I haven't been able to reinstall win98se on my Compaq Presario 5700. I've trying reinstalling from scratch but I don't have the original compaq disk, and my cab files have been corrupted. A Microsoft tech told me I could reinstall windows in the .000 directory. Then maybe I could get out of safe mode and get windows to run. Then I could access my original files. I just want to be able to get them off the computer then I'm going to do a compaq restore. My question is, Does this sound right? Can I access my old files this way and does windows restart with the .000 directory first? I mean the computer knows which one to startup. Thanks.

Windows will run from whatever directory you specify when you do the installation. Setup defaults to 'windows.000' if it detects you already have a directory named 'windows' but you can change it to whatever you want. The boot directory is specified in the msdos.sys file.

You say your cab files are corrupted. Are these cab files on the hard drive? What makes you think they're corrupted? And you're missing the compaq disk. Is that a restore disk or is it an OEM 98 installation disk?

If I want to get to my old files and yet install a new copy of windows, what name should I use to install a new copy of windows? And when it starts up, will it go to that "windows" dir instead of the old one that won't run.
I've tried reinstalling windows over the previous version but it won't run. I was told to reinstall another copy to a new dir and then access my old files. How does it know which one I want to run?
I've tried reinstall from the D:\cab files but that didn't work either. I've lost my compaq drivers.
I have a compaq system restore disk but I don't want to overwrite my old files. I don't have an original compaq win98 disk. Thanks.