Dr. Charles writes:

<<I just reformatted my harddrive and did an F-Disk

WIN 98 1st Edition (4.10.1998)  256MB RAM

01.  Cannot find a device file in the registry or
SYSTEMS.INI
        DFS.VXD

02.  Unable to load dynamic link library
        MSNP32.DLL

QUESTION

Although I did a F-Disk, is it at all possible that
the REGISTRY was damaged before I reformatted?
If this is possible, how can I restore it?>>

The .dll file mentioned is a Windows/System file, to do with MS Network I
suspect.  I don't know what the .dfs virtual drive is.

Whether or not your registry was damaged before you reformatted is surely
irrelevant, as reformatting wipes out everything anyway.  Error message 01
does not make sense---the registry does not contain files.

When you install Windows anew, there is actually no "registry" as such on
the windows CD.  The registry is created by Windows itself during the
installation process, to conform to the configurations of your
computer.  There is no "standard" registry as such.

If you need Ms Network, then see if you can extract msnp32.dll off the
windows CD and stick it in the Win/System folder.  You'll need Cabview, or
I think Winzip8, to locate and extract it.  Same with the other .vxd.

Alternatively, you could go through msconfig.exe and see if it points to
anything starting at bootup which might involve those files.  Uncheck
everything not vital and see what happens.  If that works, you can replace
one at a time until you find the culprit.

Otherwise, you'd have to run Regedit, go into the registry, and check the
various registry startup locations.  See my tutorial on this procedure if
you don't know how.

Don Penlington



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