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General discussion

I/O failure: Windows98 won't load

Dec 20, 2004 4:26PM PST

OK so I made a fatal mistake and let the kids play on my computer!
Everything was going fine until the screen went blank. The kids didn't do anything on purpose but when I first tried to reboot I got a message some files were missing and was advised to reinstall Windows.
I did this through the setup but now just when Windows should start I get a message that there is an I/O failure and I must reboot. REbooting doesn't help and I get the same message.
What has happened? Can I fix this?

ES

Discussion is locked

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Looks like some hardware failure.
Dec 20, 2004 10:02PM PST

Not your kids fault then.

Try booting from a boot diskette. Set the BIOS to boot from a: first, then put a boot diskette in and reboot.

If it boots, do the usual diagnostics:
fdisk /status
scandisk c:

Carefully note all error messages and post back if needed.

Kees

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RE: Looks like some hardware failure
Dec 21, 2004 7:51PM PST

It booted to A:
when I ran fdisk /status it gave 100% for usage and nothing under free
when I ran scandisk there were no bad sectors but it said there were some invalid long filenames that could not be fixed.
Does this give any indication of what is wrong?

TIA
ES