I really am in need of some sound advice..I have a compaq presario running win 98 and use aol and about 2 months ago I went to re-start my computer and a black screen came up and it said "Enter the Password for the Command Interpreter" Then the cursor was blinking awaiting me to put the password in and since I did not know what the hell it was asking for I turned off the computer(I could only turn it off from the main power switch in the back) and when I turned it back on the same screen came back on. Not knowing what to do, I put in the Restore CD that came with my Compaq and all of a sudden the computer came alive and the restore disk seemed like it put everthing back in my computer as if it was a new computer...And in the process seemed to wipe-out everything that was currently in my computer... I mean I had to re-register windows, sign-up for AOL and the AOL took me immediately to aol 6.0 where I was using 5.0 before so I lost all my favorite places...address's etc...I also lost all software that I had installed on my computer...I had for example gambling software and it just all vanished....Basically it wiped out my entire computer and it was like my starting again from the day I purchased it...Is what it did what you all refer to as Re-formatting? My reason for posting this is does anyone know why I received that command interpreter screen? and was there a certain "password" or "command" that I could have typed it and got me going again? I have had my computer for a little over a year but due to my travel's weekly, I use it very rarely.... This computer is compaq model #5242 and it has what is called a Super Disk 120mb which I have never used. Is there a way for me to put the entire contents of my computer on to one of these super disk so I will have a copy in the event this ever happens again... I should mention also that when I got this screen for the password for the command interpreter that I did put in the start-up floppy that I made when I first got my computer and it did nothing at all....Was I to hit a certain key on my keyboard after inserting this emergency start-up to get it going?.. Again, the only thing that got the computer going again was the Restore Disk that came with the computer from Compaq.... I, to this day, do not know what caused me to get this screen and command interpreter so if anyone is familiar with this I sure would appreciate any sound advice...Again...I know very little about computers....Thank You All Very Much...

if it was askin for the location of the command interpreter it means there was some corruption on your hard drive, usually fixable. If it was truly asking for a password then, nasty virus ..

Hey NYProGambler... I don't know the answers to your questions but was wondering if your the same NYProGambler that hangs with Vinny Testaverde??? If you are, we might have met before..I play with Peyton and Company and after the game hook with Vinny to let him know how I got to him and drove him into the ground...Let me know if you are the same dude and I'll email you....Just ask Vinny who FatBoy is.... If your not the same guy, then forget about it and just pass the ketchup....

command interpreter = command.com without command.com your computer will not boot. 3 files you should protect w/ your life are command.com, io.sys, and msdos.sys. without those, you're not going anywhere. if you do have a boot disk, booting from that disk and typing sys c: would copy the system files, including the 3 stated above.

The first thing to do is to start up from a boot disk. At the DOS prompt type the followingC:\cd windowswininit You should then see the following message:‘Please wait while set up updates your configuration files. This may take a few minutes ...Completed updating files, continuing to load windows’Remove the disk from your floppy drive, press ctrl-alt-del to do a restart.

Thanks for your replies... I am confused about what exactly you mean by "Boot Disk" and by starting from the Boot Disk? Is the Boot Disk you refer to the same as the Start-up Floppy disk that I made? or is it something else I should have....Also when you say to start with the boot disk does that mean I am to take this floppy and put it in my computer and the Dos screen you refer to will automatically show or do I need to hit a certain key or something? I just do not know what a Boot Disk is....Or how to use it whatever it is... Thank You for your patience

NYProGambler Yes, your start up floppy is your boot disk. Make sure that you've got your cd rom drivers on it though. If you need any help with this, then post back. Caroline