When booting up I receive this error: Cannot find device file to run windows, c:\windows\system\vmm32\ifsmgr.vxd & vmm32\ios.vxd. The system just shuts down and will not work in safe mode either. I have used a start up disk and run scandisk to no avail. In addition, I have downloaded the powermax utility from Maxtor and the drive tests good on all tests. I have completely reformated and reloaded windows 98 several times and it will run for a few days then bam ! I am stumped as well as several "PC Guru" friends as to fixing this issue. Any Techies out there have an idea ? I run an AMD 1.3 Ghz processor w/ 256k ram on a ECS K7S5A pro motherboard, ELSA Gladiac video card if it's hardware related. I have DSL through SBC Yahoo if it's software related. Thanks for any help out there.

I had a similar problem, I fixed it, by copy the vmm32.vxd from another comp. to get windows to start again. The vmm32.vxd file is required for windows to run. I suggest you copy the vxd files to another locations on your drive. as well as get the info. on where they go. When it happens. Start the comp. with the starup disk. Just copy the file(s) needed to where they go and reboot. As for a better fix I don't know of one. The above saved me from re-istalling win98 Hope this helps

The vmm32.vxd file is built by windows during the install process and is unique to each system. If it is missing or corrupted, the possibility of copying it from another system and having it work is practically nill. It is normally necessary to run a windows install to fix the problem.

The error message doesn't say the vmm32.vxd file is missing or corrupt but that the two files, ifsmgr.vxd and ios.vxd are missing in the vmm32 folder. The first thing to do would be to copy those two files from another machine running the same version of 98 (or someone can email them to you) and copy them to your windows\system\vmm32 folder. Then see what if any error messages come up the next time you reboot.