My WIN98SE installation is sick. It first decided the registry file was corrupt and loaded a very old version. The machine now crashes to blank screen with an error message box blaming the crash on Explorer.I can't use the setup.exe file on the WIN98SE CD as it requires Windows to be running.If I try using the original WIN98 CD setup.exe, it tells me that there appears to be compression on my HD - that's news to me.All I want to do is repair Windows so that I don't lose all the applications on other partitions on that drive, and if possible, the applications which share the C drive partition as well.Any advice please?Bryn

If Windows thinks your partition is compressed, it might be corrupt. Are you able to start Windows in Safe Mode? If so, try running setup from Safe Mode. I've had Windows 98 wipe out almost every file in its own directory and, in a separate incident, the entire partition. Fortunately, I always isolate Windows in its own partition, as it looks like you do too.If you can't get Windows running, then running setup outside of Windows will require you to reinstall applications in order to create all the required registry keys.Are you familiar with using FDISK? If so, does it show that the partitions look normal? If you have Norton Utilities, the Disk Doctor (if they still have that tool) will be able to detect and correct an invalid media descriptor byte which can cause problems reading the drive.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums ModeratorRenegade/Seawolf Design Group (RSDG)[table border=2 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1][tr][td][table border=0 cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0][tr][td bgcolor=#6f0000]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75t.gif[/td][td align="center" bgcolor=#FFFFF6]Bush Flying Unlimited"At home in the wild"Looking for adventure? Come join us! * [link:bfu.avsim.net|Web Site] * [link:www.cafepress.com/bfu,bfu2,bfu3,bfu4|BFU Store] * [link:bfu.avsim.net/join.htm]Join!][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table

Thanks Peter, I finally got up again with a win98 floppy startup disk.Now I have to reinstall all those applications which went on the machine after the date of the registry file!

Glad to hear you got in okay. Unfortunate about the registry but at least it wasn't a total loss.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums ModeratorRenegade/Seawolf Design Group (RSDG)