[Resolved] Can't find WIN.COM

Hi!

Im running a win98se. I was trying to do a reinstall over the OS. The instructions were if I got an error message saying that it didn't want to do the install I should type in:

c: [enter]
cd windows [enter]
ren "win.com" "win.old" [enter]

which I did, but now Im getting a message that says that it can't find win.com, and so it won't boot up.

any help would be greatly appreciated--or should I just type in C:\ format and be done with it. I've got all the important stuff backed up on D and E.?

 

Usually with reinstalls of Win98, you just boot to DOS and run the setup program. There was some old information out there about needing to rename WIN.COM when upgrading with to the old OEM SR2 but this shouldn't apply here.

What happens if you boot to DOS and rename the file back again.

 

I've tried to rename the file, but it says it can't find win.old. But wait a minute.I have not been using the quotes, just win.old and win.com. I'll try rename it using the quote marks. That may help.

 

No, it says it can't find win.old or "win.old"

 

You don't use the quotes. Try this, from the c:\> prompt:

dir /s win.old

or

dir /s win.com

 

Hi Rog!

I feel like I woke up with 10 thumbs. LOL dir /s win.old did it--but now what do I do. The message was:

Volume in drive C has no label
Volume serial number is 14E4-165E
Win Old 24,791 04-23-99 10:zzp

Do I put in ren win.old win.com after the C prompt?

or do I put in ren "win.old" "win.com" after the C prompt?

Thank you for your time and the info. It is appreciated.

Xico

 

Type
Cd\Windows
Ren win.old win.com

 

WOW! THANK YOU! That did it! Thank you! Lordy, I thought I was lost.
Thanks again.

Xico

 

Glad the suggestion of simply renaming the file is what solved the problem.

 

With a typical reinstall or overinstall, the win.com file should not need to be renamed. Sounds like what you were trying to do is install a full 98SE ontop of 98 in the form of an upgrade

 

From the initial post, it sounds like there was some misinformation about needing to rename win.com before doing a reinstall. Then tried to boot to Windows. All that was needed was the suggestion that the file get named back again. There was then a little confusion about how to exactly do that from DOS.

 

This is the part that I was addressing, which created the problem to begin with The message was more than likely along the lines that "this computer already has an operating system............"