can't find system.ini at boot up HELP !

[Axel]

Another couple of questions as to why or how this might have happened....
1) has it been long since you performed a scandisk/defreg on your hard drives?
2) has it been long since you updated the anti-virus definitions on your computer and run a thorough scan of your system?

When a system file as basic as system.ini is lost or damaged, there are almost always contributing factors and the above two are the most likely,

Whenever you install a new piece of software, I always recommend completing a scandisk and a defrag of the hard drive in safe mode before beginning the install. I do virus scans as a matter of course every few days because I spend too much time on the net.

[itsolution]

First off I'd like to say thanks, I'm new to this site and I'm impressed. Now, as far as the system is concerned, it is actually a friend's and I configured it with Win 98, other misc. software, and got him hooked up to the Internet for the first time. He says that the system has run flawlessly until now without a single GPF or blue screen. I am reasonbly sure that he has not changed or installed any software because he calls me to hold his hand about every little thing and he said he didn't. (Oh, the joys of being known as the computer expert) I'm studying for my network certifications with only 3 more exams till CNE/MCSE but my Win 95/98 knowledge admittedly has some holes. If we can locate system.bak, can it be renamed or copied to system.ini and then try booting? There is no anti virus software, I'm sure he doesn't know anything about defrag, and the only way scandisc would have been run is if he shut down improperly. I could always reinstall, but I know that's cheating and not a viable alternative in the corporate environment so I want to try to figure this one out. When he first told me about this my first suspicion was a virus, but I really don't know. thanks again.

[This message has been edited by itsolution (edited 01-01-2000).]

[richamies]

If you have a copy of Norton kicking around there, try undeleting the system.ini first. If you rename the file system.bak or whatever to system.ini, you will have no chacne of retrieving the original system.ini.
If you can't get system.ini undeleted, then yes just renaming a copy to system.ini (eg from system.bak)will do the trick, lets just hope its a fairly recent backup of it.

[itsolution]

I have never used Norton Utilities before, can you give me some insight to the program? And assuming there haven't been any configuration changes to the system since I loaded it could the system.bak file be considered reliable?

[richamies]

If you havent made any changes to the system then the system.bak file will *probably* be absolutely fine. Norton utilities has a DOS based version of undelete on it, I have a copy kicking around here somewhere but it is old and i dont hink it supports fat32.
I think the program you want is called norton diskedit, from there you should be able to retrieve the system.ini file no problems. If you cant get hold of a copy of norton then just rename the bak file to ini. Before you do this just take a look at the date on the file, if its fairly recent you are probably fine. You're probably fine even if it is dead old and you havent done any major system changes.....

[richamies]

But nothing at all will work unless you stop nicking my sunglasses http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[itsolution]

Hard drive was formatted Fat16 and install done over a full version of DOS 6.22. What do you suppose caused this? And why can't I be the happy guy with the sunglasses? I certainly don't wanna be one of the grumps, and I think I'm so cool I gotta wear shades.

[richamies]

OK WELL KEEP MY BLOODY SHADES THEN!

On a more serious not I'll take a look around for norton in the morning(its 2.45am here right now) and find out how big the file is, and let you "borrow" my copy to get you out of the mess.......strictly speaking I'm not into pirating so I have to covermyself here and ask you to delete it when you have finished with it so I can use my copy again in the future http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

*expects the shades back when he gets it working for you*

[itsolution]

Thanks dude I'll check back

[Eli]

Since the hard drive is FAT16, why not try the old DOS command undelete? You said you upgraded from DOS 6.x so it might still be on the hard drive. If not, it shouldn't be too hard to find.

(Can I wear the sunglasses too? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif )

[richamies]

*Gives his shades to Eli*
This aint fair!!! I want my shades back!
If I was a little more awake I'd have thought of that before.....and I still aint gone to bed(now 4.50am!)

[itsolution]

I am running Win 98 and my computer was running perfectly for 3 months. Other day I received a message says "cannot locate system.ini file, run setup and install windows in a new directory" and system will not boot. Booted to startup disk, and sure enough there is no system.ini file in the C:\windows directory. Where the hey did it go, and how do I get my system back??? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[richamies]

you could try using Norton to undelete the file. Failing that there might be an older copy called system.bak or similar hanging around, might work if you can undelete the original, but try that as a last resort as it will probably be an old copy from when a program modified the original....

[kidney]

try starting in safe mode, type msconfig in the run menu. Near the bottom opening screen is a 'restore backup' button. It will restore your missing system.ini file. It bailed me out of a similar problem. I think this is assuming you at one point clicked on the 'create backup' button which I highly recommend doing. It saves the files with a .pss extension.