windows xp wont boot up

[Guest]

When I turn on my computer it goes to a screen that offers me the choices of
safe mode, command prompt etc. It suggests that I select command prompt and
then run scanreg. However I cant do it. I get several error messages:
error in c:/windows/himem.sys error in config.sys line 1
error in c;/windows/emm386.exe error in config.sys line 2
error corrupt or missing file c:/windows/himem.sys
error corrupt or missing file c:windows/dblbuff.sys
error corrupt or missing file c:/windows/IFSHLP.sys
command.com error also

I was originally running Win98, then installed XP. That might explain why
these errors appear even though they are not part of XP from what I'm being
told. Also, I dont have a disk in when booting up. I tried re-arranging the
bios to boot first from the cd rom so I could re-install but it wouldnt do
it. It just does the same thing and boots to a dos screen with all those
error messages. I'd prefer not to wipe the drive just yet because I want to
salvage a bunch of digital photos from it. How can I correct this?
Any help appreciated
ESU

 

[Guest]

You should be able to boot from the windows cd without these errors (but you
do need to press a key to boot from cd as its loading)

It does sound like a new installation would be best.
I don't think upgrades from 98 to XP work very well and a new install is
always best

Patrick

 

[Ron Martell]

You should be able to boot from the windows cd without these errors (but you
do need to press a key to boot from cd as its loading)

It does sound like a new installation would be best.
I don't think upgrades from 98 to XP work very well and a new install is
always best

Beg to differ on that last point.

Upgrades can and do work very well for the majority of people, and
especially so if they do a bit of planning and preparation beforehand.

With a clean install it can take a home user several days of steady
work to get everything reinstalled (if they can find the reinstall CDs
and license codes/product keys) and reconfigured so they can use the
computer fully.

An upgrade takes perhaps two hours, and everything is still installed
and configured.

When I was beta testing Windows XP I tested both clean installs and
upgrade installs a number of times for the same beta version. For the
upgrade installs I would use a copy of my existing Windows Me
installation as the base. The only difference I ever encountered
between the upgrade installs and the clean installs was that the clean
installs were an absolute p.i.t.a. to get a representative sample of
application software installed and configured.

And if an upgrade install does go wrong (and they sometimes do, just
not as often as some people like to believe) then it is always
possible to wipe things out and do a clean install.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."