Problem began when I installed Steganos Internet Anonymous 7.1.5 in my PC which is Windows 98SE. The installation wizard froze during the installation of the software. I closed it using task manager. I tried to reinstall but got an error message which I forgot what it said. Then I began to get error message "VSMON" from my Zonealarm 4.5 firewall. I closed all programs and rebooted but I kept getting VSMON error message. I tried to uninstall Steganos but I kept getting error message. I tried to uninstall in safemode but the same result.
After repeated tries, I finally uninstalled it and used Regcleaner to do away with Steganos but I still kept getting error messages from Zonealarm. So I uninstalled Zonealarm and reinstalled it but it was the same. I was going to try another firewall by downloading it from the web but when I tried to open Firefox browser, it gave me an error message and would not open. This was the same for IE and Netscape.
I was going to uninstall other programs thinking they might be in conflict but when I opened the ADD/Remove from control panel, my screen froze. I rebooted but this time, a windows box appeared, the kind when you first buy your PC and turn it on for the first time. It ask for my name and verfication code for Wind98SE. After I put in the information, I got to the Desktop but there was no icons, no start button, and no taskbar. It was only a default desktop background. I opened task manager but there was no program in it at all. I rebooted it and then at desktop, I got an error message:
Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module explorer.exe at 0167:00401f31.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0167 EIP=00401f31
EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000001 SS=016f ESP=0080feec
EBP=0080fef4
EXC=c1c16070 DS=016f ESI=00000000 FS=1def
EDX=0080fefc ES=016f EDI=00000000 GS=0000
bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 08 50 ff 11 8b 45 08 50 8b 08 ff 51 08 8b 45
Stack dump:
00401ec0 0080fefc 0080ff34 00465cac 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000001 00404436 00000000
0059fc0c 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000
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I rebooted and went into safemode and got an error message. I clicked OK and I got a default desktop background but no icons, no start button and no taskbar. I did this numerous times for safemode but still the same result. The error stated:
Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module explorer.exe at 0207:00401f31.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0207 EIP=00401f31
EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000001 SS=020f ESP=0080feec
EBP=0080fef4
ECX=ec9969d0 DS=020f ESI=00000000 FS=26af
EDX=0080fefc ES=020f EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 0850 ff 11 8b 45 08 50 8b 08 ff 51 08 8b 45
Stack dump:
00401ee0 0080fefc 0080ff34 00405cac 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000001 00404436 00000000
0059fc0c 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000
---------------------------------
What I did so far is have a friend put explorer.exe from his PC to a floppy disk and then at DOS prompt on my PC, I inserted the disk into my PC and copied the explorer file into my HDD. After booting up my PC, at desktop, I still get the explorer error message.
Then my friend suggested I type chkdsk at DOS prompt but it would not recognize it and stated I should do scandisk but it would not allow me to do that either.
I really need access to my HDD because I have to retrieve some crucial files. Any help will be greatly appreciated.