I'm a total NOVICE when it comes to computers and for years mine has been crashing and losing files, most likely because of spyware and/or viruses. I havent really bothered to do ANYTHING about it, but now it's comepletly screwed up and won't load past the log on screen. I'd appreciate any suggestions on to how to fix it. What Operating SYSTEM?

Any error messages?It's a pentium 3 running windows 98.

There aren't any error messages, but after I HIT reset it runs scan disk to check C: and mentions something about clusters, which I havent come across before. Do you let it check the disk?

What is the exact message?Okay, now it's GETTING interesting.
Now when scan disk runs, a message appears saying it has detected an invalid long file name.

I can no longer even reach the log on screen, instead a message appears saying Windows has detected a registry configuration error. And Windows found an error in your system files and was unable to fix the problem.

Another message says to "Delete files or install windows to a new directory" but I don't see how I can do that if I can't log on.

Aswell as "Cannot find SYSTEM.INI." Does any of this have something to do with my setup configuration?

Thanks for any replies."something" about clusters?

Bad clusters, perhaps? Possible bad hard drive?