PC Crash and Freeze

My PC runs Windows 98 and has worked fine for 3 years. A few days ago it
froze while I was reading the New York Times online. When I restarted,
it's frozen, or opened in safe mode, or opened just fine, then frozen again
in a minute or 2. In safe mode I ran the Scandisk. The first time it
said that the standard scan was fine, but clearly there was trouble with the
Complete scan, although it did not say what was wrong. I took it to a
technician, who said nothing was really WRong, but there were too many
things starting up, and somehow my scanner appears to have been installed 4
times.

I cannot back up all my files on the zip because some are too big, and what
about programs I have downloaded like IE6, which also changed my Outlook
Express to ver 6. If the hard drive has to be reformatted with the disks
from 3years ago, will I lose it all?

Before I take the drastic step of reformatting, are there other things I
might try? I did install Startup Cop, and probably there are files that could be eliminated, but how do I know which?

Many thanks for any help.

 

http://www.pcforrest.freeserve.co.uk/startups.htm

Let us know if you need additional info or more help

DS

 

With win98 you don't need to use startup cop, just go to start/run/type msconfig and hit enter, go to the startup tab, any item you uncheck here will not load on start up

 

Thanks for suggestions on fixing startup files, but now I cannot get in to do that. I have restarted about 50 times, and the closest I can get is to Safe Mode. However, it only runs for a few minutes before it crashes.

I can, however, get into DOS. Is there anything I can do from there? No, I don't know a lot about DOS, but perhaps enough to do something small, IF there anything small that might help.

When I try to run Startup from DOS, it refuses, saying it has to be through Windows.

Any ideas?

Many thanks.

Diantha

 

There are several programs that you can get to create a partion for you through dos without losing any info... you can then transfer the data you would like to keep to the new partion and format the old side...

hope that helps.
doesn't sound like a windows or start up problem to me though.. try running Dr Dos and checking youtr harddrive.... most hdd manufacturers have a diagnostic tool for you to download.. goto your harddrive manufactuers site and find out more on what they provide.. maxtor and quantum..(samething) both have copies of Calandra's Dr Dos for download

What you have in your start up would not affect safe mode and hence my thinking that it has nothing to do with your start up

i take it you have virus scanned?

 

I have used msconfig while in safe mode several times to achieve a seletive start up.
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm
will give some guidance on which start up programs you
should use.
Do you have a start up disk? It has scan disk in dos on it.
Good Luck