SillyDog701

[Eminemporvida]

I have Windows ME on my pc i want to remove EVERYTHING from my computer and start from scratch to reinstall windows again i have alot of files that are of no use to me in my pc that i cant delete like corrupted files and it said it detected hardware the other day and now everytime i turn it on it sirens like an old cop car i need to start back from the begininng can some one tell me how?

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90; Roadrunner)

[Mandrake]

Stephanie,

This is pretty common in Windows 95/98/Me, easy to reinstall though:

1) Back up ALL your documents, files etc that you want to keep, to floppy disks or CDs or whatever - make sure this is done before going to 2!

2) Get a blank floppy disk, and make a boot disk. (Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs then click on the System Disk tab - and follow the wizard. (Skip this if you already have one)

3) Insert your newly made boot disk in the floppy drive and reboot. A menu should appear, when the system boots from the floppy. Choose "With CDROM support".

4) A little A:\> prompt should appear. Type the following command:

"FORMAT C: /S" and hit enter, It will tell you all files will be removed, you can safelly tell it yes, as you have backed up all your files and folders that are of importance to you.

5) After the format finishes (It could take quite some time) - take the floppy out of the disk drive, put your Windows Me CD in the cdrom drive, and REBOOT.

6) The Windows Millennium setup should start (if not then a menu, tell it to start the setup from the CD).

7) Just follow the prompts, and it's quite easy.

When it asks you what Windows components you'd like to install, just choose Typical - unless you know what you are doing. Installing to C:\WINDOWS is the safest thing to do, and after the setup is finished - Windows will boot up (don't forget to take out the CD) - and if some of your hardware wasn't installed correctly, a prompt will appear saying it has found a "Multimedia Audio Device" for instance. Then you just follow the prompts, feed it the disks or CDs that came with your computers drivers when you purchased it.

Hope this was of some help!

-Jarrad

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030717

[Eminemporvida]

When i followed the instructions that you said it said windows no longer accepts format /s command or something like that then it said format aborted so what is another way around it is there a program i can use or something to clear it?

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90; Roadrunner)

[Mandrake]

Oh, I forgot about thatin Me. Instead of the FORMAT C: /S command, just use the 'FORMAT C:' command instead.

I just thought of something too . . . if your PC is OEM made (by Dell for example), it will likely come with a recovery CD, as opposed to a Windows Me CD - read the instructions on that if that is the case, don't use these instructions.

Oh, just the disclamer: No one on this message board is responsible should something go wrong, or you fail to backup some important work or whatever.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030717