technoid

Btw, I need to copy all my personal files off this drive first before I try reconstructing the registry to make it boot again. The drive only has one owner (admin), with password. Will slaving the drive at another PC and taking ownership of all the files/folders (so I can get to my stuff to backup) affect it from booting properly when I change it back to a master drive?

Are you saying that stock 98SE (fresh CD install) already has Jet as part of the stock OS? If not, I know I don't have Jet installed at all, not even from AP, let alone any Jet updates.

Hi again. Just to update, I went ahead and reformatted and reinstalled 98SE and then tried Autopatcher again (latest version, Dec2007Full). I patched everything except that Jet database thingy (about 149 things I think) and stuff seem to be working successfully and stable now (no blank desktop this time). However, during the patching, DirectX 9.0C installation just kinda stalled/froze. I rebooted and then did a forced install, but that didn't work either. When I go into dxdiag, it shows DX at version 6. I have read Dave-H's thread. Is that the same problem? Or should I just go ahead and install DX9.0C using Microsoft's redistributable package? I shall await a reply(s), thanks. Btw, what exactly is that Jet database stuff? I might useful for me, who knows. I'm guessing it has something to do with databases, but I could be wrong.

Now that I recall, I think I used your Autopatcher incorrectly. I installed "December 2007 Final (FULL)" first and then installed "December 2007 RC1 to December 2007 Final (UPGRADE)" over it, thinking it was an upgrade to Dec 2007 Final Full, but now I see it is an upgrade path from Dec 2007 RC1. Am I correct? I don't know if that was partly to blame for my PC getting corrupt. I will await the June2008Upgrade. How is "very soon"? So when I reinstall my OS, I run Dec2007FinalFull first and then June2008Upgrade, yes? Also, what do you mean by "Do NOT install any updates until you have used Auto-Patcher"? Are you talking about the 98SE Windows Update at the Microsoft site? So then what is the best order of installation should I use then? Does it look something like this? >> 0. 98SE CD install 1. Hardware drivers 2. Autopatch 3. Windows Update 4. DirectX 9C 5. IE 6 and SP's (or is this all on the AP?) 6. TweakUI for 98SE (v1.33 I think) 7. MS Office (I will use MSO 2k) 8. Any other software In a prior thread, someone also told me about Service Pack 3.2 beta by Gape. Do I really need this too? Finally, is there any other beta patches I should install after Autopatcher? There are so many projects, I don't know what else I'd want/need to use. This includes any unofficial service packs for 98SE, if there's any you recommend. I also intend on reading this entire thread. Thanks for the help thus far.

Ok thanks. I guess I'll have to reinstall OS. It was actually a fresh install, but there were maybe ~5 other programs added, if I recall (TweakUI being one of them). But basically, I installed all the Windows Updates for 98SE that the Microsoft website was able to sense and then Internet Explorer 6.0 and its updates and then DirectX 9c. That's as much native M$ I can remember that I added. The motherboard is a QDI Explorer I (ca 1996), with 128MB (72p Simms) maximum and an AMD K6-III/400. What is WUPG98 and SESP? Now you've got me more intrigued and bewildered. And why do you say to install 'AutoPatcher/sept'07,oct'07,dec final'07'?? I thought all you need was the latest patch and any upgrades thereafter?

So, being very eager and excited about Auto-patcher, I decided to let it auto-patch EVERYTHING it could find. It ended up updating 129 things. Well, BAD IDEA. Now when I boot and login to my 98SE, the Start bar and the desktop (icons) don't load up and it's stuck there. The only thing I can see is the desktop background image and the mouse arrow (I can move the arrow). When I check Task Manager, nothing is there. So, anyone have ideas? Can I unpatch stuff in Safe Mode? This OS installation isn't all that important, so I can always reformat and reinstall 98SE. Also, if I do decide to use Auto-patcher again, which patches are the safest to install? Critical Updates only perhaps?

Ok thanks. Darn it, that's more stuff to learn and do before I may be able to get this laptop back up and running, heh. Could take at least a week. So are we/you saying that XP Pro CD may not work when trying to get into a Recovery Console? Are the Home and Pro CD's/files really that different?

Hi all ... searching thru this forum, I found this thread. My HP laptop recently got this similar type of STOP failure. The full BSOD is: Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\DEFAULT or its log or alternate I am aware of these links: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us http://www.aade.com/XPhint/XPrecovery.htm My problem though is all I have are system recovery CD's. The OS is XP-Home (SP2). But I DO have access to an XP-Pro disc. Will that work? I just don't know if I will be able to use those instructions without an XP-Home installation CD. I have been Googling like mad searching on everything I can find about this error, including posts in other forums across the internet. Jaclaz's instructions above seem less tedious, although I've never tried that Avira NTFS4DOS though (nor UBCD4Win). At the moment of this writing, I am running a hard drive self test via the laptop's BIOS to be sure it's ok. If possible, my goal is to fully regain the current OS installation on the drive and not have to reinstall the OS, as well as keep the personal contents/files intact. Please help, anyone, thanks. UPDATE: Well, the harddrive self test passed including SMART (took 40 minutes). There's another thread in here similar to what's going on: http://www.msfn.org/board/windowssystem32c...amp;hl=c0000218 I forgot to say that Safe Mode or Last Known Config at startup doesn't work. It will always BSOD the same failure and then restart, until I manual shut off. The possible cause of this in the first place was my laptop overheating, thus corrupting memory and harddrive transfers.

I felt 95B was too obsolete and limited the upgrades to some software. For example, I couldn't update to Flash 7 as the Adobe installer said my OS (95B) was unsupported. Same with DirectX, version 8 being the final for 95B, while version 9C for 98SE. I also wanted to update the USB without too much hassle. This mainboard has USB, but it's never been used (there's header pin connectors for it). It is probably pre-USB 1.1, not sure yet since still in progress, but I won't hold my breath if the USB doesn't work. Will the service pack 3.2beta and the autopatcher install different things or mostly the same stuff? I also need a good free firewall. I've been trying out Jetico, but that thing is so annoying. It keeps popping up asking so many questions for permissions. I'm used to Zonealarm and maybe that's all I really need unless you recommend another free firewall for 98SE. I'm aware of the thread of the last software versions for Win9x where I can obtain the last ZA 98SE version. Avast antivirus is working nice.

Hi guys, I'm new here. I have an old Socket7 system (office pc) that I have installed 98SE on. I had 95B on it for over 10 years. It was a CTX brand purchased at Costco long ago, a QDI Intel VX board that came with a Cyrix 120 CPU. I have since managed to upgrade the BIOS to the last known revision (1999, from 1996) and increased Ram to 128mb (max) and the CPU to an AMD K6-III/400. Even though the BIOS doesn't properly recognize the K6-III, it works great and 98SE seems to run nicely on it. The speed increase from the CPU alone is worth keeping this old computer. I have already updated the OS to everything I could find off Microsoft's Windows Update service. So my question is if there's any more stuff that I could ideally patch up. I would've upgraded to XP, but I don't see anything wrong using 98SE, plus I don't really want to shell out another $90-150 or so for a version of XP. I've skimmed through this site and there is a dizzying array of code I could try, but I am aware some of them are beta's or for experimenting. What do you all think? Please remember this machine will be for simple office use, mostly paperwork, nothing fancy. It's still in the upgrading process so no worries yet. Thanks in advance.