What to do?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rod
  • Start date Start date
R

Rod

The father of a friend of mine has had his PC crash. He was running Windows
ME. The following text originally appeared at bootup.......

'Cannot find or load required file krnl386.exe. The file has an invalid exe
format. System halted.'

The PC now says.......

'Invalid system disk
replace the disk, and then press any key.'

An engineer was called out and he managed to get 'hard disk error' come up
on screen. The hard disk has also been making some really unhealthy noises.

The PC was purchased over 2 years ago from PC World(UK) and all software was
factory installed. No recovery disks, only a boot up floppy which makes no
difference at all. PC will not start in safe mode or even allow you to
scandisk etc. Owner has licence key and book but no back up copy of Windows
ME. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Rod
 
Yup, hard drives do crash. You'll need to buy a new hard drive and a
operating system cd.
 
serverguy said:
Yup, hard drives do crash. You'll need to buy a new hard drive and a
operating system cd.
Click to expand...

Would they be able to use their existing C.O.A with the new copy when
purchased. Was looking on ebay at just copy without C.O.A. Thanks
 
So basically they have paid for a copy of ME and legally own it but due to
hard drive failure the paper work they now have is useless. Seems harsh.
 
If you mean license key, no. Each disk has it's own key.
Click to expand...

If he replaces the failed hard disk in his PC, surely he can use
whatever Win-ME CD he can get his hands on, and use the licence key
which he lagally owns.
 
NO. You cannot mix and match cds and keys, it just will not work You
must use the key that goes with that particular cd. However, if you have a
registered legal key, Microsoft would probably supply a replacement cd with
a new key - for a small fee, I'm sure.
 
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