My old computer is almost dead right now, I want to retrieve all of my Music off of it before it dies completly. Aftrer close examination I seem to be missing a command "SYSTEM.INI" at startup, which in turn won't allow windows to start. Does anyone know where I can buy the entire startup program for Windows 98?

I'd recommend trying to reload windows 98. If you're familiar with DOS prompts and know where your stuff is hidden, you may be able to pull it off.

Other option is to get a new computer and install your old disk as a slave drive-that way you could copy your stuff to your new C drive. You'd have to re=jumper your (old) drive to make it work as a slave.

List the error exactly as it appears. Secondly if it is a specific file then someone can extract it from a win98 cd and email it to you. Then boot to dos and import it. You can hit f8 at boot and choose command prompt. From the command prompt type scanreg /restore. This will give you a list of dates. Choose a date that you know the system was working correctly. It will import that registry scheme. Hopefully it will come back up at that point. If not repeat process but instead of typing restore type scanreg /all. I would do the scanreg first and then try and import a file if needed. I can't be for sure until the exact error is given.

You could try booting from a floppy with system files on it. Then CD to your C:\WINDOWS directory and look for files named system.*. There is probably an older backup copy of that file in there that was saved. I have two in mine, one named system.i~i and the other is named system.syd. If you find one, rename it to system.ini, take the floppy out and reboot the computer. Quick and dirty, but it might get you back up and running long enough to move the files you want to save.

try www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com)

I assume you're talking about moving files from your old computer to a new one? If that's what you want to do, just do what Sid said: take the hard drive out of the old one, set the jumper to "slave" and hook it up as a secondary in the new one. Quick and easy, and no time-consuming and aggravating diggin'-around for corrupted files. I transfer files that way every time I buy a new computer.