have a dos setup utility on it. By puting the cdrom in a working computer, you can create a disk to use for the drive. If not, you should look into downloading real mode dos drivers at the manufacturer's website. Add the drivers in the autoexec.bat, and config.sys files on the boot disk.

autoexec.bat

a:\mscdex /d:cdrom

(this usually won't work with ide drives, so you will have to look for your particular driver syntax)

config.sys

device=a:\cdrom.sys /d:cdrom

(again use the drive syntax that is required for your drive.)

Before you move on to formatting the drive, use the boot disk to see if it will load the cdrom driver. If it will load, you will be able to use the cdrw drive to run setup.

After all is ok at this point, type format c: /s at the a: prompt.

Before I forget, you can find the "my documents" directory in dos by typing cd\mydocu~1 at the dos prompt. Likewise, you can find the "program files" directory by typing cd:\progra~1 at the dos prompt. The "program files" directory has sub directories of each program that you had installed. The progra~1 directory is where outlook will be.

Well it may not help you at all, but at least it is something to try.

Good luck.

At the risk of totally confusing you by having a third person comment on this: You don't need to re-format. You really don't, it is a waste of time. You said that you managed to re-install windows, that was a good first attempt at resolving the problem it usually works. When it doesn't you need to do a fresh install, most people recommend you format first and lose all data that you didn't back up, this is unnecessary.
Go here. Type in the dos commands shown in 6)a. then re-install windows.

Thanks Jon for your suggestion. I'm still considering my best options and am grateful for the "wizards" who have been so helpful with your input. I'm a first timer at these help boards, and I told my dad last night what a cool resource this Brainstorming community is.
Without your suggesstions and help I'd feel a lot worse about this then I do.
I'm hesitant about trying this (rather then moving to full reformat best options at this point. I say that because I was told by my MICRON PC (tech rep) that I reloaded A new version of Windows onto
my "dirty" version. So that my system resources are now running "two" versions simultaneously? I use WIN98, and the site you mentioned was MSWIN 95 support suggestions. Obviously, I WOULD BE GOING APE-HAPPY if it would work. AS I can recall, I did have a couple comp lockups when I tried to click on my Logitech Page Scanner control center (running on my parALLEL PORT). It hads always worked fine, until I made the mistake of installing my flash card reader on the same parallel port. Went to use my scanner control center, and LOCKUP.(I never got it to work) So maybe that was the cause of my problems...? Two days later was when I started getting these Illegal message problems.
Can you clarify this, and if anyone else has an opinion on this option before I prepare to reformat, please comment. I'd like to get a consensus opinion from Claude, Ronin and anyone else with an opinion on Jon's suggestion...Thanks, Patrick

Just to defend my suggestion, I did tell you to only follow 6)a. and not the rest of it (because it wasn't applicable). I could have just copied and pasted it but that'd have been dishonest because I'd have been concealing the source of the information. The root directory files and windows "folders" (directories really) are pretty much the same for Windows 95 and 98. In fact the two OS's are very similar anyway hence the Win9x forum at this site.
I'll be honest I've never tried just renaming the Windows directory. I just go through everything from DOS and deltree the windows directories and files once any data stored in them that I want is safely copied elsewhere (on the same partition). This isn't an option I'd recommend for you, because it would seem that you aren't too crash hot with DOS. Whether or not Win 98 detects if you've just renamed the directory or not I don't know. But it has to be worth a try, it certainly is a better choice than formatting, and it's easily undone again.
If you have a partition which has already been formatted you shouldn't have to re-format it (unless you want to clean all the data off of it in which case you could just do a quick format).
A little advice unplug all unnecessary external hardware until you have re-installed.
(That's printers, scanners, flash card readers etc. leave the keyboard and mouse obviously.)

Come on Jon, do you really have faith in anything that Microsoft claims to be a "fix?" After all, this is the same company that release a service pack, that "fixes" 10,000 bugs, a week after it releases its "final version" of a product.

I have used deltree on the windows directory, renamed the directory, and have used attrib on those pesky windows hidden files in the root directory. I agree it will work, but from my experience unpredictable problems always resurface. I wouldn't hesistate at all to reformat the drive based on Patrick's situation. Then again, I have done this type of stuff before, so I would be able to rectify any problems that I encountered. Patrick, I can say that Jon is one of best gurus in this forum. I have learned quite a bit from him directly, and just from reading one of his replies. However, in my opinion you would be better off just starting from scratch.

I was struck by everyone's lack of concern with your getting a startup disk. You made a boot disk, but you really need those CD-ROM drivers that come on the Start UP disk before you proceed.

The easiest way to make a MAJOR fix in Win98, is not even to reinstall the OS, but to go beyond that...

If you are able to get an upgrade to Internet Explorer, such as from 4 to 5, or 5 to 5.5, and now, 5.5 SP1 (as in Service Pack 1), THIS is probably the best way at this point....

Rerunning the Windows setup was the proper first step, by reinstalling the corrupted files that prevented the system form booting, but NOW it is time to upgrade all of those nasty DLL files, that even Setup won't fix....

Installing the next version of the Internet Explorer, which is now integrated INTO the OS, (which is what prompted the Anti-Trust Proceedings), MS was brilliant enough to find a way of upgrading the ENTIRE system by upgrading the Browser, reinstalls the most recent versions of approxamatly 240 system files..

I would go this way at his point and see if that works, and also, if you are able to get a copy of Regclean, a FREE MS proggy that checks the system registry for errors and corrects them...

Good luck, and when all else fails ---

SWITCH TO LINUX....as I have done..

Rich C