Re: Can't Access DOS

From: TrickTrash (guardclone-news_at_yahoo.co.uk)
Date: 08/16/04 

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 03:00:15 +0000 (UTC)

I'm just beginning to get a handle on this: Until i did this fix i'd been
happily pootling along, just occasionally going into what i believed was DOS
for the odd admin task- or more likely to recover from another cockup -using
an XP made Boot Disk\System Disk or my old Win 98 System Disk when i wanted
"CD Support". This was before i realized you had to Install the Recovery
Console yourself (that had been a head scratching couple of days i can tell
you), but long after i'd converted to NTFS.

What prompted this was my trial copy of Trojan Remover expiring & wanting to
install the latest trial version; problem is, uninstallation leaves a *.dll
file behind which you can't delete in Window & that (i believe) prevents you
doing this; It tells you "Trial Expired" when you try. This itself isn't
important, but i thought, 'go into DOS & delete the *.dll & it'll work.' (i
don't really understand security permissions yet, but i can't seem to alter
this, purposefully i presume.)

What bothered me was not being able to get to DOS which i'd been getting
used to working in with Win 98. Remember, i hadn't installed the Recovery
Console & because of the prob i had-"windows\system32\config\system missing
or corrupt" - i couldn't get at C: nor was it the 'untrue' DOS emulator you
get to through XP's boot screen; this has got a different feel to it & i
can recognize it. (The Font?)

I accept what i'm told about NTFS, XP & DOS & i'm beginning to doubt my
memory and my sanity- so common an occurrence that it thankfully no longer
bothers me -but i've leant something through all this. This is why I go
onto Newsgroups. Why do the smart alecs use Newsgroups?

Anyway, thanks for your reply. I appreciate helpful advice and i'm working
through your info. If you've any further thoughts on all this let me know

yours

Nick

"R. C. White" <RCWhite@msn.com> wrote in message
news:Owlv3CogEHA.3928@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi, Nicholas.
>
> Try this: With a blank (or expendable) diskette in the floppy drive,
click
> My Computer, then right-click Drive A: and click Format... Then choose to
> Create an MS-DOS startup diskette. Then see if you can boot to MS-DOS
from
> that.
>
> Without an MS-DOS boot diskette, you cannot get to true MS-DOS from WinXP.
> You can get to one of the two (one 16-bit and one 32-bit version) MS-DOS
> emulators (the Command Prompt), but neither is true MS-DOS, which doesn't
> exist in WinXP (except for the minimal system files used to create the
> MS-DOS startup disk).
>
> If you do boot into MS-DOS, of course, you won't be able to read NTFS
> volumes (without help from a third-party utility).
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by "an XP boot disk". If you boot from the
WinXP
> CD-ROM and choose Repair, you can use the Recovery Console, which
resembles
> MS-DOS in some ways, but is really quite different.
>
> What are you trying to accomplish? If you tell us what you want to do,
> maybe we can help you find a way to do it.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
> rc@corridor.net
> Microsoft Windows MVP
>
> "TrickTrash" <guardclone-news@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:cfmmtm$nbn$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
> >I recently fixed a startup problem (missing an essential file, so
wouldn't
> > boot) but since then i can't get to DOS from boot, whether i use an XP
> > boot
> > disk or a Win 98 one; it gives me the message about unrecognised
command
> > or
> > "you might be infected with a virus" (because it can't find my hard
disk),
> > all this even though XP is working fine. & i'm pretty sure i'm not
> > infected.
> >
> > The repair i did was to fix error "windows\system32\config\system
missing
> > or
> > corrupt" which i did in DOS by going into windows\system32\config and
> > copying C:\windows\repair\system.
> >
> > Hope someone can help; at the moment it feels as if i'm strolling along
> > alright & look down to find i've no feet!
> >
> > --
> > Nicholas Nolan
> 

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