If a scandisk doesn't fix it, and you don't have any malicious software (viruses, spyware, etc.) onboard, I think I'd just re-image the machine. In fact, if you DO have spyware and crap on the machine, I'd likely just re-image it anyway. It's usually faster to do it this way than manually removing it, depending on the quantities and variations involved.
Windows 98 especially seems to get flaky enough to require this rather drastic step fairly frequently. I always grimace when the flash screen that says "Getting ready to run Windoze '98 for the first time' comes up. I'd like to replace that 'first' with a counter on the number of times it's had to be rebuilt. <sigh>
If you're not familiar with the process, I'd suggest an FDISK, a FORMAT (including system files) then a COPY of the WIN98 dir off the CD-Rom onto a \W98_flat directory on the C: drive, then running SETUP from the C: drive. When you install from C: you don't get asked to 'Insert the Windoze CD' as much, and when you do you can just point to this directory.
Enjoy the experience that is Windoze.
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"Act as if the future of the universe depends on what you do, while laughing at yourself for thinking that your actions make any difference."
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