registry not found..How do I solve this?

[pimpinaman]

HELP!

I was trying to free up some hard drive space on my old IBM thinkpad 755cx and I deleted from the C drive what must have been the start up files for Windows 95!! Windows won't start now. No bootdisk I've downloaded will start up Windows completely, I keep going to the blue screen with a FAT error. Anyone have ideas how I can get my laptop back to normal?
I think part of the problem lies in that the laptop doesn't have a Cd drive, only floppy and the files are looking for a Cd drive and aborting the start up.

Thanks in advance,

Adrian

[renegade600]

How are you planning to fix the problem. Without that info all we can do is to give a general answer.

just create a boot disk from your good computer or whatever computer you are typing your message on. Or you can download and create a bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com) if it don't work then do a little editing by removing everything except command.com. this will bootup your system - you won't get nothing else but it should get you to a: Then you can type c: and get on c drive.

[pimpinaman]

...once I get to the C: prompt I should be able to get to the windows directory (c:\windows> or something like that and just key in "win" to get windows to start up and go to the desktop?

[pimpinaman]

I tried booting off a 98 boot disk and it says registry file not found and goes to the infamous blue screen....I can't read the whole screen before it goes to the blue screen...

[pimpinaman]

I'm still dealing with the problems from this IBM Thinkpad 755cx. I have a 98 bootdisk trying to boot windows 95. I've gotten to the point of

"...reigstry file not found aborting..."

and then to the blue screen with the stuff about VFAT (whatever that is...)_ System halted.

What do I have to do to get this thing to bring up the windows 95 desktop and proceed to normally functioning?

I'm really open to suggestions...Linux is starting to sound real good right about now..

Thanks for the read and helpful replies appreciated...

Adrian

[jerry4dos]

Are you using the bootdisk BECAUSE you got the message about the VFAT errors when you tried to boot Windows normally, or are you getting the message when you try TO USE the bootdisk?

Have you tried booting Windows (without the bootdisk) into SAFE MODE by tapping the F8 key after turning on the power, then when you get the black-and-white STARTUP MENU, select SAFE MODE? Does that work?

[smurfy]

Hi pimpinaman (and welcome to CTH by the way).
I have merged your two threads as the new one is a continuation of the same issue.
(Sorry Jerry, this makes some of yor questions seem out-of-place as they were already answered in the initial thread).

pimpinaman, to be honest, it sounds like you have caused a fatal injury to your Windows installation by your indiscriminate deletion of files and you are going to need to overinstall Windows to fix these problems.

Do you know if the Hard drive has the Windows setup files stored on it (commonly in C:\Win95\ )?
If so you should be able to reinstall from the bootdisk by changing to the C:\Win95 directory and running setup.exe.

Linux may be looking good but you are going to need a CD-Drive for that as much as you would for Win95 if the install files are not on that hard disk.

[pimpinaman]

The bootdisk is used becaused I deleted some files that seem to be the ones that start windows 95. I get the blue screen when using the bootdisk or not.
I don't seem to have a win95 directory...so I guess I can't run setup.exe. Is this something I can download from somewhere or is this very system specific?

One thought I keep having is that when I deleted the files I didn't empty the recycle bin...is there a way to get the files back from DOS? because it seems if I could restore the files from that I could get the system back to normal.

regarding reinstalling windows...bought the computer used...I don't have the original disks to re-install windows. And this is a 75Mhz laptop. I don't know that it is worth the purchase price of buying windows 95 used. If I can fix my errors this would be a learning experience for future use.

I appreciate all the help I've gotten here so far...any more ideas or am I just up the creek with this one?

[jerry4dos]

Hi pimpinaman:

I've come to the conclusion you can't recover stuff you've sent to the RECYCLE BIN if you can't get Windows started. Check out this thread -- it seems pretty hopeless:
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?threadid=147803&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Do you have any DATA on the computer now that needs saving? If not, you can reformat the hard drive and start over fresh -- although you'll need a copy of Windows95 (preferably the "B" version). You can buy them on eBay for about $10.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2 F&krd=1&from=R8&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=windows+95+full+cd

You can also reinstall Windows OVER an existing installation, and keep your existing programs and data. You may even have the Windows installation files already on your hard drive. To check, boot up with a BOOTDISK, then explore your hard drive (using DOS) to see if you have a directory called "C:\WIN95" or a directory called "C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS". The installation files with have names like "WIN95_02.CAB". Post back here if you find them. If you don't have any installation files on the hard drive, then you'll need that Windows 95 CDROM disk.

Now then, since you don't have a CDROM drive, you'll need an alternate method for getting the Windows files into your computer. Some ideas are here:
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=146730#post708993

If you need help navigating in DOS, check out this site:
http://www.networkclue.com/os/Windows/learning-DOS.php

Good luck.

Jerry

[pimpinaman]

Hmmm hope may not be lost....I dunno how the person from that other thread turned out...but I have an idea from it.

In the c:\recycled directory there is a file called desktop.ini

Is this what I'm looking for to get my system back?

The thread also mentioned slaving the harddrive to another computer running windows 95. i have a toshiba satellite pro 400cs running 95 as well.... is there a way to connect these computers so that I can access the harddrive in the Thinkpad(the one I'm having trouble with) to the toshiba that works fine? It read like this was one of the tips given. Plus this would be good all around info to move files between the 2 laptops...

Thanks for the ideas....Now how do I put them in motion?