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Hi;
I'm writing this on behalf of a friend who is still running 98. I'm a little short on details, and I've checked previous posts, but none seem to address her specific problem. Here is what I know:
1) Windows appears to boot up normally, but an error message comes up saying "Can't find win.com",2) She then gets the black dos screen with a C prompt.
I realize that this is very minimal, but any ideas?
Cheers!
At the C:\ prompt do:
dir windows\win.com /s
To see if it's there.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Thanks you two for your responses. I'll check with her re the c prompt, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't as a result of cleaning out files. She says that the computer has been acting "strange" recently, but not due to any cleaning.
In reviewing other posts related to boot problems a couple suggested variations of the following:
"Try booting from a win98 startup floppy, then type:
sys c:
This will restore the DOS system files."As well, I'm wondering if might a hard drive that's starting to go.
Again, any thoughts?
Cheers!
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sys c:
will replace the system files.
But win.com is not one of them.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
0
So Mechanix2go;
You suggest to "see if it's there" in your first post. Let me ask a dumb question then:
-If it is there, what do I do? and
-If it isn't there, where do I get it?Cheers!
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If it's there, the not finding may be caused by msdos.sys or there may be another glitch.
If it's not there, we need to figure out what else is missing and how it got gone.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
0
Hi;
Just got her to do: "dir windows\win.com /s", and this is the response she got:"Volume in drive c has no label"
"Volume serial #3C31-10DE"
"Directory of C not Found"
"1015 MB free"Make sense?
Cheers!
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Apparently it really is gone.
Sounds like a reinstall is needed.
Does she have the win98 CD?
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
0
Well, not really.
The command above is looking for the windows directory within whatever directory that DOS is logged in to.
Ie If the prompt says
C:\WindowsThe dir command is looking for win.com within a folder called windows WITHIN the current folder Windows.
Before assuming it's gone, try
DIR C:\Windows\win.com
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Hi;
I'ts me again. Had her try the:
"DIR C:\Windows\win.com"
and basically the same messages as before re "no label".
She had the system stop before, and opened up the case to make sure nothing was loose, and clean out the dust, and it worked for a few days, but now is acting up again. She's going to go inside again just to make sure everything is seated securely.Again........do you think it could be something like a drive failure?
Cheers!
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I don't think we've determined if the windows directory is there. You should get a 'file not found' error if the windows directory is there but win.com isn't. You should get a 'path not found' if there is no windows directory. I'm not sure what gives a 'directory of C not found'.
At the dos prompt type dir c:\ /p/o:n and enter. That will list the contents of the root directory alphabetically, one page at a time. Is there a line that reads
WINDOWS. . . . . .<DIR> followed by a date and time? If not is there something close to that?
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Hi WhitPhil,
Good point. That's why I said to do it from the root. But it would be unsurprising if that detail got lost in the shuffle.
Hi DAVEINCAPS,
Yeah, that message is a new one on me. I just assumed it was a mis-reported 'file not found'.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Hi. I'm the 'friend' Swinny has been speaking about. I thought I'd register and talk myself instead of going through a middle man...okay it was Swinny's suggestion.
I tried entering dir c:\/p/o:n and I got a list of the contents and Windows....<DIR> was there. Not sure if this is important but there was also a date and time, they were 08.20.04 9.25 a
I guess that means that I still have Windows somewhere but what do I do now? cim
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Hi cim,
This is guesswork up to a point.
Do this:
dir /s c:\windows
and see how many files are there.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Also, at the dos prompt type ver and enter. Post back what it says. That will tell us what version of windows you have in case we need to send you win.com.
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Hi again. I tried both of your suggestions and here is what I got.
After entering dir /s c:\windows I got
Total Files Listed 3565 Files
623 DIRAfter entering ver I got Windows 98 [version 4.10.2222]
I found my Windows 98 disk at home, should I consider just reinstalling or would it be better to just install win.com as DAVEINCAPS is suggesting (I think)? As you can probably tell I'm not all that computer literate so I really appreciate your help. cim
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You may end up needing to reinstall. But I just sent win.com. See if that works.
If you did the sys c: previously it's possible you don't have the windows version of another file--msdos.sys. That can be fixed too. Post back what happens when you reboot.
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Just a note to let you know that the problem has now been fixed. DAVEINCAPS last suggeston and his copy of win.com did the trick. I can now load Windows without any problems.
Thanks to all of you for your help. cim
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Hi;
I started this whole post on behalf of cim, and glad that it all got fixed. I'm still curious though about how something like win.com gets "lost" in the first place. Any ideas or speculation?Swinny
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Swinny,
Join the club; don't know why it went missing.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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DAVEINCAPS I'm also having the exact same problem with my system. I was hoping as to whether you could also send me the Win.com file so I can try as I can't seem to find a download for this item. rgds
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Same problem here, one week later. 98SE with missing win.com
ver command returns 4.10.2222 (98SE, right?)
Can anyone assist?
Gill
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