Can't access scanreg through command prompt

The power went out the other night, and so my computer was not shut down properly. Upon restarting, I was taken to MS-dos and told to choose Command Prompt because there had been an error in the microsoft registry. I was told to run scanreg, but I cannot seem to even access scanreg let alone restoring it. In the C: drive I've typed "scanreg ", "run scanreg ", "scanreg.exe ", etc. and I keep getting a bad command or file name message. Can somebody please help me with this situation? I'm desparate

 

Try typing

C:\Windows\Command\Scanreg

Apparently there is no path statement in your Autoexec.bat.

Lets us know if it worls

BillyBob

 

Alternatively, you may also get a "himem.sys missing" error.
In which case, type: path=c:\windows\command
THEN type: scanreg

 

If you are going to make a parh

it should be

Path=C:\;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\command

Himem.sys is not in the C:\Windows\Command folder.

BillyBob

 

Still not working

Hey I tried all 3 suggestions that were in response to my previous problem. None of them seem to work. I looked in my Windows directory and tried to view the files/folders. When I did that, all the files and folders were not showing up properly. They were being named by some random characters. This is really confusing because I'm positive no virus was put on this computer. This computer has not been downloaded or affected by anything in 2 months. I just recently started using it to copy some files on to disks to another computer...So basically, the computer is not even reading a folder called Command in the Windows folder. The only folders that come up properly in the Windows folder are temp and systembackup. I was confused by the way the characters were coming up on the names of the other files and folders so I went to c:/mydocuments and noticed that the files/folders in there were also named by some random characters. Like I said, I'm positive no virus is on this computer. What should I do now?

 

Heh, if you only need to path to the commands in that folder, then one path works, no need to path the whole drive root, and the windows folder separately.
You're right though, I forgot where himem.sys is located in 98 because in XP it's in c:\windows\system32

 

I think the above is the Key.

Looking at this from your first post and then reading the last one and seing mention of RANDOM characters it appears that the power may have just flickered ( dipped ) a time time or two before it when off.

A long time ago I did lose an HD that way.

I think this because with all things being as they should be the machine should have restarted and ran Scandisk on its own.

I am at a loss for other ideas now.

BillyBob

 

The only option I see here is to try to fdisk the drive,reboot, format the drive,and attempt to install windows.

 

Maybe :
- boot from a floppy and
fdisk /mbr
scandisk
remove floppy and reboot

- the video adapter card got fried ?
I doubt that the entire data on the drive or entire FAT got corrupted.
Perhaps just not being presented correctly ?

Certainly not an easy problem but I would wait a while before
a reformat - maybe more help on the way ..
regards

 

I agree with merlin on using the boot floppy to do as he posted. Sounds like the bootsector got scrambled.

Also with the edit on the bootfloppy, you can check various items like scandisk.ini , maybe a text document or two to see if they are truely scrambled.