hi there, i posted a message earlier asking for help after doing sys c: and not being able to get into windows. the replies were very helpful but didn't fix the problem. I don't seem to have a windows directory! all i did was fdisk /mbr and then sys c: and now it boots to a dos prompt...the thing is just as it arrives at C:> prompt i get a flash of the win98clouds(the startup graphics)...and when it is at the prompt is says at the top "Microsoft Windows 98...blah blah.. copyright..blah..blah"....this gives me confidence that win is still there...all i need to do is get a couple of word docs...and my dads address list .. i was given help to create a MSDOS.SYS file in notepad and have done this but when i want to copy it from floppy to c:\ it says i cant (file permissions) and as i don't have attrib.exe (its located in the non existent win dir..) i cant do attrib -s -h msdos.sys help!! if i just do a reinstall of win98 with the full setup disk (it says i have a os already installed) will that delete say my documents folder and outlook express addresses? i dont need to salvage windows settings..only these files i have gotten a reply saying that a reinstall wont delete the files ...but that said to be only if you have a windows directory..as i dont seem to have a windows directory...will i totally delete my docs and the like?? thanks for any help Tomo

There is no way that you don't have a Windows directory. Now in order to install 98 over itself, use a win 98 boot disk, and when it asks, select CDROM support. From the A: prompt, type C: (hit enter) then at the C:> prompt type cd C:\windows (hit enter). So the whole line should look like this: C:>cd C:\windows (enter) then type ren win.com win.old So, the whole line should look like this: C:>C:\Windows\ren win.com win.old (hit enter) (notice there is a space between win.com and win.old) Now, put your Windows CD in the CDROM drive and type E:\setup. You won't lose any data. Just have your CD key handy, it'll ask for it during setup, or if you're lucky it'll already be filled out. If you don't have a win98 startup disk, go to a win 98 PC and go to control panel, add/remove programs and click the startup disk tab. have a floppy ready. If you don't have access to a 98 PC, go to www.bootdisk.com and download a 98 boot disk there. Just realize the program you download from there CREATES a boot disk, it's not a boot disk, you need to run the program and have a blank floppy in the drive. Post back with results...

By the way, if you're really just interested in salvaging a few word docs and an address book, you can do it all from the boot disk if you feel confident at all using simple DOS commands. Do this if you want. Boot with the boot disk if you want, or keep hitting F8 while it's booting, and choose "command prompt only". At the C:> prompt type cd C:\mydocu~1 So the whole line should read this: C:>cd C:\mydocu~1 (hit enter) you are now in the "My Documents" folder Now type dir /p, and keep hitting enter until you see the names off the documents you want to save. You'll have to use some intuition because the names will be shortened. For instance Granny's recipe will look like this: Granny~1. DOS only allows 8 characters. To get that file off of your HD and onto a floppy, you'd type copy granny~1 A:\ (hit enter). The whole line would read: C:\mydocu~1 copy granny~1 A:\ Note there is a space between the 1 and the A:. By the way the tilde key (~) is in the upper left corner of your keyboard.

hi..thanks for the reply but i truly cant get c:\>cd c:\windows to work i just get invalid directory... thanks tomo

You might want to look at my second post then and just salvage some documents.

hmm....as a point of interest if i do dir/a at the command c:\>i get the following IO.SYS DRVSPACE.BIN MSDOS.SYS COMMAND.COM BOOTLOG.TXT BOOTLOG.PRV 6 FILES 0 DIRECTORIES also doing cd c:\mydocu~1 produces an invalid directory (guess as its not present in the above) is there a chance that if i just go ahead and reinstall win98 that i can access my files? thanks for all the help Tomo

Well, I don't know what happened here as far as all of your directories being missing, but you could always take the HD out of it and hook it up as a second (slave) drive on a working PC. Then just open up "My Computer", an try to access the 2nd HD that way. It would just involve changing the jumpers on the HD. I just can't fathom that all of your directories appear to be missing.