The computer is a IBM NetVista 568 mhz 192 ram.The cd-rom does not work and the computer 
came preloaded with ME,with no recovery cd.

At some point awhile back some dialers or spyware or both ended up on it.Someone 
deleted some files to try to get rid of the dialers or spyware or whatever it was.It 
has not worked right since.All I can do now is boot to a completly gray screen safe 
mode.The desktop is not there at all.Program manager works on top of the gray screen.

Here is what I did recently--I downloaded a program called uneraser to find out which 
files were missing and here is what I found was missing:

C:Restore folder is missing entirely

Uneraser said that
c:windows/command/ebd/autoexec.bat was missing but I have found it using program 
manager.

Uneraser also said that c:windows/win.ini was missing but I found that in prog manager 
as well.

A file in the symantec folder is missing---- symantec/virusdef/20030606.00-_vx~0034.tmp

c:system.sav/mid/_id2html.txt
c:windows/win.tsh
c:windows/wininit.ini
c:windows/wnbootng.sts
c:windows/system.tsh

There are also files missing like IE files and cookie files and what not but  the 
ones I listed above are more important I guess.

I am at a loss as what to do and I really do not want to lose everything on the HD.If 
anyone could help me out I would appreciate it greatly.ok thanks :)

Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: Can't boot to desktop Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 4:26 am Posted by Jack Gulley (5917 messages posted) "Program Manager"? Someone has modified the WIN.ini file to start up the Widows 3.1 Program Manager in order to do basic error recovery? Sounds bad. Without a Startup Diskette or bootable CD, you really have a problem. The uneraser program has not told you much useful. You can use Program Manager to edit the WIN.ini file to get rid of Program Manager (Progman.exe), but then you might not be able to boot the system at all. First suggestion is to see if you can find a Windows ME system to make a Windows ME startup diskette on it. Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab. (Never use Windows 98/ME without one somewhere.) Next on the system, use Program manager to get into EDIT or Notepad or a boot diskette to get into DOS EDIT and look at the C:\Windows\SYSTEM.DAT file and do a find on "ProductKey". Following it will the the 25 character product key code for your copy of Windows ME. You will need this code if you do not have it. Write it down carefully. zero and "O" look a lot alike. Also check the back of the system for a Windows sticker with this code on it, there should be one somewhere. At this point, unless you have someone with a lot of experience at doing this type of recovery, your only choice is to try a reinstall of Windows ME over the top of itself and hope that it clears up enough problems that you can boot the system into Safe Mode. It would be best if you could start the reinstall after booting from a Startup diskette, but Program Manager might just work OK. Go to the C:\Windows\Options\Install folder and locate the SETUP.EXE file. If not there, check in the C:\Windows\Options\CABS folder. (Don't look in any other folders for it as it will not be the one you are looking for.) If you can start this SETUP program, you should be able to reload Windows ME over the top of itself. It will ask you for the "ProductKey" code information. This may also be on a sticker on the back of the system, so look there also. When it asks you what folder to install to, make sure you indicate C:\Windows and not default to C:\Windows.000. This should install Windows ME and any of its programs that are missing or corrupted, and get the system booting. It will not remove any of your programs and data. Nor will it remove any virus or Spyware/Adware, so you will still have to deal with these. It will also clear any of the Widows Updates and set IE back to v5.5, so you will have to download and install all of them again. You will need to do a REPAIR of IE. (see: page before doing the Windows Updates. The only thing I don't know about, is if it will remove the change to WIN.INI that is starting Program Manager. Usually this is done with a RUN=progman.exe statement in the WIN.ini file. (Just remove it and save. Make sure there is still a RUN= statement there.) If you can make a Windows ME startup diskette, then you might be able to use it to remove this first and see how for you can get booting the system as it is. Then use the startup diskette to run the SETUP.exe program. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can't boot to desktop Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 10:13 am Posted by Luthien (15 messages posted) I did the progman.exe line because someone on another computer help site was trying to repair the registry.Only thing that did was give me the error message:SUREGCreateKey failed! Before program manager all I could do was get to a gray screen safe mode that wouldn't go anywhere.Nowhere at all. When I first boot up now I get this error: Registry file not found.Registry services may be unavailable this session.XMS cache problem. I couldn't find setup.exe in either of the places you told me to look.Thats all I can think of for now.Thanks for the help. On Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 4:26 am, Jack Gulley wrote: > "Program Manager"? > Someone has modified the WIN.ini file to start up the Widows 3.1 Program Manager >in order to do basic error recovery? Sounds bad. Without a Startup Diskette or bootable >CD, you really have a problem. The uneraser program has not told you much useful. >You can use Program Manager to edit the WIN.ini file to get rid of Program Manager >(Progman.exe), but then you might not be able to boot the system at all. > First suggestion is to see if you can find a Windows ME system to make a Windows >ME startup diskette on it. Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk >tab. (Never use Windows 98/ME without one somewhere.) > Next on the system, use Program manager to get into EDIT or Notepad or a boot >diskette to get into DOS EDIT and look at the C:\Windows\SYSTEM.DAT file and do a >find on "ProductKey". Following it will the the 25 character product key code for >your copy of Windows ME. You will need this code if you do not have it. Write it >down carefully. zero and "O" look a lot alike. Also check the back of the system >for a Windows sticker with this code on it, there should be one somewhere. > At this point, unless you have someone with a lot of experience at doing this >type of recovery, your only choice is to try a reinstall of Windows ME over the top >of itself and hope that it clears up enough problems that you can boot the system >into Safe Mode. > It would be best if you could start the reinstall after booting from a Startup >diskette, but Program Manager might just work OK. > Go to the C:\Windows\Options\Install folder and locate the SETUP.EXE file. >If not there, check in the C:\Windows\Options\CABS folder. (Don't look in any other >folders for it as it will not be the one you are looking for.) If you can start this >SETUP program, you should be able to reload Windows ME over the top of itself. It >will ask you for the "ProductKey" code information. This may also be on a sticker >on the back of the system, so look there also. > When it asks you what folder to install to, make sure you indicate C:\Windows >and not default to C:\Windows.000. This should install Windows ME and any of its >programs that are missing or corrupted, and get the system booting. > It will not remove any of your programs and data. Nor will it remove any virus >or Spyware/Adware, so you will still have to deal with these. It will also clear >any of the Widows Updates and set IE back to v5.5, so you will have to download and >install all of them again. You will need to do a REPAIR of IE. (see: >border="0">page before doing the Windows Updates. > The only thing I don't know about, is if it will remove the change to WIN.INI >that is starting Program Manager. Usually this is done with a RUN=progman.exe >statement in the WIN.ini file. (Just remove it and save. Make sure there is still >a RUN= statement there.) If you can make a Windows ME startup diskette, then >you might be able to use it to remove this first and see how for you can get booting >the system as it is. Then use the startup diskette to run the SETUP.exe program. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can't boot to desktop Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 11:21 am Posted by Jack Gulley (5917 messages posted) You may have a lot more files missing or corrupted than you realize if you can not find SETUP.EXE. Try searching for it and see if you can find a copy of it in a folder with the WIN_##.CAB files. Look for say WIN_17.CAB and then a copy of SETUP.exe in the same folder. That is the one you need to do the re-install. These WIN_##.CAB files are what is used to rebuild Windows ME. Without these, you will need an Install CD of some kind. If not found, then you must try to locate and/or make a Windows ME Startup Diskette. (Have to go work on a Old friends system that just died.) [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can't boot to desktop Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 6:24 pm Posted by Luthien (15 messages posted) I have WinMe from a zip file unzipped on this computer and I copied setup to the computer with the problem.For a second it looked like it would start the setup but then I got this error: Setup could not check the hard drives on your computer.You must check your drives before setup can continue. Click OK to exit setup,restart your machine,boot with a floppy and run scandisk /all from the command line.After scandisk has finished run setup to install WinMe. So I ran scandisk and did a scan that took about 2 hours and when I ran setup again I got the same error.So,I have WinMe files but not files that are actually installed.I couldn't find the CAB files that you told me to look for.Okie,Thanks On Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 11:21 am, Jack Gulley wrote: > You may have a lot more files missing or corrupted than you realize if you can >not find SETUP.EXE. Try searching for it and see if you can find a copy of it in >a folder with the WIN_##.CAB files. Look for say WIN_17.CAB and then a copy of SETUP.exe >in the same folder. That is the one you need to do the re-install. These WIN_##.CAB >files are what is used to rebuild Windows ME. Without these, you will need an Install >CD of some kind. > If not found, then you must try to locate and/or make a Windows ME Startup Diskette. > (Have to go work on a Old friends system that just died.) [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can't boot to desktop Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 