"Error: An I/O subsystem driver failed to load...

[hwpeder]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long - winded post, but I thought some of you might like a bed-time story/challenge. Thanks for any help.

Athlon XP 1700+
512MB SDRAM
60GB HDD
Iomega Zip Drive
CDRW
DVD-CDROM

Windows Me system upgraded from Win98 SE

I have an interesting situation/puzzle that I have not been able to figure out. A customer brought his PC in to fix. He said they were downloading "something" from the internet. There was an Adobe Acrobat document open, when the system locked up. The machine wouldn't boot after that. Windows welcome screen, then "cannot find System.ini"

Customer booted with Me Emergency floppy and followed the Help instructions. Tried Scanreg /restore. Didn't work. He then attempted to re-install Windows. Windows Me setup would not complete. Message says there is an unauthorized version of Win98, please browse to folder where original setup files are stored. (I'm paraphrasing here). He then tried to run Win 98 setup from the CD. Win98 setup stopped because there is newer version of windows installed, setup cannot continue.

At this point, the customer gave up and brought the PC into our shop. When I initially tried to boot the machine, I got the message "Cannot find system.ini"
system.ini seems to be gone from the system. There was a System.- - - file. I renamed it to system.ini with no good results.
Ran scanreg, with no result at all.
Ran fdisk /mbr and sys a: c:

Now when booting, in either Safe Mode or Normal, I get a BSOD with the message
"Error: An I/O subsystem driver failed to load. Either a file in the .\iosudirectory is corrupt, or the system is low on memory.
System halted."

System will not not respond. Shutting off power is the only option.

Tried step-by-step startup. All OK until the file msmouse.vxd on either Yes or No, the aforementioned BSOD occurred.

Baffled, I tried to run Windows setup, from the Win98 CD and the Win Me Upgrade CD with the same results as the customer.

Scanned for virii, ran scandisk in DOS (can't get into Windows) no relief!

Interesting notes: There are 70 directories on the C: Drive named "DIR00001 - DIR00070". These directories contain various files from *.lnk to *.jpg, etc...

There are also a couple of thousand files named "FILE0001 - FILE2804". I am unable to read these files.

Any suggestions or input or insight will be most appreciated.

looking forward to your input,

howard

 

[PAndersen]

Try to save user's files (documents, mails) to diskettes.
The FILE001 .. contains parts of destroyed files, collected by scandisk. After rescuing data of interest, run fdisk and format the harddisk and start a new, clean installation.

 

[hwpeder]

Thanks for the reply,

Can't think of any way to save the system?

The customer was very concerned about it. I know it's not my fault, but I know how bad it hurts to lose everything.

Thanks again,

Howard

 

[PAndersen]

If you can use a logged boot, you will get a bootlog.txt file. That file can be inspected after a restart i DOS mode. Maybe the missing driver can be transferred from another computer (?) Perhaps the FILE001.. files should be deleted, and maybe the attrib command must be used prior to deleting to remove system and hidden attributes.

 

[hwpeder]

Thanks PAnderson,

Tried all of the above with no success. Ended up zeroing out the drive, fdisk, format and reload. The user was disappointed, but that was what he really expected all along. Move on to the next one.

Thanks again,

Howard