Booting Windows 98

Discussion in 'Software' started by fire-medic8104, Aug 28, 2007.

  1. fire-medic8104

    fire-medic8104 Private E-2

    I am working on a Compaq for my neighbor who is running Windows 98 on it. When it boots up it goes to dos with bad file or command. Can't boot into safe mode and when doing step by step confirmation it gets to the win and that is when it says bad file or command.

    How do I fix this?
     
    fire-medic8104, Aug 28, 2007
    #1
  2. Yargwel

    Yargwel MajorGeek

    First thing to check is that thw win.com file is actually working. So when it boots to DOS is the prompt showing C:\WINDOWS> or just C:\> :confused

    If it is just the C:\> prompt then type CD\WINDOWS then hit Enter
    When the prompt shows C:\WINDOWS> then type WIN and hit Enter.

    Depending on which it is then depends on what you should do next.
     
    Yargwel, Aug 29, 2007
    #2
  3. fire-medic8104

    fire-medic8104 Private E-2

    I tried that and get bad file name or command. I have some dos programs that I run that will work fine. I have searched the windows directory and can't find win.com. I have a win.ini but not the other.
     
    fire-medic8104, Aug 29, 2007
    #3
  4. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    You will need to copy the win.com file from your Windows 98 CD back into the C:\windows folder.
     
    chaslang, Aug 29, 2007
    #4
  5. fire-medic8104

    fire-medic8104 Private E-2

    All I have is the restore cd and it gives an error about not having needed information on d:
     
    fire-medic8104, Aug 31, 2007
    #5
  6. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Okay well I just took a quicklook at a Win98 SE CD and the win.com file is not in plain site anyway. It is burried in one of the many compressed CAB ( Win98_25.cab ) files used during install. Each version of Win9x had it in a different cab. You can see the below link for info on how to get this out of the CD:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/136630

    The original file is win.cnf and needs to be extracted from the cab and then renamed.

    Did the PC owner ever create a Windows 98 Startup floppy? It may be possible to boot from that and continue. Also see:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/129605/EN-US/

    It may be easier to find someone else with a PC still running Win 98 (of the same version) and copy the win.com file to a floppy. Then you could copy it back to your PC. However, that could just be the first of many files that you may need. After putting this file back, you may get a different error message.
     
    chaslang, Aug 31, 2007
    #6

MajorGeeks.Com Menu

Downloads All In One Tweaks \ Android \ Anti-Malware \ Anti-Virus \ Appearance \ Backup \ Browsers \ CD\DVD\Blu-Ray \ Covert Ops \ Drive Utilities \ Drivers \ Graphics \ Internet Tools \ Multimedia \ Networking \ Office Tools \ PC Games \ System Tools \ Mac/Apple/Ipad Downloads

Other News: Top Downloads \ News (Tech) \ Off Base (Other Websites News) \ Way Off Base (Offbeat Stories and Pics)

Social: Facebook \ YouTube \ Twitter \ Tumblr \ Pintrest \ RSS Feeds