03 26 00

back

So help me... If I ever decide up upgrade to a new version of Windows again, I'm just going to buy another computer.

Hi. I'm back. I've upgraded to Windows 98. I had to completely get rid on Win95, though, because I was using a new installation disk rahter than an upgrade disk. Oh well... That's what I get for "borrowing" software.

What follows is a description of what happened to me. Please excuse any spelling mistakes you might see. Word, and Office in general didn't make it though the transition. Therefore, I don't have a spellchecker. (And I'm blind without one...) Also, this entry might not make much sense unless you have a rudimentary knowledge of DOS commands.

Friday night I had finished backing up all the things I'd written and most of the images I had saved, my email folders, my bookmarks, and my ICQ list. After one final look around my system, I booted into DOS.

Feeling oh so cocky, I typed:

C:\> del windows

Scary, huh? grin The computer churned for a while and I got my prompt back.

C:\> E:
Invalid drive specification

Uh oh.

Reboot.

Windows tries to load (which made me realize it was still in there somwhere) but crapped out, giving me a list of error messages. I try again.

C:\> E:
Invalid drive specification

Damn.

So I start pouring over the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, looking for anything that would help me out. The contents of those files were mostly greek to me, so I checked into DOS help. There I found an interesting command called "undelete."

C:\> undelete
Undelete has found 29 files.
?INSO.INI . . . Undelete? (Y/N) y
Please supply the first letter of the filename: w

CAUTION: WINDOWS has disabled long filenames on your system in order to protect file integrity. See LOCK /? for more information.
Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart your computer.

Reboot.

C:\> LOCK /?
Invalid command

Argh.

C:\> LOCK
Are you sure? (Y/N) y

C:\> undelete

I waded though a few of the files, undeleting what I could, guessing at filenames. (Why do you have to guess the first letter of the filename? Hmm?) Somewhere I got stuck, and tried to go back into DOS help.

C:\> help
Invalid command

Oh dear.

Reboot.

C:\> help
Invalid command

C:\> HELP
Invalid command

C:\> FUCK YOU
Invalid command

So, I try a new tact. I venture into the CMOS settings and start fiddling around. One of the options is the disk bootup sequence. Looks promising, I thought. I changed the boot sequence to CDROM,A,C. Reboot.

Doesn't work.

Ok, I thought. Let's try using the Windows 95 bootup disk.

Doesn't work.

I went back to examining the CONFIG.SYS files and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, looking for clues on how to spin up the CDROM. On a whim, I copied down how the files were set up so I could reconstruct them, and I deleted all references to Windows. Reboot.

C:\> E:
Invalid drive specification

By this time it was almost 4am. I was tired and couldn't see straight. I slept for a little while before hacking back at it.

C:\> E:
Invalid drive specification

Yep, just where I let off.

I looked at the notes I had scrawled down the night before with the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT settings. One thing caught my eye.

DEVICE=C:\CDROM\AOATPI.SYS /D:IDECD000

It says CDROM!

C:\> cd cdrom
C:\CDROM\> AOATPI.SYS /D:IDECD000
Invalid command

Aah... But I could smell victory.

I found another interesting item written on the other side of the envelope. It looked similar to the command I had just tried... so I tried this one out as well.

C:\> cd windows\command
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\> MDCDEX.EXE /D:IDECD000

CDROM Driver Loaded v. 2.91
Copyright 1995 Drive E:\ ready

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\> E:
E:\>

WOO HOO!

E:\> setup

Initializing setup...
Setup requires high memory to be enabled. Please enable your High memory functions before continuing. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot your computer.

ARGHGHGHGHG!

...to make a very long and painful story short:

I found the HIMEM.SYS file on the Windows 95 bootup disk, copied that to the C drive. Enabled higher memory functions. Loaded the CDROM again. Ran setup... And it detected a previous version of Windows already loaded. Bah. I rummaged around again, found the DELTREE command, used it on the Windows folder, and poof... No more Windows. Ran setup AGAIN...

And I sat back for the next hour and watched it install. grin

I'm still putting the pieces back together again, but other than the inital problems it went pretty smoothly. I have all my mail and bookmarks still, my saved games, and some of my programs. My ICQ list was toast, though, as was Office and a few other programs.

Whew. Never again, I'm telling ya...

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