6:47 pm Posted by Jack Gulley (5917 messages posted) The Setup.exe program needs all of the other files in the folder to do an install, just like it does when you install from the CD. You would have to copy all of the files including the large Win_??.CAB files into a temp folder on the system. One of the programs in the folder is a copy of SCANDISK.exe and a PIF file that control it during the install process. If this program (and many others) is not present in the same folder as Startup when it makes "quite" calls to them, then it will get errors like you got. If you have access to a Windows ME system that works, make a startup diskette through Add/Remove Programs icon, Startup Disk tab. If it has a CD-RW drive on it, make a CD-R with a copy of the folder C:\Windows\Options\Install and by booting with the startup diskette you could copy the CD folder to a temp folder on the disk drive and then start its Setup.exe. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can't boot to desktop Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at 9:00 pm Posted by Luthien (15 messages posted) I might be able to do that.If that does not work is there any hope to get back up?Thanks On Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 6:47 pm, Jack Gulley wrote: > The Setup.exe program needs all of the other files in the folder to do an install, >just like it does when you install from the CD. You would have to copy all of the >files including the large Win_??.CAB files into a temp folder on the system. One >of the programs in the folder is a copy of SCANDISK.exe and a PIF file that control >it during the install process. If this program (and many others) is not present in >the same folder as Startup when it makes "quite" calls to them, then it will get >errors like you got. > If you have access to a Windows ME system that works, make a startup diskette >through Add/Remove Programs icon, Startup Disk tab. If it has a CD-RW drive on it, >make a CD-R with a copy of the folder C:\Windows\Options\Install and by booting with >the startup diskette you could copy the CD folder to a temp folder on the disk drive >and then start its Setup.exe. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can't boot to desktop Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 5:46 am Posted by Jack Gulley (5917 messages posted) If you get all of the install folder and its large *.CAB files, then it should work. Actually, all of them should be on your system somewhere. They are a required part of Windows ME. In prior versions of Windows, having the install *.CAB files on the disk drive was an OEM vendor option. I just looked at a NetVista system with Windows ME and all of these *.CAB files were on it. It does take some experience to recover from such a mess (I have recovered systems from much worse states), but it takes work. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can't boot to desktop Friday, January 14, 2005 at 5:41 pm Posted by Luthien (15 messages posted) Ok,here is what I have done.I have the files of a WinME disk in a temp folder and started setup and got this error: Setup encountered a problem while checking the integrity of your registry.If your registry is corrupted,WinME may not run properly. So I continued on and now I am at this message: Setup can save your Windows system files,so you can uninstall WinME and return to your previous version of Windows.This mat require up to 125-175 mb of disk space depending on your system configuration. Do you want setup t save your existing files? Y/N And that is where I am going to leave it for now.I don't want to mess anything up after making it this far.Okie,thanks Jack On Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 5:46 am, Jack Gulley wrote: > If you get all of the install folder and its large *.CAB files, then it should >work. Actually, all of them should be on your system somewhere. They are a required >part of Windows ME. In prior versions of Windows, having the install *.CAB files >on the disk drive was an OEM vendor option. I just looked at a NetVista system with >Windows ME and all of these *.CAB files were on it. > It does take some experience to recover from such a mess (I have recovered systems >from much worse states), but it takes work. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can't boot to desktop Friday, January 14, 2005 at 10:03 pm Posted by Luthien (15 messages posted) I just clicked yes on that.I got fairly far into the installation and got a SuWin error at 65% completion of copying files.I have googled SuWin errors and am going to try something. On Friday, January 14, 2005 at 5:41 pm, Luthien wrote: >Ok,here is what I have done.I have the files of a WinME disk in a temp folder and >started setup and got this error: >Setup encountered a problem while checking the integrity of your registry.If your >registry is corrupted,WinME may not run properly. > >So I continued on and now I am at this message: > >Setup can save your Windows system files,so you can uninstall WinME and return to >your previous version of Windows.This mat require up to 125-175 mb of disk space >depending on your system configuration. >Do you want setup t save your existing files? Y/N > >And that is where I am going to leave it for now.I don't want to mess anything up >after making it this far.Okie,thanks Jack > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows Me Discussion Forum