HELP please. My old 98 SE computer was running low on hard drive space. I looked through the forums here and found instructions on how to get more space by cleaning up things, and one was to use the program at www.crapcleaner.com. Stupidly I downloaded, ran, and thought things would be better. Unfortunately after running that program, now my Win98 SE won't open.......Where normally the Windows screen would come up, now a screen comes up that says "Windows 98 Setup Wizard," and it tries to take me through the steps of reinstalling Windows. I have the CD and boot disc, but I also had all my family pictures, very precious items on the computer that will break my heart if I lose them. I KNOW I am stupid not to have already backed it up......yes, I know. I can't seem to get the pc to go to a dos screen so I can use the scanreg restore command........Is there ANYYYYYYYYYYYYY way to recover those picture files at least.......or at worst, a way to reinstall Win98 without losing what was there before?
Thanks for any suggestions.
mtinsanity

Do you have a fully-bootable startup floppy disk?

Do you have a Windows 98SE CD and its 25-digit product code?

You might want to read here:

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/win9x_install.htm

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CCleaner has its uses, but it's too dangerous for what you used it for.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

mtinsanity...go here http://spock.uccs.edu/pub/bootdisks/bootme.exe

downlosd the WIN ME boot disk...you will have to run the program to make a bootable floppy...

then boot your computer from it ...

select boot with CD Rom support...

At the A:\ prompt type in scanreg /restore

Get a Win ME boot disk...(ask if you dont have one)

Boot to (start computer with CD rom support...)

At the A:\ prompt...type scanreg/restore

Hi,
Thanks for trying to help me.....greatly appreciated. However, I do know how to do the scanreg/restore thing, have done it several times over the past years...BUT, it will not let me get to a dos screen even pressing F8.......I do know how that's done....but it runs the AVG virus scanner and goes immediately to try and load Windows.....giving me the same error message each time......no matter how often, how fast or slow I tap F8 it is not letting me get there so that I can even load in safe mode.....is there another way I am not aware of that I can fix this? I forgot earlier to say that after it takes me to the Win98 setup wizard, if you choose cancel instead of continue, it says, "Windows 98 cannot star your system and will shut down. Are you sure you want to quit?" Then of course, it turns off the computer.....and I have to try all over again...........driving me crazy. I'm afraid to reinstall.....even a "dirty" reinstall........surely I will lose all my pictures and old files won't I? Also, if worse comes to worse, even for a price, can I have the pc shipped somewhere where someone else could save the info? I'd rather avoid that if at all possible, but I really, really, really need these pictures.....I need many other things on it too....but I can't replace the pics.......I've beaten myself up a million times already for being so stupid as to not have backed up.....so....yeah, I know.

In other words you don't know whether or not it will work? I don't know for sure either...BUT I don't see the harm in trying. Why would you want to discourage this poster from trying it?

If you reinstall 98 without formatting, it will not erase any of your personal files. Only the files in the Windows folder will be replaced. Your programs will not work for the most part and will also need reinstallation.

Or, you could download and burn The Ultimate Boot CD, recover your files, and format.

If you deleted a bunch of crucial files with CCleaner, I doubt if the scanreg /restore command will work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------