Missing ifsmgr.vxd and ios.vxd in Windows 95---help, please

Thanks BillDL as ever a great response - just to add (IIRC) in Win95 you can get PnP to rebuilt the VMM32.VXD by deleting all the entries manually from Device Manager.  Several restarts later all the drivers would be reintegrated into the main file.

I hadn't thought of that, but it's always handy to know such things.

Thanks for the prompt and detailed replies. Unfortunately, I'm no PC guru, but hopefully I can manage to figure things out with the help you guys provided. I did forget to include a couple of important details:
1. I don't have the installation CD (or floppy disks), and the PC only has a floppy drive
2. The PC will not boot up. I can only get to DOS/CMD, not even safe mode

I have downloaded the files cantoris set up and will extract them from a floppy onto the PC. Does this command seem like it will work if the floppy drive = a:?

extract /y /a /l c:\windows\system a:\(filenames)

If the file extension on the unzipped files is .VXD you don't need the extract command, you can just copy them into the \System32\ folder (if the files already exist there back them up to a safe location first rather than simply overwrite them.  Those files are only good for Win95 OSR2.

Sorry for the delayed response, and thanks to all who have tried to help so far.
I copied the ifsmgr.vxd and ios.vxd files over and was apparently successful, but now am being prompted that the "msmouse.vxd" file within c:\windows\system is missing---where can I get a copy?

BUMP (hope that's allowed here). Thanks to all again and sorry for the week-long delay---with the holidays and a couple vacation days, I was away from the office for a while.

If someone can help me get my hands on the msmouse.vxd file, I think I'll be back in business in no time...

...... you think?  ;-)

OK, I've attached a copy of "msmouse.vxd" (version  4.0.950B Date/Time: 24 August 1996, 11:11:10) from the "win95_12.cab" of a Windows 95 OSR2 CD which you will have to rename from a *.txt file back to a *.vxd file.
msmouse-vxd.txt
I think you may be caught up in an endless cycle here, and as soon as you implant replacement VXD files you are going to get more errors related to additional ones.  It sounds like your VMM32.vxd file is corrupt, or else the area(s) of the hard drive that the files is stored in has file system corruption or platter damage.

If I was in your situation, I would probably do the following (more advice available on request):

1. From the command prompt, type   VER   and ascertain the exact version of Win95.  It might give you the revision number if you type   VER /R

Retail and OEM first release: 4.0.950
Retail with Service Pack 1 installed and OEM Service Release 1: (4.00.950A) 4.00.950
Retail with Service Pack 2 installed and OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2): (4.00.950B) 4.00.1111
USB Supplement for OSR2 - system files may show version 4.03.1212
Retail with Service Pack 2.1 installed and OEM Service Release 2.1: (4.00.950B) 4.03.1212-1214
Retail with Service Pack 2.1 installed and OEM Service Release 2.5: (4.00.950C) 4.03.1214

Note:
- Up to the release of 4.00.950B (4.00.1111) Windows 95 only supported FAT16 formatted hard drives, and thereafter supported FAT32 hard drives up to 2.1 GB in size.
- Basic USB support only came into effect with the supplement for OSR2 and with Service Release 2.1 (4.00.950B v4.03.1212-1214).

2. Check the computer and see whether it has two separate IDE sockets on the motherboard.  If so, then you can connect a CD-Rom drive to the 2nd socket with a proper ribbon cable.  The hard drive will have a ribbon cable from a motherboard slot named the "Primary", and if there is another one it will be right next to it usually named "Secondary" (sometimes these are IDE0 and IDE1 or IDE1 and IDE2).  The hard drive will probably be connected to the end connector of a ribbon cable with two connectors on it (Primary Master).  If so, then you only need that one and you should be able to connect a properly jumpered CD-Rom drive to the 2nd connector that is normally about 75% along the cable to make it Primary Slave.  Alternatively set the jumper on the CD-Rom drive's pins to "Master" and connect it to the 2nd IDE slot with a ribbon cable to make it "Secondary Master".  By looking at the back of the hard drive you can normally ascertain whether it needs a jumper over any of the pins to set it as "Master" (some need a 2nd jumper that means "Master with Slave Present").  Some are set to "Cable Select", or CSL, where the positioning of drives on the cable determines which is master and which is slave, in which case the drive on the end is Master and the one in the middle is set as Slave.  Sometimes you need to boot into the CMOS Setup Screen (BIOS) and set the "Integrated Devices" to "Both IDE Channels Enabled".  Buy, borrow, or otherwise acquire a CD-Rom drive.

