I am fixing my mothers computer. (Or learnun haw ta ;D). It has windows 95. I would like to get it going to hopefully save some data. I later want to upgrade it. Windows won't load but it does load this message:


A device file that is specified in the SYSTEM.INI file is damaged. It may be needed to run windows.
You may need to run the windows setup program again. If the file is included in another software package, you may need to reinstall the software that uses the file
C:/WINDOWS/system/VMM32/vwin32.VXD

press a key to continue



any help would be great

 

The System.Ini file is vital to the start up process, you can add a hard drive with a seperate Operating System and salvage the information on the damaged drive, using it as a slave drive. You can format the drive with the missing System.Ini and lose all the information on it, you will also have to reinstall another operating system.

 

same thing happened to me a few years ago with win. 95. Like Gonzo said, I had to re-install another operating system.

 

what would I have to change to run XP?

 

.

How do I do this?

 

For XP, you need to check the minimum requirements. Chances are a win 95 machine with XP on it will be a real dog, if it runs at all.

Best is to get a second drive and load 95 on it and get it up and running. Then stick your original drive in as a slave and get as many of the data files off of it. Once that is done you can re-format it and use it for extra space.

Past that, depennding on how you system is configured you might want to look into linux as it is a lot easier on machines.

 

I put win 98 in when win 95 died, and it was alot slower. I'm betting XP would be to slow to use, it if worked.

 

What about switching to Windows 2000 Pro? What do you computer experts think about that?

 

I put Win2K pro on my current homebuilt.

Windows 95, computer would crash (BOD, Blue Screen of Death) once a week,
had to reinstall the whole thing 3 times.
As it was an upgrade to windows 3.1, (which itself was an upgrade) I had to start from scratch, install DOS, format the drive, install Windows 3.0, upgrade to 3.1, upgrade to 95, talk about a major PIA, and about 12 lbs of 3 1/2 inch floppys.

Upgraded (?) to Windows 98 (same computer, full install this time instead of upgrade), now it would only crash once a month, had to reinstall 98 once.

Sister has Windows ME, it doesn't even count as an operating system.
(Windows 98 with all the service packs is better, probably the exact same thing with a fancier interface)

Current computer with Windows 2000 pro hasn't crashed yet.
Once, many moons ago, the system froze, but Ctrl-Alt-Del and closed the offending program, and all was well.

I personally would run from Windows XP as fast as my little legs would carry me.

As long as the software out there continues to run on it, I'll keep 2K around as long as I can.


phox

 

[quote author=MOSTWANTED link=board=10;threadid=18519;start=0#msg173717 date=1061174267]
A device file that is specified in the SYSTEM.INI file is damaged. It may be needed to run windows.
You may need to run the windows setup program again. If the file is included in another software package, you may need to reinstall the software that uses the file
C:/WINDOWS/system/VMM32/vwin32.VXD
[/quote]
I'd take the harddisk out of the computer and put it into another computer *** secondary master. Then do a virus scan of the disk, copy the stuff you have on it onto the disk of the computer you are using now (nice to have a backup).
Take the win95 CD and make a search for a file named vwin32.* in the win95 cabs on CD- extract to the place suggested in the win.ini. Then the win95 should work again if nothing else is amiss.
Since you have backups of the system and data you can install Linux.

AlpineRAM

 

This machine was built in late 98. The builder recommended to my mother (for whatever reason) to go with WIN95. As all of the bugs wern't worked out of the system yet. So I could go with 98? But I like the idea of 2000 PRO. Think I could do this?

 

I have tried all the Operating Systems that ol Bill Gates has on the market,,I run Win 2k Pro and love it. Go that route and you can do no wrong. I would buy another drive(they are cheap), install Win 2k Pro on it and use the original drive as a slave and get all the info off it. Let us know if you need help, got alot of talent here at the site that would be more than happy to help out.

 

For the initial poster, I'd recommend to reinstall windows 95 and easily retrieve/backup your data (there are other ways..); then slick/fdisk the harddrive; create at least one virtual drive on it for your data and install W2K.

Again, W2K also has some minimum requirements that an old W95 machine may not be able to achieve.

 

Okay here is a no brainer for you computer whizzes. When a new window opens up on my computer it is 2 inches x 2 inches. How do I get a full screen? Thanks
Windows XP :P :'(

 

[quote author=spots link=board=10;threadid=18519;start=0#msg174748 date=1061346790]
Okay here is a no brainer for you computer whizzes. When a new window opens up on my computer it is 2 inches x 2 inches. How do I get a full screen? Thanks
Windows XP :P :'(
[/quote]

Remove XP and install Win 2K Pro......
Just increase it's size manually by clicking the box on the right top corner, next time it should open full size.