hlp!!!! what's wrong!?

[HKS]

hrmm...ok so when i start my computer up, it goes thru the usual loading. but when it gets to the windows 98 splash screen after a few secs of loading, it automatically restarts the computer for some reason and then starts loading again! then, it goes to the booting options screen with the safe mode and normal mode etc. the only way i can get into windows is thru safemode now! am i infected with a virus or something?

[HKS]

can anybody help?

[Spider]

Originally posted by HKS:
...when it gets to the windows 98 splash screen after a few secs of loading,
it automatically restarts the computer...
then, it goes to the booting options screen...
am i infected with a virus or something?

Hi HKS,

As far as a virus is concerned, have you scanned for one?
check for viruses

Concerning the bootup problem, you should put in your Windows98 CD
and click on setup to reinstall Windows98.

[HKS]

I scanned my hard drive for viruses but nothing came up...

so basically i have to reformat right? i heard my friend say something about partition reformatting or something? he said u can move the files onto another drive and then reformat? is that only for people who have 2 hard drives? but what if i have some important files i want to keep? is there any way i could keep them?

[RichyL]

You dont have to format your disk. You can just try a refresh.

Create a startup disk

start > settings > control panel > add/rem programs > startup disk

restart your pc and boot from the startup disk. Start with cd rom support. At the command prompt type the letter of your cd-rom drive and then setup e.g d:\setup

go through the installation process and you should be asked if you want to keep all your existing stuff say yes and you won't lose no work :0)

[HKS]

hmmm when i go to setup, and it's scanning for registry, it says this:

Please wait while Setup intializes.
Scanning system registry...
Cannot create a temporary directory.
If you have HPFS or NTFS installed on your hard drive, you will need to create an MS-DOS boot partition to setup Windows.;


what do i do now?

[RichyL]

Do you have NT or 2k installed on a 2nd partion???

NTFS > New technology file system
HPFS > High performance file system

Both these file formats are associated with NT + 2k

[RichyL]

OK, when your doing a refresh windows will attempt to create a temp directory to store your existing files in.

How much free hard disk space do you have? Could be you dont have enough room to create this directory.

to check this, get into safe mode if it's all th@s available goto

my computer >> r click on the hard drive >> properties >> you c how much freespace you have.

Dont forget to minus your RAM

[HKS]

i have a 15 gig hd
8.34 free and 312 ram

[HKS]

ok now wait now when i go c:/setup it works now and then it did the scandisk checks, etc. then i followed the steps and stuff and then it asked if i wanted to save my system files. i said yes so it went and saved them and then it started installing windows again. after it finished installing, it restarted. now it asks me if i want to boot from hard drive or boot from cd. i chose boot from hard drive and then it went to the windows splash loading screen. then, after a few secs of loading, it restarts itself again! why does it keep on doing this?!

[RichyL]

Have you got the Win cd in the drive?? If so take it out.

Turn off booting from the cdrom in the BIOS.

After the memory check on boot tap delete. This will take you into the BIOS settings.

[mike]

Hi, go into safe mode and copy and post here the contents of :
Config.sys
Autoexec.bat
Msdos.sys
from the C: folder in explorer.

For Msdos.sys, you may need to right-click and remove the 'Attributes' via 'Properties'.

PS:What type of sound card, video card, etc.

[ 20 April 2002: Message edited by: mike ]