I restarted my computer last night, and now it won't start up at all.. I have no idea what could be the problem, since I did nothing different than I normally do, but I'm realllllly hoping someone can give me some help. All of this stuff is completely foreign to me (I know what DOS means but have no idea how to do anything in it), so I'm going to go into as much detail as possible about what's going on:

• The only way that I can turn the computer off is manually
• When I turn it on (after shutting it down manually), it takes me to the Compaq screen for a moment, then to the Windows 98 screen for a moment, then to the "Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu" screen (with the "Normal", "Logged", "Safe Mode", etc. options)
• If I start it in Normal Mode, at the bottom of the Startup Menu screen, it says "The following file is missing or corrupted: DBLBUFF.SYS" and "The following file is missing or corrupted: IFSHLP.SYS", among other DOS-y things that go by too fast for me to read... then it goes to the Windows 98 screen for a while, then the screen goes black. From here I can't ctrl+alt+del or anything, and I have to shut down manually.
• If I start in Safe Mode, it goes to the Windows 98 screen for a moment, and then gives me the following message: "VFAT Device Initialization Failed - A device or resource required by VFAT is not present or is unavailable. VFAT cannot continue loading. System halted." Again, I can't restart from here, and have to shut down manually.
• I contacted Compaq for help, and they had me do the following: Tap F10 three times at the Compaq screen, then choose "Set Defaults and Exit" at the Compaq Computer Corporation Setup Utility screen. This didn't do anything.
• They then sent me a link to the following Microsoft Support page: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=139063 . I looked at the possible resolutions, but have no idea where to go from there (it tells me to start in Safe Mode Command Prompt Only and then copy Ifshlp.sys into the Windows folder, or to edit Config.sys -- but I have no idea how to do any of that if I can't even get Windows to start!!)
• After searching this forum, I started in Safe Mode Command Prompt Only and typed in "win" after the C:\>, and it says "HIMEM.SYS is missing. Make sure that the file is in your Windows directory."

This is everything. PLEASE please tell me that this is fixable, at least without having to do a System Restore (this all happened IMMEDIATELY after I finished a big term paper -- I restarted the computer because I had gotten kicked offline and needed to email it to myself for backup!)

Hello, and Welcome to DAL.

Start the machine and when you get the Windows 98 Startup Menu (as you described) choose Command prompt only. If it goes smoothly to the C:\> prompt, this is an indication that the file system is still in order.

At the C:\> prompt, type in dir/s dblbuff.sys and hit Enter. If it comes up with a listing of the file in the Directory of C:\WINDOWS, the directory and file so far are intact.

Do the same as above for the IFSHLP.SYS file. At the C:\> prompt, type in dir/s ifshlp.sys and hit Enter. If it comes up with a listing of the file in the Directory of C:\WINDOWS, the directory and file are intact.

Then at the C:\> prompt, type in c:\windows\command\scanreg/restore and hit Enter. Pick a date which precedes the startup problem. If no files have gone missing or are damaged, the system should start normally as it did on that date.

I assume your term paper (and any other important documents) were saved in some applications format. ie; termpaper.doc for MS Word or MS WordPad etc. As long as they were saved before the problem, and, the hard disk data has not somehow been "scrambled", they should still be there.

Any software or updates which were installed after the date you pick will have to be reinstalled. Other than that you shouldn't have any real problems as this just happened very recently.

Post back with your results, and/or any other questions/fears you may have.

thanks for the reply, Dan... I don't know if this looks too good, though.

After I typed all of the dir/s dblbuff.sys stuff, it says the following: "Volume in Drive C has no label".. then it worked for a while, and then said "Directory of C:\ File Not Found".. do you think it's likely that I'll be able to retrieve the paper at all, or would I be better off spending my time starting to rewrite it? I was literally hours away from replacing this computer with my school one, so the only thing I'm concerned with is not losing my paper.

And while you're here, do you have any idea what in the world could have caused this? One second it was fine, but the next it was fried.

OK, boot to the C:\> command prompt only as before. Type in chkdsk C: and post the findings. What I want to know is if there are any lost clusters etc reported with the drive.

If there are, insert a blank formatted floppy in the A: drive and type in c:\windows\command\scandisk c: and hit enter. When prompted to save any changes resulting from the repair choose YES and direct the Save to the A: floppy.

When it's finished, remove the floppy and try to boot normally.

Post back with the chkdsk findings, and if you performed the scandisk.

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