Win98 User.dat and system.dat

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If I delete these 2 files will they be re-created when the machine reboots??

Need an answer pretty quick

Thanks


Moderator Note SimonV: Moved to Software

 

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Does this help? I also found this. Let me know.

 

It helps a little, let me tell you what I am trying to do.

I am selling a laptop and wish remove all references to the current user so It is a clean system I have removed ALL references in the registry but these 2 files still contain owner/company info with in them.

Is there a way to remove all traces or not.

 

I don't know off the top of my head but in your shoes, I'd wipe the HDD and do a clean install of the OS. If I was really nice, I'd upgrade all the security updates so that they're current. Then sell the sucker.

 

It's a really old Laptop and I remember when I installed it originally Some of the drivers were a bugger to find (should have kept a copy). so dont really want to reinstall and have the hassle of finding them again.

 

Sorry, Derek. Given time, I might be able to find out but just off the top of my head plus a quick google search, I don't know.

 

Thanks anyway mate, much appreciated




Now wheres that dictionary????????

 

Nelix, theoreticallyif they were deleted then with windows file protection they would be recreated at the next startup, but as with windows files some are hard to delete/remove; ie windows won't let you do it.

The way around this would be to run a script at startup to delete the files before they are 'in use'. I do this with the index.dat file for IE cookies.

BUT, in saying this, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT WIN 98, I have XP. :?

 

Nugg - not sure, but I don't think Win 98 has File Protection. Didn't that come in with w2k ?

If there wasn't such a rush for Derek to sort this out, I'd try it on my ancient Win98 laptop - but as that wouldn't be till tomorrow, I don't suppose that's of much use

I still might try it, as this one caught my interest. Unfortunately, my laptop doesn't even have a CD-ROM drive, so it has to be a network install.

 

OK, I still need to do this.

I tried deleteing them but they were just replaced from a backup that the system created the next time the machine is rebooted.

I have searched the whole of the registry for current owners details and replaced them with 'Windows User', I have also searched the hard drives for files containing the users details, only 2 files were found, the above 2, I have managed to edit the system.dat file to remove the entries. When searching the user.dat file the only reference is to a document that is no longer on the system that contains the users name in the title (e.g. Usersname.doc) and a .lnk reference to the same file, when I change this and save it, everything seems fine until I search for files containing the text again and the only file that does is the user.dat file !!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Jak, if you could give this ago tomorrow I would appreciate it, I was hopeing to let the new user have it tomorrow but I suppose another day wont hurt. A couple of people at work say that there should be some freeware/shareware app that will do this, cant seem to find any though.

Any more advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Just a thought but can you find where the backup of this file is, edit it while it's not in use, delete the original and then let the system replace it with the edited backup?

 

The above suggestion sounds good, about finding the backup files and editing those.

You could try copying the files from a fresh install on another box onto the laptop, although i have NO idea how important these files are or what the consequences of that would be!

(take a back of the originals first if you give this a go).

Just a thought. :roll:

Matt

 

Well I tried all of the above suggestions and none of them worked so I bit the bullet and flattened the hard disk, only to discover that the USB cd rom drive will not boot the system to carry out a new install from CD, I have put a PCMCIA network card in and can now map a drive, I have shared a CD drive on the server and when ever I try to run set up i get a message about the largest excecutable or somthing.

Help Please

 

Ok. Let me make sure I understand. You hosed the HDD so that it's completely devoid of an operating system. Then you put the installation CD into a USB CD-ROM drive to do a clean install only to find out that it will not boot. You tried to do a network install only to run up against another error message. Yeesh.

Does the laptop have an on board floppy drive? If so, make a Win98 boot disk from the installation CD on another computer and use the boot floppy to boot up the laptop. Then (hopefully) you should be able to install from the CD drive. The only thing that might be a problem is that setup.exe doesn't contain the drivers to support a USB CD drive. Give it a shot.

 

I'll try, however the laptop only has 1 usb port and the floppy frive is usb aswell as the cd rom so I bought a little usb hub but the laptop does'nt seem to want to boot when I use the hub..............

AAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

 

OK, do you have a usb stick? Maybe try to make it into a boot stick.

 

Sorry Derek - I wasn't able to try that for you today, not much help to you from me then.

Can you download USB drivers for the USB CD-ROM and put them on a boot floppy (as pre above) ? Would be interesting so see how that would work ....

 

I could try that but the problem I have is that the laptop only has 1 USB port and I would need that for the boot floppy disc, .......unless I use a boot CD Rom. However when I plug a USB hub in so that i can plug them all in together it does not want to boot at all, may need a BIOS update.

I might just have to try a network install of 2000 instead.

Thanks anyway guys, much appreciate it.

....................By 11:00 O'Clock tomorrow I will be a married man

Sorry that should have been