I booted my computer this morning and received the message that the following files were either corrupt or missing in my Windows directory. I have Windows 98

himen.sys
dblbuff.sys
lfshlp.sys

This is my work computer and is maintained by our corporate computer staff. However, I'd like to avoid shipping it to them unless it's absolutely necessary. I do not have the disks as my computer was factory loaded by them. Is there anywhere that I can get copies of these files to download and see if that will fix the problem. Any thoughts.

Wretched missing windows files...

Easiest method is to get another W98 system and copy the files from another 98 machine. They are located directly inside of the Windows directory.

Next best and a little more difficult is to bring in a Win98 CD and grab the files manually from the cabinet files. Directions to extract as follows:

Inside of DOS mode(safe mode command prompt with CD support would be best), goto your CD drive letter, and type:
cd\win98
extract /a /l c:\windows base4.cab himem.sys
extract /a /l c:\windows win98_21.cab ifshlp.sys
extract /a /l c:\windows win98_21.cab dblbuff.sys

If you know you have 98se in the machine, you could narrow it down, omit the "/a" switch, and narrow it down to base5.cab for himem.sys and win98_52.cab for both ifshlp and dblbuff.sys.

Good luck.

Tarpinian,
Right click your desktop icon 'my computer' then select 'properties' , look under System: and you'll see if your version is windows 98 or 98SE,

I'll assume it's win98, Funick has presented a nice extraction assuming you have a win98 CD,

Here is how to extract those files from your CAB folders without the disks,you'll get the files straight from the CAB folder,

Boot up again, you'll be at C:\windows or C:\> , now type the following commands and hit enter after each, if you get any error messages don't proceed and post back,

cd windows
you should now see
C:\windows
--------

Now type these commands one at a time, note that the word wrap will show them on 3 lines in the forum but you will type only one long line in DOS for each of the 3 commands,

extract /a
c:\windows\options\cabs\win98_52.cab ifshlp.sys /l c:\windows

extract /a c:\windows\options\cabs\win98_52.cab dblbuff.sys /l c:\windows

extract /a c:\windows\options\cabs\basecab.5 himem.sys /l c:\windows

You can't copy and paste so write down the above carefully note the spaces, there is a skipped space as you begin the next line,in all commands,

Reboot,and test

:)

Start the computer. Before the OS starts to load start tapping the F8 key. A boot menu should come up. Choose 'command prompt only'. At the c:\> prompt type:

dir c:\windows\himem.sys

and enter to see if the file is actually missing. You can do that for each of the other two files.

If you get a 'file not found' then they need to be replaced either by the above methods mentioned by others or someone can email you the files.

If the files are there, they may be corrupted and can be replaced. But it can also mean you have another problem, most likely with the RAM.

I go along with DAVEINCAPS, but I bet that they aren't missing. This problem can be caused by a corrupt msdos.sys file.Try this:
Boot to dos and type:
path=c:\windows;c:\windows\command
then type
win

If that works, post back.

Boot with a W98 boot disk and enter SYS C: at the A: prompt

This will repair the boot files.

Hi

Following on from the advice above.

Did the windows load up as far as the logo screen and then drop into dos?

If it were to drop back into dos, there are a couple net discussions lately in regards to the 3 files below listed.

himem.sys
dblbuff.sys
lfshlp.sys

I personally can't remember correcting a machine with this symptom - the 3 files missing, but the net suggests 2 likely files to replace. MSDOS.SYS and WIN.COM. It is wise to use copies from the same version system. [have you backed up your root and windows directory to cd?]

The sys command doesn't entirely do what most people think it does either. Importantly it does allocate files in special places in a storage device to boot, but not into windows 9x, just dos.

I know exactly what the SYS command does, or I wouldn't have suggested using it - I had similar symptoms a few weeks ago with a W95 system, and it turned out to be a corrupt IO.SYS causing it. I have a dual-boot on that PC with W2000, and used that OS to compare files in the C root with those I had in a backup folder - IO.SYS had a few bytes different, which only caused a problem later in the DOS boot (exiting to a C:\ prompt).

The files mentioned in the original post have nothing directly to do with W9X, they are loaded in CONFIG.SYS

Hi

Rambler - no insult or slight intented. I just mentioned it, to clear it up for those (others) who think the windows version of msdos.sys is rebuilt with a sys command.

'sorright - no insult or slight taken. My message was a little terse.