Anybody please help-Computer not booting up

[bappida69]

Hello world.

This is my computer set up. Compaq Presario desktop 5BW160 series, originally Windows98 SE. Also partitioned the drive 2 years back, and installed Windows 2000 on the other drive. So basically, I have two O/S and at the time of sign on, I have an option of choosing the O/S. It was working well for the last two years-until yesterday.

While working in Windows98, I got the familiar blue screen(fatal exception).I had to power off the machine. But when I restarted the machine and selected Windows 98, I got the Windows 98 logo and the machine kept hanging. On hitting Escape button, I get the black screen with text and in the bottom, the message UNKNOWN ERROR 128 CODE 5. Also on pressing F8 to start the machine in Safe mode, I get to choose the O/S. But if I choose Windows 98, I go back to the Win 98 logo and the machine hangs. So I am unable to choose Safe mode for Windows98(although I can choose it for Win 2000). Moreover when I log on to Win 2000, I can continue to access all the files in C Drive(which is my Win 98 drive).

Now the only thing which I did one day before in Windows 98 was to download the Mcafee Virus Update DAT files(It installed successfully without any virus message). I had not downloaded the DAT files for last several months. Not sure if this has anything to do with it.

So my basic dilemna remains as to how to get into Windows 98??

Any help would be more than welcome!!

Thanks.

[redwudz]

It looks like your W98 install is corrupted. I would save my files and reinstall. Not sure if Mcafee has anything to do with it. I gave up on W98 a long time ago because of similar, frequent problems. I usually reinstall at least once a month to clean out the problems.

EDIT: You might take a look at the MS site for W98. http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usingwindows/maintaining/default.asp

Looks like they are suggesting using a W98 startup floppy for boot problems.