re-installing an OS

[Charlie]

Hi there:
I want to re-install win98 on my old PC since it gives me
many error messages when is booting up. For
instance, "missing INIT.SYS file"
How can I re-install windows instead of formating my hard
drive?
Thanks

 

[Rich Barry]

Charlie, like to suggest two ways to repair win98se to save data on your
hard drive.

If you suspect that files are corrupted then you can reinstall using the /nr
switch during setup,
i.e. typing setup /? will give you different switches. The nr switch will
restore original win98se files using your existing registry. This works good
for when you do not reinstall some/or all of your apps.

The second way to restore if you can catch if fast enough is to go to the
sub directory of windows called sysbkup. There are cab files that keep track
of changes to your system over the last couple of days. You can delete these
flies back to a date that you know was working good. Then go and delete the
following the files in the windows directory.

win.ini
system.ini
user.dat
system.dat

These files are the files stored in the cab files.

Then turn off the computer, do not shut down, shut off the computer power.

Then during restart you select normal startup, registry restore will restore
using the good cab file in the sysbkup directory, and then it will reboot
again to the old settings.

When I do a new install I save my system settings by renaming the cab files
indicating what changes were done.
during the next reboot it will see that the cab file is missing and create a
new cab.

If the attachment part of this site works I have a screen capture of
explorer showing the directory and files.

Compliments of Snowboardhead.