Can't Load GDI.EXE ,Scandisk Prevents Boot to Safe Mode

First,I have a 450mz AMD K6-2 running Win 98SE, the hd (Maxtor?) has about 2GB free out of a total 6,with 128mb RAM. Normally the system runs pretty stable,that is until recently.The very last thing I did on my pc was surf for houses on Realtor.com and I would have stayed on longer but the performance of the site seemed to degrade more the longer I was there. The site would seem to lock up and picture files wouldn't load and I kept refreshing just to stay on the same page.I had an uneventful last shutdown. Also,before that I had recently downloaded the Audiogalaxy program and was pretty impressed with the performance.But not enough to uninstall Napster.There were a few instances where I had them open simultaneously (not in search mode) and freaky things seemed to happen like gpfs and lockups so I didn't do that anymore.I had the program for less than two days and one afternoon I tried to boot the pc and got the "error in loading gdi.exe Reinstall Windows" message.I reset the pc and it went to the setup screen where I chose to run in safe mode but instead of loading safe mode it flipped back to the setup screen except the scandisk prompt was at the bottom of the window (in which case there is no choice but to run Scandisk ). Scandisk stopped at 20% with the following error message: "Scandisk encountered a data error while reading cluster 18385. Scandisk will try to continue past this error.When skandisk offers to perform a surface scan on this drive choose Yes". When I hit ok it I can hear the hd clicking(normal sound)but it hangs at 20% (the longest I let it hang was 1.5 hours. I know that I have bombarded you with information but my brief stint as a systems support person showed me that part of the problem is that users don't fully disclose their actions leading up to the incident.I hope you can help.

1. RE: Can't Load GDI.EXE ,Scandisk Prevents Boot to Safe Mode
lbyard May-09-01 06:04 PM
In response to message 0

Good info! Simply put, the hard disk may have bought it (I said “may”). Try booting it to the DOS prompt and running scandisk from there, or was that what you were trying to do? It might also have a virus. See MS KB Q146904 at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q146/9/04.asp for possible reason for the GDI.EXE error. Larry

2. RE: Can't Load GDI.EXE ,Scandisk Prevents Boot to Safe Mode
vlee May-09-01 11:04 PM
In response to message 1

I was afraid you would say that. Unfortunately,I don't give up that easily.I tried the MS kb before I posted(should have told you that)but I'm thinking if the hd is shot why go that route(renaming Vgasys.fon,extracting cabs from Win 98cd,etc.) if there is a virus anyway? By the way, do you think the homepage.html.vbs virus could be the culprit? It would have to be a very recent strain such as this. Anyway,yes,I tried booting to dos and running scandisk from there but it hangs at 8% while checking the directory structure.I'm thinking I may need to go to Maxtor and see if there is anything there that can help.
By the way the model number on this hd is 90680D4
for whatever it's worth.
Thanks for the timely response Larry! v

3. RE: Can't Load GDI.EXE ,Scandisk Prevents Boot to Safe Mode
lbyard May-10-01 04:19 PM
In response to message 2

You could download and run Maxtor's Power Diagnostic http://www.maxtor.com/products/DiamondMax/techsupport/TechnicalProcedures/20014.htm. Larry

4. RE: Can't Load GDI.EXE ,Scandisk Prevents Boot to Safe Mode
vlee May-14-01 05:20 PM
In response to message 3

According to the Maxtor technician my hd has bought the farm. Apparently the code that I got back from the diagnostic utility was the doomsday papers. Now here is the new challenge. What methods do I use to recover my data from this disk and transfer it to the new hd? Maxtor is not responsible and I'm up to the challenge I just don't really know all the steps involved and the proper sequence of events.My dos skills aren't all that great and my budget is very restrictive.
so I need a software utlity that is foolproof cost-effective and up to the task. Do you have any ideas?
Thanks Again

5. RE: Can't Load GDI.EXE ,Scandisk Prevents Boot to Safe Mode
lbyard May-14-01 06:39 PM
In response to message 4

LAST EDITED ON May-14-01 AT 06:39 PM (GMT)
The software utility that I normally use to recover data from a hard disk that won’t boot-up is the Windows Explorer. Read the Tech Tip in our May 1, 2001 Newsletter (Vol. 1, No. 2) at http://duxcw.com/newsltr/vol1/2.htm. I would install Windows on a new hard disk, connect the old one to the secondary IDE interface, boot to the new drive, and move as much as I could off the old hard disk (My Documents, etc.). However, the only things in the Windows directory on the old hard disk that I would copy would be the Internet favorites, cookies, password files (d:\windows\*.pwd), and mailbox (it is in the Windows directory). I would then reinstall all applications, etc. The drive may be so bad that this is not possible. If that is the case, I would attempt to recover selected files with Spinrite (http://grc.com/spinrite.htm), but that does not always work, especailly if there are many bad clusters. The last alternative is to send the drive to a company specializing in data recovery. Larry