My ancient yet until recently very reliable Dell running Windows 98 just doesn't want to start. The "loading bar" gets to about 1/4 of the way across and then stops. It appears to have loaded the CD (green light flashes) but then hangs. Is it beyond help? Can I piggyback the hard drive onto my even more ancient Windows 95 (which is running perfectly) to get at the data? Help, please.....

o_0 uhhh.. Win98.. what do i know about 98.....? hmmm.. can you get into DOS and run the Chkdsk utility?

Thanks but the m/c doesn't boot at all - it just sticks when the bar is about 1/4 way across. It doesn't get far enough for DOS or F1, etc to go into safe mode or anything. I've created a bootable floppy courtesy of bootdisk.com but it doesn't work (maybe I created the wrong one?) Although my main work is on my XP, I still use the win98 for older programs which are not upgradeable so I'd really appreciate any other suggestions.....

Hi Helen welcome to the forum can it boot in safe mode try this

To get into Windows 98 / ME safe mode, as the computer is booting press and hold your "F8 key" on the top of your keyboard or press and hold the left or right Ctrl key as the computer is booting. If done properly you should get into the "Windows 98 / ME Startup Menu" similar to the below screen example. In this menu choose option 3 by pressing the 3 key and press enter. Note: With some computers if you press and hold a key as the computer is booting you will get a stuck key message. If this occurs, instead of pressing and holding the "F8 key", tap the "F8 key" continuously until you get the startup menu.

=============================

2. Logged (\BOOTLOG.TXT)

3. Safe mode

4. Step-by-step confirmation

5. Command prompt only
6. Safe mode command prompt only

Thanks for that but no help I'm afraid - it just doesn't boot long enough for F8 or anything else to work. I'm beginning to wonder if it's a hardware problem or something stupid like a battery but there's nowhere obvious for a battery - it's a desktop not a tower - any other suggestions please?? I've also done the obvious stuff like checking cables are all connected and seated properly. Should I disconnect the CD drive? Is there a hidden battery?

and slowly going mad!

It might be best to get into the and see if the PC can see the hard disk drive you get into the bios by pressing Del key on most PC's but being a dell it might be F2 or F10 once your in there is a spot to detect the hard drive if may have forgoten this due to a flat bios battery see if the PC detects if and if it duz save the changes and reboot the PC.