Got another troll type question... my io.sys is nothing but crazy characters (sort of like my shelliconcache). I was wondering if I deleted it, would windows recreate a new file? (is it supposed to be full of those characters?)

Io.sys is a binary file, what you can see is your text editors interpretation of that information. Deleting io.sys or any of it's contents will cause the error message "non system disk or disk error" or perhaps "operating system not found". This is because io.sys is an amalgamation of the files io.sys, msdos.sys from the older (pre win95) dos versions. It also contains a standard set of config.sys and autoexec.bat (not sure about the autoexec) commands that can be overridden by setting them manually in the respective files. The msdos.sys file you have on your pc is there for compatability with older programs and to allow various boot options to be set. Io.sys is in effect the dos kernel, with msdos.sys there for backward compatability and command.com for the user interface.

Geez, dont delete it.

Please help! Dumb person here has accidently deleted that very smae thing, io.sys. I've got a system disk so I can get into DOS but himem.sys is apparently still missing.

i erase the io.sys and my computer is not work but so i had to installed a win98 again and i solved the īproble but no really because my computer is not working very good or normal, sometime itīs stop to work. Someone help me please or what can i do??

ok, i just had the fun of realizing that io.sys was a binary (or whatever) file and trying to edit it is NOT a good idea. Does anyone know an editor that i could use on this file? or how to change the line "starting windows 98" that is inside this file? what i did to fix my problem, when i had one(being that nothing would sart up), was to create a boot disk (command line 'format a: /s'). I then copied a good io.sys file from another computer onto the floppy. While in windows I right clicked on the file(a:\io.sys), clicked on properties then had to change the attributes so the file was not 'read only' or 'hidden'. Now i used that boot up disk to get me to a command prompt on the screwed up computer, and typed 'copy a:\io.sys c:\io.sys' *notice you may need the 'attrib.exe' file in case you did not change your attributes in windows. and to see how to use this (or any other dos program) type ' /?' after the command.

Yes, I would like to edit the starting windows 98 line also. I have been trying to open the file in binary, but when I save it for some reason the program I am using adds spaces to the end of the file then the io.sys file will no longer load.