error loading gdi.exe

I have a friend's PC to work on that is getting the following message at boot;
Error loading gdi.exe you must reinstall windows.

They claim they were doing some file cleanup in DOS mode (ie., windows\temp folder, windows\tempor~1 folder), then when they went to restart in safe mode to do scandisk and defrag, they started getting messages about a lot of system files that were missing or invalid (supposedly they didn't touch the windows or windows\system folders). I was able to extract most of the files from the CD that it was complaining about, ndis.vxd, keyboard.drv, things like that. It now gets the message I indicated above and I cannot get around it. I found two hits in the MS knowledge base that indicated a problem with the windows\fonts folder, so I extracted all the fonts from the CD to the folder again, but it did not help. The machine will not boot in safe or normal mode, only DOS. I have even tried extracting a new copy of GDI.EXE but that didn't help.

The machine is a P3 800mhz with 128 meg of ram running Win98SE. Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this, other than the obvious re-install of Win98?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi BillB,
I think you can correct this if you re-run MS 98SE setup.exe
- I do not mean a Format and re-install of Windows, just a re-run
of setup.exe from the CD or wherever. It should certainly not do any harm.
Just boot from the ERU floppy with CD support drill down to the setup.exe
run it and follow the prompts.
regards

 

I would go with the overlay install. I suspect a typo was made with a dos command, and this could really go overboard.

 

Merlin/Markp62,

Thanks for the replies guys. It looks like I will be doing a wipe and install on this one. I was using my Win98 CD to replace the files as he told me he could not find his and it was the same version. It turns out that he doesn't have one afterall, what he has is one of those restore CDs and the only option with this one is a complete recovery. I did manage to copy all the folders on his drive (except windows) off to a spare HD of mine to save his data.

I'm not sure what he did to create this problem and neither is he, but I'm going to suggest that he not do it again. I'm sure that he keyed something incorrectly doing the DEL command in DOS mode.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

 

For future reference, if the Windows\Options\Cabs folder is present on the harddrive (and it almost always is, even on preinstalled systems), you can do an overlay install of Windows using the "setup.exe" file in that folder.

It comes in very handy on computers that have only a destructive recovery disk like your friend's.

To be safe, before you start, look for a sticker on the computer's case for the Windows product key. If there isn't one, run KeyFinder first to make sure you have the product key.

 

Miz,

Thanks for reply and info. Unfortunately, there was no Options folder anywhere on the PC. Whatever cleanup he tried, he really cleaned it up. I've got it back up and running again and restored all his document files that he requested. It's up to him now to restore his anti-virus and other software.

Thanks for the link to Keyfinder, that will be handy to have.

Thanks again to all that replied. Problem solved, at least for now.

Bill