When booted to the hdd (not to floppy) at the prompt C: type in WINDOWS|WIN press enter, does it now boot into windows ?

Hi Jim, DAVEINCAPS, TopFarmer, hi everyone It looks like you are making progress indeed. :-) Since you now see the Windows splash screen for a second, we could carefully conclude that Io.sys and Msdos.sys among some other system-, read-only hidden files are present. Here is what I would like you to do from the DOS prompt, type in: dir *.* /as /ar /ah[Enter]key Please post back the output. Also try what TopFarmer suggested with that difference that you should type in: windows\win[Enter]key, there is a space between every three characters, or \windows\win.com[Enter]key. If you are now able to boot to Windows, we will still need to correct something(s) in order to get Windows to be launched automatically. Best Regards and Wishes, The Count, Co-webmaster of mesich.com

Hi Jim, DAVEINCAPS, TopFarmer, hi everyone Sorry, made a typo. :%) The line "there is a space between every three characters" should have been entered after the command: dir *.* /as /ar /ah[Enter]key to make any sense. Thus it should have read: dir *.* /as /ar /ah[Enter]key, there is a space between every three characters. Best Regards and Wishes, The Count, Co-webmaster of mesich.com

Getting the momentary splash screen and then the dos prompt usually means you've got the dos and not windows version of msdos.sys. That might have happened if you did a sys c: command on the drive. The fact that that file, along with io.sys, was missing is the reason you were getting the 'invalid system disk' message. Why they disappear and why msdos.sys seems to have been replaced with the dos version (if you didn't do the 'sys c:') is a mystery. I wouldn't think that ghosting the drive could cause that but since that's the only thing you've done since the original installation maybe that's it. You may want to reformat and reinstall the OS. Then reboot several times to make sure it's working OK. Then try ghosting it and see if you have the same problem.

Will carry out the above procedures asap and get back to ya !! Thanks Everyone !! Jim

Hello Count !! followed your instructions.. results as they appeared... Volume in drv C has no label Volume serial number is 1B5D-15FF Directory of C:\ IO SYS 222,390 DRVSPACE BIN 68,871 MS DOS SYS 6 RECYCLED <DIR> WUTEMP <DIR> BOOTLOG PRV 0 BOOTLOG TEXT 0 DETLOG OLD 70,736 6 FILES 2 DIR(S) --------------------------- As for Top Farmer's instructions.... Results were Himem.sys is missing C:\ Obviously, I was not able to boot into windows.. Thanks, Jim

The msdos.sys is the wrong one. The correct windows version would be larger. I could email you the correct one. But that still wouldn't answer the question of why it's disappearing in the first place.

Hi Jim, DAVEINCAPS, TopFarmer, hi everyone Thanks Jim, I like it when we get exact read backs. :-) Neither the way msdos.sys is displayed nor the size of it look okay to me, there shouldn't be a space between MS and DOS. The size 6 isn't right either. Himem.sys missing is a common error and not of our first concern. When you type in: dir win.com /s[Enter]key at the DOS prompt, there is a space between dir and win and another space between com and /s, what is the result? I shall try to catch up with you all tomorrow after my daugher's musical play at school, got to call it the night at 01:49 hours. Best Regards and Wishes, The Count, Co-webmaster of mesich.com

He has big problems, no Windows directory listed.

Hello TopFarmer, I realize that somehow I've developed some major problems, so it looks like a full format and O/S reload is in order. It still is a mystery to me how after a reload of the Ghost C: image and a restart the PC runs fine UNTIL THE NEXT REBOOT WHICH RESULTS IN THE ERROR MESSAGES. Regards, Jim