Can't boot a Windows ME pc

[Andromeda43]

Hearyee, Hearyee!

I just hate it when someone doesn't know enough about solving the problem to be of any help so they tell the person to install some other OS, which that person obviously Doesn't have laying around.

If you're not part of the solution, then you become part of the problem. Put up, or shut up!

Jaclaz, that was a very good post.

As an old tech who's dealt with these problems more times than I'd like to remember, I would add just one little point.

If you've already booted your Windows ME computer to a DOS prompt with a boot floppy, you can then access the hard drive and copy those files that you mentioned right back to the floppy disk. Or, even run them directly from the hard drive itself.

I have a customized ME boot floppy that I use often and it already includes all those files, plus Deltree.exe, FDISK and Format. And, a cleanup batch file that will totally remove C:\_Restore.

That folder can grow to the point of crashing the hard drive and windows and should be deleted whenever possible, during a repair to an ME machine.

This command does the job very nicely.

deltree /y "C:\_Restore\*.*"

Carry on, Jaclaz, you're doing an admirable job,

Andromeda43

Just for grins, here's my ME boot menu.

Main Menu, Windows ME Utilities

1. Fdisk (setup new hard drive)

2. Fdisk Make New Boot Record

3. Format drive C:

3A. Format drive D:

4. Scandisk C: ( /autofix )

5. Scandisk All Drives ( /all /autofix )

6. Run "Scanreg /restore" (restores an older version of the Registry)

7. Rename WMIEXE.exe to WMIEXE.old (this file, not needed by Windows)

8. Run HOOVER.bat (deletes 98, ME junk files)

9. Remove "C:\_Restore\*.*" in Windows ME.

Type your choice at the DOS prompt and press ENTER.

Edited March 1, 2006 by Andromeda43

[SarahC]

Hey Jaclaz & Andromeda43,

I really appreciate all your help! I downloaded the other image jaclaz and it did have those files this time. The scandisk went fine and I've just issued the SCANREG /FIX command which is taking its time so I'll keep you posted!

Cheers,

Sarah

[Andromeda43]

SarahC,

If an ME machine is working fine, day after day and all of a sudden its screwed, then it's always a good bet that something has gotten sideways in the registry.

The quickest and easiest way to approach the problem is to grab your ol' ME boot floppy and boot up to DOS.

Then run Scanreg.exe /Restore

Always leave a space before any "/". OK?

It will present you with a menu of five days of backup registrys that you can elect to go back to.

Start off with the day before and let it restore that days registry.

When it's all done, remove the boot floppy and restart your PC.

99 times out of a hundred that will work and your PC will once again be running just fine.

When that doesn't do the job, a re-install of ME is the next thing to try.

You can boot up with the boot floppy, select boot with CD drivers loaded.

Then navigate to the folder on the CD that has the Setup.exe file on it ,,,,and run it.

It will reinstall ME right over itself, preserving the drivers and data files.

I wish you lots'O Luck,

Andromeda43

[SarahC]

Hey Andromeda43!

How are you? Thnaks for your advice. When I ran Scanreg.exe /Restore with my floppy inserted, it seemed to just hang on "Checking system files...." fro th eentire day!!! It doesnt boot without the floppy yet anyway. I'll try to get my hands on the original cd's, pc isnt mine!!

Cheers,

Sarah

[SarahC]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your help...I finally managed to boot the pc using a combination of what ye suggested! It boots up fine without the floppy now into the desktop. Now all I have to do is sort my word problem!

Thanks again,

Sarah

[Dels]

Windows 98SE English + Unofficial Service Pack 2.1a + Windows 98 Revolution (Lame Skin, KernelXP dll, etc) = BEST WINDOWS 9X

btw u can tweak ME using tutorials from some sites to make it more stable (but still less than 98SE) like mgdx.com,winhack.com,etc

[jaclaz]

@sarahC

Happy it worked!

@Dels

You should re-read my previous post, I am bolding relevant parts:

@all

Here there is a new member asking for help with an unbootable system, probably UNLIKE you, a normal user has FILES, i.e. IMPORTANT DATA on the PC hard disk and re-formatting is NOT an option.

Besides, Operating Systems, EXPECIALLY Microsoft ones, come with a Licence and usually Microsoft likes to be PAYED for them!

So please do refrain from suggesting unrelated opinions on how better is windows 98 or 2000 or whatever and about how clever you were to run a Microsoft Operating System on a below-specs computer, this is simply not the right place for this kind of discussions, you can open a new thread for this.

jaclaz