Deleted Windows Files

[brockway]

What an idiot.
I deleted some files from the C:\Windows root directory while working in DOS (don't ask it's embarassing)..theres nothing in the recycle bin.
Do I have to reinstall Windows or can I do a part install?
Worst case, will I have to reformat?

[Banti]

Which files are they? Are they critical?

Does Windows boot up? If so you can try any of the comercial solutions...

You can also try the dos command undelete... but that should be a last resort.... right before resintall...

Banti

[brockway]

Windows does not boot. (error missing win.com).
I'm not sure exacltly how many files I lost
Boot message says himem.sys and 3 or 4 more but I assume there are more, all in C:\Windows\ (I'm at work now so I cant check).
Will I have to format before reinstall?
Thanks.

[scotter]

try just a reinstall first your probably gona need some of your driver disk's but it should fix it and keep every thing else intact http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[brockway]

General (stupid?) question...
Is there an option to re-install which might search for already installed files and give me the option to not replace them, or do I just do a normal full install???
Thanks for the replies.

[Banti]

For some files yes.. you can reinstall SOME of the files in windows... but in your case you will need to reinstall everything... that is unless there is a procedure and/or a 3rd party solution that I am unaware of.

Did you "c:\windows\del *.*"??

I have done worse... much worse... so don't worry... be http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif.

Banti

[psyklone]

here ya go:
if you are only missing win.com then you can do this .... first, check your c:\windows directory for win.com. if it is there then rename it to win.old and then boot up with your win98 cd and startup disk in the machine. once it has given you an A:\> then type the following (substituting your CDROM drive letter for "X"), EXTRACT /A X:\WIN98\WIN98_22.CAB WIN.CNF /L C:\WINDOWS and then hit ENTER. this will extract the win.cnf file to your c:\windows directory. change over to your c:\windows directory and rename win.cnf to win.com and then take out your startup diskette and reboot and now you should be able to boot up past that error. if you scrapped your windows installation worse than that then here's what you want to do:
boot up the machine with your win98 cd and startup diskette and when you get to the A:\> change over to your cdrom drive letter and then to the WIN98 directory and from here run SETUP /ND, this will give you the selective file over-write installation that you want and SHOULD get you back into windows without having to reinstall any over your other programs. best of luck, let us know how you do!

[brockway]

Thanks to all who replied. I'll post here later with an update.

[brockway]

Update...

I had to do a full reinstall from CD after all, which meant reinstalling drivers, setting up programs, preferences, etc.
What a pain, although I'm sure others have had worse experiences....a lot is learned about watching hockey and doing disk maintenance at the same time.

Thanks to all who replied.

pskylone: any clues why the selective reinstall didn't work??? I can't find this in the Windows manual.

[psyklone]

nope, that's not a switch that you'll find in your manual anywhere .... but it works and i always use it as a last resort and if it doesn't work then i opt for a format and reinstall. just out of curiousity, when you ran the setup/nd, did it even complete running setup? what exactly happened?

[brockway]

psyklone;

It ran the normal setup (backing up old sys files, then full install). I did not see an option to not overwrite existing files.
Thanks again for the suggestions..

[psyklone]

oops ... forgot to mention in the original post that it doesn't do any sort of prompted selected installation, it basically goes through and does a forced overwrite of windows files that have changed. this way your program files are still there and in most cases it will fix problems caused by a corrupted windows installation or file.