Need Help Formatting Hard Drive

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Guest

I loaded XP on top of ME.
Forgot to take out the XP disc when re-booting.
It re-loaded inadvertantly (through DOS, I think), and I (igorantly) stopped
it.
When the computer reboots now, it's a blank dark screen with my white arrow
cursor, and that's it.
I need to format everything and start from scratch. I still have my Windows
ME CD (and the one XP CD Home Edition).
My Floppy drive has never worked, but my CD drive still works, so I just
want to start over. Can I still format my hard drive, and how can I do it?
Thank you...
Cindy
Dell Computer is what I have, and it came with Windows ME loaded.
 
Is the XP CD an upgrade CD? If it's the full version CD then you can
boot the CD and Erase the ME partition and create and format a new
partition form the CD.
 
Thank you, baked.
Yes, it's a full version CD. I have booted the CD several times, but it has
never given me the option of erasing the ME partition. I'm not worried about
partitioning, though, because I don't mind just sticking to C: Drive.
I'm using my work computer to try and get answers, and I think I've printed
every conceivable thing to try and help me when I get home! :)
Whenever the computer re-boots, I get a black screen with the cursor arrow.
I wonder if I should use my Windows ME start-up disc to get back to square
one?..or perhaps phone Windows for one of my two freebies!? :)
Daughter is chomping at the bit to get more homework done!
Thanks again.
Cindy
 
When you boot the CD you get the blue screen right... I don't remember
off the top of my head what comes after it loads all up, but I'm sure
it' something like, Install windows or repair windows. You want to
install. It will ask you about the Agreement. Hit F8. Then it will ask
if you want to delete a partition, create a partition. yadda yadda.
Then From there you can delete and create a new partition and install
XP.
 
Is the XP CD an upgrade CD? If it's the full version CD then you can
boot the CD and Erase the ME partition and create and format a new
partition form the CD.
Click to expand...


No, it doesn't matter. You can do the same thing with *either* the Full or
Upgrade version.

The requirement to use an upgrade version is to *own* a previous qualifying
version's installation CD (with an OEM restore CD, see below), not to have
it installed. When setup doesn't find a previous qualifying version
installed, it will prompt you to insert its CD as proof of ownership. Just
insert the previous version's CD, and follow the prompts. Everything
proceeds quite normally and quite legitimately.

You can also do a clean installation if you have an OEM restore CD of a
previous qualifying version. It's more complicated, but it *can* be done.
First restore from the Restore CD. Then run the XP upgrade CD from within
that restored system, and change from Upgrade to New Install. When it asks
where, press Esc to delete the partition and start over.
 
Cindy said:
I loaded XP on top of ME.
Forgot to take out the XP disc when re-booting.
It re-loaded inadvertantly (through DOS, I think), and I (igorantly)
stopped it.
When the computer reboots now, it's a blank dark screen with my white
arrow cursor, and that's it.
I need to format everything and start from scratch. I still have my
Windows ME CD (and the one XP CD Home Edition).
My Floppy drive has never worked, but my CD drive still works, so I
just want to start over. Can I still format my hard drive, and how
can I do it? Thank you...
Click to expand...


Yes. Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when prompted,
then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm
 
Thanks to BOTH of you for your help!!
Here's where I ended up, and it saved my life!

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How To Format using the Recovery Console

I'm so proud of myself because I was able to research this wonderful forum
for all you had all written, and even though it took me awhile to get into
the command prompts, (and do them correctly with proper spacing, etc.) I
managed to format my Windows ME (I had already burned "my documents" and
"outlook express" stuff), and load XP Home 2002 (which was an upgrade, by the
way....my bad). It works like a DREAM, and I also changed from FAT32 to
NTFS. I'm in heaven, and my kids are finally happy, too! This all happened
because my son couldn't load songs onto his new iPod, unless it was XP, which
was actually a blessing in disguise!! Whew! Thanks again to everyone on
this forum!! :) (I don't miss ME at all!)
Cindy



:

Cindy H. wrote:
I loaded XP on top of ME.
Forgot to take out the XP disc when re-booting.
It re-loaded inadvertantly (through DOS, I think), and I (igorantly)
stopped it.
When the computer reboots now, it's a blank dark screen with my white
arrow cursor, and that's it.
I need to format everything and start from scratch. I still have my
Windows ME CD (and the one XP CD Home Edition).
My Floppy drive has never worked, but my CD drive still works, so I
just want to start over. Can I still format my hard drive, and how
can I do it? Thank you...
 
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