3. Test that the CD-Rom drive is accessible after booting the computer to a Win9x Boot Floppy with CD-Rom Support.  You can download suitable packages that run on any Windows system to create a boot floppy with CD-Rom drivers, and I will provide links if you go down this path.

4. If you are still reading and it has worked so far, Search eBay for a Windows 95 CD of the same version of Windows.  Don't be tempted to buy floppy disks, because they were a very unreliable form of storage and probably won't work any longer. I'm sure you will get a CD for less than $10 US.

Just in case you actually need to reinstall Windows, or run a repair install and install it right back into C:\Windows, you would need the "CD Key" and can find it on your computer as detailed below.  The purpose of having the CD, however, is to use it as the source from which to extract replacement VXD files rather than transferring a few at a time (from various sources) using floppies.

By good fortune the Windows 95 registry key is not encrypted and can be easily seen in the registry.  In Regedit you would navigate to the following key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion]
and in the right-hand pane find the "ProductId" value.
The data value of "ProductId" should be the actual Win95 Product Key formatted like: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Where you can't boot to Windows, but can get into the Command Prompt, you can run the Regedit command to export a named registry key to a named file with this command:

c:\windows\regedit /e "c:\regout.txt" "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion"

If that doesn't work, then you may have to specify the location of the System.dat file in the command:

c:\windows\regedit /e /L:c:\windows\system.dat "c:\regout.txt" "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion"

You should then be able to search that file and have it display the "ProductId" value with this command:

type c:\regout.txt | find /i "ProductId"

If that doesn't work, then either of these ones should:

edit c:\regout.txt
more < c:\regout.txt

The following command may be simpler, and it should search both of the Win95 registry files C:\Windows\System.dat and C:\Windows\User.dat for the named key and display the results directly on screen.
/L:c:\windows\system.dat

c:\Windows\command\find /i "ProductId" c:\windows\system.dat

The first line of the screen dump will look like this:
ProductKey XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX where the X's are your actual CD Key.

There should not be too many "ProductId" values to fgind, but if the screen scrolls down so far that you can't see from the first line, then you can redirect the screen output to a file that can then be read as described earlier:

c:\Windows\command\find /i "ProductId" c:\windows\system.dat>c:\regout.txt

5. If you reach here, then you are ready to extract the files and rebuild your VMM32.vxd file properly.

Thanks for the help, Bill.
As I should have known, I was too optimistic...The msmouse.vxd file was apparently still within c:\windows\system, so I copied the original over to the vmm32 subfolder before overwriting it with the new version. However, upon restart in safe mode, there is simply a blinking cursor on screen and nothing happens. Restarting in normal mode gives a message of "Either memory is insufficient to run KRNL386.exe or the value of the WINDOWMEMSIZE entry is SYSTEM.INI is too large. You need to run the Setup program again. Hit any key to continue", then "It is now safe to turn off your computer"---and the cycle repeats once you reboot, so I guess I'm stuck.

I will try following the detailed directions given in the rest of your post when time permits and will report back, hopefully early next week at the latest.

Not much of an update, but I now have a Win95 CD and am awaiting help from someone more skilled than I to ensure a successfull fix in the coming days---I will update then.

On a related note, I have another question that I need help with...
This all started because I was trying to create more disk space and apparently deleted something I should not have. To remove/backup some data files that all have the same filename (i.e. "sample result.xxx") but are within separate subfolders, is there some easy method besides copying EVERY folder with all contents within?

The following comments addressed the problem directly and provided full instructions:

https:#a39741549 (Masq)
https:#a39744784 (BillDL)
https:#a39741547 (cantoris)

Thank you Mr. Wolfe