Need to Restore IOMDISK.SYS

[Nick DiToro]

This was one of the dumber things I've done in computing,
but here it is: After constant "serious errors" involving
IOMDISK.SYS, I removed my Zip drive, uninstalled all the
Iomega software I could find, and stopped loading Iomega
drivers and services on startup. I was still getting
errors and do deleted
c:\windows
system32
drivers
iomdisk.sys. Then I rebooted, and haven't been able to
get into Windows since (XP Home), either in standard mode
or Safe mode. R Console won't run chkdsk either. I need
to be able to get to a C:\ prompt and either unerase the
file or else paste a new file into system32\drivers.

I don't have start=up disks but could make them from
another XP Home PC.

Thanks.
Nick.

 

[wojo]

If you can make startup disks from another PC then you should have access to
IOMDISK.SYS from that PC. I am unsure of your exact situation but can you
copy the file from the other box to this one?

 

[Nick DiToro]

I could copy it from another PC through my network if I
could get into the OS on the one I messed up. I'll have
to do it by floppy, I suppose. I was looking for
confirmation that using startup disks is a viable option,
and you've done that.

Thanks.
Nick

 

[wojo]

Sure it's a viable option. I've had to do it before more than once to
replace corrupt files or missing files etc...
But most of the time I am able to boot to safe mode and do it that way.
soooo much easier when it's possible to do.

 

[Guest]

IOMDISK.SYS is not in itself an essential Windows file
(it's not on my XP-Pro laptop), but once I had installed
Iomega software, it's now one of the system files that
Windows loads, so it has to be there. If this were an
earlier versions of Windows I would be getting a LOAD
error in SYS.INI, which I could comment out. Do you know
if that's possible in XP? I don't know how to control
what loads except from within the GUI.

Anyway, thanks for hanging with me.

Nick

 

[wojo]

The only way I know of is REGEDIT to find the values in your registry and
delete the keys refering to IOMDISK.SYS but that won't work without being
able to get to windows. The INI files are not, to my knowledge, used in that
way anymore.
You could, if you can get booted to the command prompt, go to
C:\windows\documents and settings\user\start menu\programs\startup
and see if there's anything in your startup but I can't imagine there would
be.
I guarantee somebody in the morning will have run into this and have a
solution for you but at the moment I don't have anymore ideas.

 

[Guest]

Again, I appreciate your responses. I have to go
elsewhere to use a PC to make start-up disks, since all I
have are an XP-Pro laptop (no floppy drive), and a Tablet
PC (no floppy drive).

What's really odd, though, is that R Console doesn't even
list the volume, which is on a PCI ATA/133 card. I have
two other hard drives in the system, on the mobo's IDE
controller - D: and E: - but R Console is only seeing
them, and lists them as C: and D:. I'm hoping that I'll
have better luck with the start up disks, otherwise it's
a trip to the Geek Squad. <c>

Thanks again.
Nick

 

[wojo]

lol
Enjoy the geek squad, I'm all out of suggestions.