Can win98 boot into safe mode w/ networking?

newbie~wan · 05-15-2002, 09:11 PM

I have a win98 machine that will no longer boot up normally. It will boot into safe mode and it has a quite a few gigs of media files on it, but no means of moving large quantities of files except by network (i.e. it has no zip or cd-rw).

Should I be able to browse my network from safe mode? If so, how? All networking options (network neigborhood and browser) dont seem to work in safe mode.

Thanx.

ChoaticWhisper · 05-15-2002, 09:15 PM

I think you should have a option to boot to safemode with networking support, That would let you move the data over a network connection.

newbie~wan · 05-15-2002, 10:36 PM

Strangely enough, it didnt appear when I held cntrl during POST (what gives you the menu). But, when I let it fail at booting normally, then tried holding cntrl at POST during the next bootup, it appeared in the menu.
However, I was still unable to browse the network. When I clicked on network neighborhood, it just said "unable to browse the network"

The usual client for MS network logon window that usually comes up did not, just the windows logon (which we all know doesnt do sheet). I checked the device manager to make sure the network card was working, but it said that "this device cannot be checked from safe mode" suggesting that if I cannot check the status of the device, there is no way it could possible work while in safe mode.

I'm confused. I know I've heard that networking can work while in safe mode, I'm just not sure what to do to get it working.

05-15-2002, 10:54 PM

If networking is working in safe mode, the network card will be initialised (unless it has a problem).

I think you might have to have network support in msdos.sys as well to get it to work in the boot menu. Not sure if it is put there by default or not.

Cheers
Mick

edit:

Quote:

Network= Boolean
Default: 0
Purpose: A setting of 1 means the network was installed and adds Safe mode with network support as an option on the Windows 95 Startup menu.

From http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q118579
Says it applies to win98 as well.
You could try altering the msdos.sys file from DOS using a DOS startup disk. You may have to change attribs to do this though, as it's probably a system, hidden file.

newbie~wan · 05-16-2002, 10:46 PM

Thanx mick, I will give that a try.

newbie~wan · 05-20-2002, 12:38 AM

Well, I followed mick's suggestion and sure enough, boot with network support now shows up in the menu. Only problem is, once you select it, it fails to connect to the network....

I have the default log on client set to client for MS networks. Instead I get the windows logon. Once in, I tried to run winipcfg, but it tells me "fatal error. cannot read IP configuration". Ping to localhost also fails. Netstat reveals no connections. Its clear that it is not networked at all. I thought I'd check to see if the network card was functioning, but information about the network card is not available in device manager while in safe mode. Same goes for all other devices for that matter, though.

When I select boot with step-by-step confirmation, it gets hung up while trying to load files with *.386 extensions. I dont know what these files do and my search at ms support was without avail. I guess I dont really know how to search for information based on file extensions.

If anyone could offer any suggestions, or even suggestions on how to better use MS support for info based on file types, either would be much appreciated.