When System Restore Fails and All Drives are Inaccessible

[ASUSP2B-D]

I have 98SE on the system; it was running fine NP. Then I got verizon DSL and tried to hook up their Ethernet-to-USB adapter and the system freaked out. As I tried to install the drivers for the plug-n-play adapter, Windows kept asking for both 98 and 98SE original disks. I obliged, having both CD and DVD/CD optical drives available, but inserting both these disks as requested did not satisfy Windows.

Then both optical drives disappeared from view and access. I couldn't get them back. Microsoft support online doesn't address this problem, but the documentation there does suggest that 98SE does have problems USB conflicts. (Great, I wish I would have seen that earlier....)

So I tried cleaning out the USB conflicts by going in in Safe Mode to Device Manager and systematically, according to proceedure outlined by Microsoft, eliminating _all_ USB drivers and devices, as well as duplicate entries and leftovers from the past nolonger in use; _everything_ related to USB, and resetting the USB stacks.

I really thought that would correct the problem; it didn't! The optical drives appear in Safe Mode--they appear in the Device Manager in Safe Mode but the Device Manager doesn't list them at all in Normal Mode-- but each time I boot up in Normal Mode, it is as though they don't exist and I can not access them.

Ok, so then I tried going in through DOS and doing a system restore in the registry; nope, that didn't work either. System restore operation failed!!!

Also, I found that not only are the optical drives disappeared and inaccessable, but my floppy drive is _also_ inaccessible. While the floppy drive shows up as being there, when I try to put a disk in it, a message comes on the screen saying there is no disk in the drive, so it isn't reading.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get my drives back??? I could delete them from the system in Safe Mode where they at least appear, and then see what happens...

[kc8adu]

Re: When System Restore Fails and All Drives are Inaccessible

many highspeed providers have crap software they want you to install.
sbc/yahoo being the worst.i see many cases like yours.
get a good router and configure it so all you do is plug into it .
see lots of issues with usb in 9x.i would use win2k if i had to use any version of windows.
all the features that count and none of the bullshit of xp.

[willawake]

Re: When System Restore Fails and All Drives are Inaccessible

yeah plus if you get a router hopefully it was have a good firewall on it too so that is another worry gone.

what happened with your xp install? did you give up? it was a better idea to put xp.

personally when weird issues happen with 98 its best to reinstall.

[ASUSP2B-D]

Re: When System Restore Fails and All Drives are Inaccessible

Thanks for the feedback!
I was trying to get online w/98SE so I could run that mem test; no go. Unfortunately, I don't have the key code for 98SE readily available, so a reinstall isn't an option at the moment.
I'm trying to stave off pulling everything apart and taking it out of the case to get a good close-up of the caps... but at this point I'm starting to wonder if it just isn't unavoidable; I've spent so much time on this already. I sure appreciate everyone's input.
Nope, haven't given up on XP. After googling the splash screen problem I found that others have had the same problems w/XP, when they originally thought it was a hardware problem (for some people at least) it turned out to be completely the fault of OS software and after reinstalling XP things went fine. The only thing is that I'm reinstalling on the same HD, and that could be a problem, according to other's experience. Thing is, my other HDs are all taken up and I don't know about sacrificing one of them for something that may not work; I may have to.

So I'm now reinstalling XP (trying a repair of previous installation didn't help anything) and will see if that helps anything... I'll keep you posted!