Here's an odd one...

[JKI]

Decided to blow the dust off an old computer I have and hook it into my home network.

It currently has Windows 98 on it. (problem #1--LOL)

Anyhow, I got it talking to the network, updated Windows via the net, and started blipping off unused programs. Rebooted about a dozen times, no problem.

The last thing I zapped was the software for video conferencing and such and during uninstall it said (something like:) "Some files can become locked during uninstall, reboot now to free them..."

So I did.

Here's the BIG problem. Upon reboot, just after the Windows 98 logo screen, it goes black... hangs a few seconds, I get a "blip" across the screen and it locks up (appearantly with no signal as the monitor light turns yellow as in "standby" mode).

The system only boots in safe mode now.

I have switched out monitors. No good. Same thing.

I have completely reinstalled video drivers. No good.

There are no obvious conflicts in the system manager.

I would just nuke it and start from scratch, but there are files I need to recover before doing this.

In safe mode I cannot access the CDs, so I cannot just burn disks of what I want to save. And, because I have no CD support, I cannot attempt to reload Windows. And, I cannot talk across the network in safe mode either.

I'm now, officially, out of ideas.

Has anyone seen ANYTHING like this before?

I really don't THINK I blasted dll's or other files needed, but, I guess I could be mistaken.

I'm open for ANY suggestions on how to recover my files prior to reinstalling a new operating system or two.

[confuted]

If you have broadband you can download Knoppix from linuxiso.org and boot from that CD on the Win 98 computer. Knoppix will run off the CD, and you can use it to copy the needed files. (assuming you have another CD drive and whatever... maybe it's not a good idea)

[Geo-Fry]

take the hard drive out of ur other comp and put it in the crap one (in addition to the one thats already in there) or vice versa, and just copy directly from drive to drive. itll be a lot faster than going by cds, too.

[Waldo2k2]

put the win98 cd in the drive, put the boot floppy in the a: drive. Boot the computer, select start computer with cdrom support. CD tools, CD sysrec, pcrestor. It will give you warnings about backups, ignore them. This tool basically reinstalls the base OS files and leaves everything else alone. Good luck.

BTW i htink i got those instructions right, if not search www.msdn.com for windows 98 cd and pcrestor.

[JKI]

I appreciate all the replies.

I was hoping to avoid it, but I guess the safest bet at this point would be to slave the old drive. I must have blipped something during the uninstalls.

Thanks again:: Jazz