Help, help, help - Expert assistance please

[Joannec]

Hello. I have quite a serious problem on my old computer. It is old! Bought it in 1999 and its never had anything done to it other than an extra memory thingy added.

I'm okay using computers but not very techie minded.

Yesterday, I downloaded window washer to clean my computer. I know its okay as I use it on my works computer.

Its done too good a job and appears to have deleted all my windows files.

When starting it up this morning, it began booting up and then stopped just after it went to the windows screen. I then got this

"No drives found, aborting installation

The following file is missing or corrupted C:\WINDOWS\HIM.SYS
Ditto C:\WINDOWSZDBLBUSS.SYS
Ditto C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
C:\>REM[HEADER]

Bad command of file name
Cannot find WIN.COM Unable to continue loading windows

C:\" and it then has the C prompt

I can't really afford to get it fixed but I have three years worth of photos saved on that computer from when my daughter was first born up to present day. I just want to get my computer up and running so I can get those photos back. The computer can then be trashed as I've got my mum's old computer, luckily she's recently got a new one.

Any help at all would be really appreciated.

Sorry for the essay and thanks for your time.

Joanne

 

[macdude425]

I'm assuming it is running Windows 98. You could do one of several things.

1. Put the harddrive in your mother's computer, and since you will never run Windows off it, you will no longer have this problem.
2. Use a Knoppix Live Linux CD and get all the files off the computer, then trash it.
3. Use a Windows 98 bootdisk, and copy off the files.

I personally would pick number 1.

 

[Joannec]

I'm assuming it is running Windows 98. You could do one of several things.

1. Put the harddrive in your mother's computer, and since you will never run Windows off it, you will no longer have this problem.

Yes you are right, it is windows 98.

number 1 sounds good to me too. Question is - how do I do that I take it you don't mean that you just take out the memory cards and put them in the new computer??

p.s. thanks for the quick reply, its a relief to know all isn't lost!

 

[macdude425]

Nope, I don't mean the memory.

Hopefully this tutorial will help you move the HD:
http://www.basichardware.com/HowTo_Install_Hard_Drive.html

 

[Joannec]

Thats great, thank you. I'm a bit worried as its a bit technical. I tried installing a CD rewriter and lost both the CD rewriter and CD drive on my old computer so am a bit wary with those leads and motherboards and stuff.

Thank you very much for you help, I now have a bit of reading to do

 

[chog]

If your too terribly worried, have a techie friend do it for you. If they know what they are doing it wont take long or be hard for them.

 

[turtile]

You can also try a windows repair.

Swapping the hard drive should be the easiest for you.

 

[Joannec]

How do I do a windows repair? Is it very complicated? Thanks

 

[office politics]

You can also try a windows repair.

the win.com error suggests that this is a win9x pc. No repair available, reinstall the os would be required. I dont think you can do this without getting the OS to boot. Backup your data and complete a fresh install.

How to install a cd burner

are the power lights lit on the burner? Check your connections to the mobo. Check the bios to have the system try to autodetect the drive on boot.

 

[Joannec]

Well, I felt brave last night and dismantled my old computer and fitted the hard drive as an additional drive to my new computer (well I say new, I has no usb ports and no way to install them! ). I dug around on the net to get a bit more information before I attemped it.

Anyway, fitted the hard disk, changed the BIOS to read a second drive. Turned on the computer and it booted up normally. And does not see the second drive at all!! I've tried installing new hardware but it isn't seeing it.

What do I do??

Could it be because my old hard drive was FAT32 but the new computer isn't?

Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Joanne