. . . running (or not running, as the case may be) Windows 98

It never ceases to amaze me what you folks know.  Now, I need your help in
deciding the best (safest) course of action to take, from suggestions I have
received.

HISTORY OF PROBLEM

-Online virus checker detected virus.  Had no perceivable system problems,
just usual nonsense that I have come to expect with this particular computer.
 (Have 2 others that are pretty stable.)
-A few weeks later, loaded McAfee VirusScan, which located and deleted
JS/Seeker.gen virus.
-Not sure the exact sequence, but in the same time frame, was experiencing
functionality problems with AOL, including disconnects, both random and when
I tried to change screen names. Most recently, could not get on the web,
either from AOL screen or from I.E..

I now suspect most of the problems were McAfee/AOL issues, but that's 20/20
hindsight.  After installing VirusScan, when turning computer on, I got:

-"McAfee Boot Scan"
-"Scanning for virus, et. al. . . . OK"
-got message that there was insufficient memory
-after skipping that message, got it again, and then computer appeared to
load normally

Subsequently, ran SFC, and found 2 bad files, which I unzipped and
successfully replaced.

Ran I.E. 5setup.exe, and apparently ended up with older version of I.E., as I
have done updates along the way. I'm fairly certain this is where things got
REALLY whacked, i.e., system won't boot up, as follows:

***TURNING ON SYSTEM
If I try to turn on the computer, after the HP screen, I get a single beep,
and then a blank screen with cursor at top left of screen.

***USING 2/28/01 BOOTABLE DISK CREATED AFTER A BIOS DOWNLOAD
-Error 0251: System CMOS checksum bad-default configuration used.
-Press <F1> to setup, <F2> to resume

F2 gets a beep, nothing performed and an A prompt.  F1 goes into Phoenix BIOS
setup utility

***USING BOOTABLE DISK-PRE 2/28/01 BIOS DOWNLOAD

After "Starting Windows 98", I get
-Microsoft Windows 98 (with copyright information)
-A prompt

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS made by list members have included:

1) "scanreg /fix" at C prompt
2) "scanreg /restore" at C prompt to get a clean register using oldest
restoration.
3) format the disk, reinstall and start over.
4) install a different drive and copy the old files to this drive using
xcopy, then cleaning out the current drive and copy new drive back to
original drive.  (I already have a hard drive that I was putting off having
installed.
5) install Windows on top of itself.  (Am unsure exactly how to do this . . .
I have an HP restore disk, and not sure if I can just install windows without
wiping other stuff out.  What about setup.exe from CAB files????)

My first priority here is to not lose any data, as backups have not been my
strong suit, although I am not worried about losing programs, as I have not
installed that much, and I have the disks for what I do have.

Options (1) and (2) seem easy enough . . . do I risk doing more damage?
(3) seems to be a last resort as I will lose data.
(4) doesn't sound too bad, since I won't lose data (?) and I assume the new
hard drive will give me a faster system.
(5) doesn't sound like a bad option, but not sure it is possible with HP
restore disk, and also not sure if my CD ROM is operational at this point.

Well, what do you geniuses think?  Please copy replies directly to me. I'm on
digest.

William Closure

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