very very lost and confused

[samantha]

:confused:
Well I was downloading windows 98 onto my husbands pc- he had W95 on it......When I went to shut it down and restart it it wouldnt go......it stayed on the black screen.....it will go to the safe mode window......I can not start it on safe mode or any of the other options......I have tried to reboot it and nothing......these are the errors or the missing or corrupted files it mentions: Himem.sys
DBLFuff.sys
IFSHLP.SYS
CAN NOT FIND WIN.COM UNABLE TO CONTINU LOADING WINDOWS.
DETECTED A REGISTY/CONFIGURATION ERROR
I HAVE LOOKED ON MICROSOFT FOR ANSWERS OR HINTS I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO TO GET IT TO REBOOT, ALL IT WILL DO IS STAY ON THE BLACK SCREEN. WHEN I START IT UP IT WILL GO TO THE LOADING WINDOWS, THEN NOTHING,
SO IF YOU CAN HELP ME I WOULD BE FOREVER GREATFUL......I WOULD LIKE TO GET IT BACK UP AND RUNNING BEFORE THE HUBBY GETS HOME AND BLOWS HIS TOP (LOL)
THANKS

[Alfons]

Samantha

Do you have a Windows 98 Startup Disk?

Do you have the Windows 98 installation disk and key ready?

How do you want to install 98, overtop of 95 to save all the settings, data, etc. or a clean installation?

If you have everything you need, it will take approx 1hour plus.

[samantha]

ACTUALLY I JUST WANT TO LEAVE IT AS WINDOWS 95. I DONT HAVE THE DISK ANYMORE FOR WINDOWS 98, AND DONT THINK I CAN GET TO ONE AGAIN FOR AWHILE. (WAS A FRIENDS, AND NOW OUT OF TOWN) I WOULD LIKE TO GET THE COMPUTER BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS, AND JUST FORGET ABOUT WINDOWS 98 FOR RIGHT NOW. THANKS

[Alfons]

Do you have the Windows 95 installation disk and key?

[samantha]

YES I HAVE A WINDOWS 95B DISK. I AM NOT SURE WHAT A KEY IS.....I AM THINKING THAT IS THE NUBMER FOR WINDOWS.....???

[Alfons]

Yes, it's the number that you type in when the installation asks you for it.

Do you want a clean installation or write-over-top? Probably the latter if you want the OS to like it did earlier, but because of you trying and failing at an installation, you may end up with problems running it this way.

Do you have a Windows 98 Startup Floppy disk? If not, go HERE (http://www.mirrors.org/archived_software/www.bootdisk.com/original.htm) and download the Windows 98 SE OEM file and save it to an empty folder. Get a blank floppy and put it into your floppy drive. Next, use Windows Explorer and find the file that you just downloaded and double-click on it and follow the on-screen directions & this will make a W98 bootdisk for you.

Use this bootdisk to start your broken computer and when it asks if you want to start with CD-ROM support, select that. It will then install the CD-ROM drivers and will tell you which drive letter that is. At the command prompt, type that letter followed by a colon and then select ENTER. Now insert your W95 CD into the drive and then type SETUP and press ENTER. Now just follow the on screen instructions and let Windows install itself (over top of what you have there) and hope you won't have any residual problems.

Without any problems arrising, it should take less than one hour. When you're finished - or if you run into problems - post again and let us know what happened. When you tell me what you want done, then I'll look in on this board at about 2-3pm - it's now 1pm here.

[smurfy]

I hate to say this but if there is a half installed W98 upgrade over top of Win95, an over-the-top Win95 install is unlikely to work.

In all likelyhood you will need to format the C: drive (wipe the contents) and reinstall.

At the very least you will need to delete the Windows directory.

By all means try the over-the-top as suggested above.

If that fails, reboot with the Win98 Startup disk, select Start Without CD-Rom support (quicker) and from the prompt type deltree C:\Windows [enter]
Then when it confirms it has done this, reboot with CD-Rom support and reinstall Win95.

[Alfons]

Very good point smurfy, your recommendation is probably the cleanest and least frustrating to perform.