Hi, I got an old Acer laptop running Windows 98 SE. Many registry files got corrupted and now I can't run Windows, well it boots up after several warnings at startup about missing files and unstable system, and I can't really do anything/access anything as Windows Explorer crashes and the mouse is not functioning. In one sequence of the windows loading it tells me to repair windows. I have tried to start up in safe mode, step by step, at all ends the same way. an unusable windows in safe mode. The laptop has got an original floppy disk but the CD drive is external/USB and not manufactured by Acer. When trying to repair windows 98, the Windows 98 disk simply will not boot, I have tried to change the boot sequence in the bios, no luck. I have also tried with the windows 98 boot floppy disk, whatever I do the bios/hardware do not recognize the external CD drive and therefor I can not repair windows. Windows is so corrupt that there is no way I could repair anything from within. My objective is to get my laptop running with any sort of window OS without loosing the content on the harddrive as I had no backup. Thanks!

when you boot with a 98 boot floppy, are you able to get to the c prompt, and if so did you try scanreg/restore? larry

Sounds like you are between a rock and a hard place. Stumped about where to go on this because, presumably, the external CD needs USB drivers/software to be on the HD for it to work (which implies a working OS). I wouldn't confuse the issue further by introducing a new OS at this stage (even if you could). Best to aim to reload W98 somehow. If you put the HD into another machine and overlay W98 then all the drivers will be hopelessly wrong. I suppose you might then have some slim chance of using the USB CD drive to sort the mess out, or maybe overlay W98 yet again. Sounds frightening. Any idea how W98 was installed in the first place? Did it originally have an inbuilt CD drive? I can only hope that my near crazy brainstorming might jog someone into seeing some more hopeful way forward. DerekW

I overlapped with #1. Sure try that if possible. You might be best use the full command from C: like this c:\windows\command\scanreg.exe /restore DerekW

A suggestion. Boot to a command prompt. At the C:\Windows>Cd options\cabs hit enter. At the prompt type setup and hit enter. If you are lucky the install files were put in that folder at the original install. Be sure you have the Product Key for your copy of Windows. If no luck go back to the root of the C drive and at the Prompt type dir/p hit enter and see if there is a directory named Win98. If so cd to that directory and install from that directory. Hopefully the files were installed in one of these two places. If not you can pull the drive and put it into your desktop and copy the install files to the laptop drive and then put it back into the laptop and run the install from the laptop. At least you won't lose your old files that way.