Crash! please help...

[Zak]

Hi,
I need some help in recovering from a Win95 crash.

On December 30, I booted up my computer, to find the error msg. <non system disk, replace and press enter> I did not have any disks in my floppy or cd rom.
In trying to solve the problem, I discovered that the boot and many .dll files had been wiped from my Win95 (version B). In trying to solve the problem I decided to reinstall Win95, however my cd had been damaged. A friend gave me his cd to install Win95, but his was (version A). Everthing seems to back to normal, with the exception of my icons. For some reason the Windows95 icons are fine, but the icons for different software programs, that I have installed all have multiple Win95 icons, and not they're own ??

Any suggestions on how to fix this ? I plan to install Win 98 within the next month, I'm wondering if this is safe to do so, over top of these 2 versions of Windows95 ?

Thanks.....




[This message has been edited by Zak (edited 01-05-2000).]

[scotter]

you could try to find the tweek UI program for windows 95 it has a icon rebuilder in it, it might work ?
as for installing win 98 on top of 95 dont go there it's more trouble than it is worth
do a clean install make your life easy http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Axel]

The TweakUI program is part of the win95 power toys package you can download from the www.microsoft.com/windows95 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows95) download area and it may resolve your problem.

I'd be much more worried about what caused the problem and why files disappeared.

Top suspects on my list are bad or cross-linked sectors on your hard drive ( do a scandisk and a defrag ) and possible one or more viruses ( update your virus definitions and do a thorough sweep of your computer )

Do those things. If you still don't find anything wrong, then I'd fdisk the entire hard drive and proceed with the win98 load sooner.

Make sure you download the latest drivers for your equipment to a disk or CD so you can reload everything from scratch, but not before you check for viruses.

[Zak]

In responce to your suggestions,

I tried using TweakUI to rebuild the icons, but there was no change. And as for running scandisk.. I receive an error message stating.. < scandisk can not check the drive now because the disk is not properly formatted, or a program such as a disk utility has locked it> ?

Now, *If I do fdisk the drive to install Win98, this has to be installed over an existing operating system ? What do you reccomend ?

Thanks...


[This message has been edited by Zak (edited 01-05-2000).]

[BBA]

I would guess it's either a virus or a bad drive.

Before buying a new drive, I would use a utility to write all zero's to the MBR and then fdisk the drive and reformat it.

As for installing Win98, the upgrade cd will install fresh if you have a Windows 3.x disk or 9x CD to insert when it looks for verification of ownership (it will prompt you).

[Nathan]

I agree with Axel and BBA. Let's do the simple things first. Then in the end you might have to buy a new hard drive. But until you do the basics, you might be spending your money when you don't need to.

[Zak]

Update.....

After reinstalling Norton Antivirus 2000 and udating all virus definitions I scanned the entire drive. No virus's were reported, but all my icons returned. Everything seems to be back to normal for now.

My guess is that I had one or more hidden virus's. If there is such a thing?

Thanks all for your help..
I appreciate it...

P.S. What would I do without this forum http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by Zak (edited 01-05-2000).]

[Tom Denny]

Zak Buy a new Hard Drive it sounds like it was the original problem anyway
Tom

[bdunn]

Have you tried SpinRite on that drive. It seems to recover all kinds of things well.

for more information visit http://www.grc.com