Hi all
My friend runs a WinME machine. Yesterday he went to install a DSL disk he got from his local phone company. Well it caused his machine to crash I guess. I went over there to see if I could help out. Well I couldn't do anything. Also I am not real familiar with WinME Well it is beyond my ken. He has lost his active desktop and can't get it back. He is getting error after error. Getting on the net is a complete impossibility. His AOL software won't even function. He has no system restore to fall back on. It doesn't matter tho because he wants to wipe the hard drive and start over. I am wondering how to go about doing that. Do you need software to wipe the hard drive or can you get the machine to do it for itself?? I never had to do that before..*knocks wood lol*.. and I really have no idea what a computer is like with out the OS. I told him he really ought to get anything besides WinME after he gets clean again. He agrees but I don't think he wants to go to the expense. He will prolly reinstall the WinME

In WinME.. are you supposed to be able to right click the start button. Because on his machine you can't do it.

If anyone would like to see his HjT log.. I did manage to get one last weekend before the tragedy. lol But it's prolly a moot point because he wants to start all over.

Pandy,
I have WinME and have never run into that problem before (knocks proverbial wood, lol). I have used DSL and Cable both, with the appropriate disks without issues. I'm wondering why this happened to your friend's system. I'd get the HJT log to the experts here and see if something might raise a flag. I am fighting the fact it could be the disk that caused the crash as that is very new and unusual in my experience and knowledge. I wonder how stable it was before the disk attempt and crash. But I'd hate to doubt the expertise of your friend, not knowing their computer expertise. I am one of those who would hate to lose my WinME and have to go to XP, but that's me. I know many, in and out of BC, hate WinME but I don't see it. I've been fortunate, I guess.
To answer one question though for you. Yes, you should be able to right click the Start Menu Button. I'm so sorry this has happened to your friend.
You said they aren't able to restore. Do they not have their recovery disks that came with the computer, assuming it was store-bought brand new?
And, ever curious as I am, I'm wondering why you did the HJT last weekend? Was your friend having issues then?

~67~

Hello {{TexasAngel}}

Oh yes my friend has been having trouble before.. that's why I got the HjT for him. If I knew he was going to do the DSL disk I would have told him to PLEASE WAIT lol But he didn't tell me he was going to do that. Ah well. And no.. he is no expert.. I prolly know more than he does about most things. But he does have his installation disks so he'll be able to use them. I am not sure if it isn't a waste if time to post his HjT though. He is not going to be able to recover from this mess. I never saw the like before in my limited experience. His puter I think, is a goner unless he can sucessfully wipe the hard drive.

If he has his restore disk I'm sure he'll be OK. There is a sequence of steps to reloadin' the OS. Step one is a big, deep breath. Step two is to give yourself several hours to do it. It'll work out to satisfaction, though. In many ways it is the best answer to some problems. Mixin' AOL with DSL & whatever else can effectively gum-up a system, I'd say. I'd like to see thr HJT log, for what it's worth.

The bigest problem is, as always, what has your friend backed up? Will he have to download all programs again? Does he have program CD's to start over with. The data that he has made and saved...the CD's of it? Are there any? Reload will require that he wipe disk, like you say. Step three, then is to adjust to that fact when facing the screen prompt that will say "Warning: All data will be lost when re-formatting your disk"

4. insert CD (winME)
5. (yet too come, as I'd like to reference my win98 CD B4 I commit to a procedure anyone reading can nit-pick for accuracy)

phawgg
He has the discs for the programs he needs. He has a bunch of games on there. Useless stuff really. It is no hardship for him to lose everything else. It's for the best believe me lmao! A Dell tech told him to reinstall the OS right over the top of what he's got now. Needless to say it didn't fix a thing. LOL So.. you want I should post his HjT in the HjT forum? I know it is a mess.

actually, step 4 is turn on computer.

5. place winME CD in CD-Rom
6. choose "boot from CD-Rom"
7. it'll display OEM Driver 0 = D ... OEM Driver 1 = E. or some variation on that theme.
8. it' have the A:\ _ with the ( _ ) blinkin'
9. type in ... D:\
10. it should take that command unless the letters vary. A:\ would be the floppy and you're tryin' to get the system to read the CD-Rom. IF the command is accepted, then a new line will appear starting with D:\ _ (with, you guessed it, the _ blinkin')
11. type in ... fdisk
12. choose Set Active Partition (probably (2) of the choices presented)
13. it'll indicate what the disk has now. I'll guess it identifies a FAT32 situation of some %
14. choose (1) make it active.
15. exit
16. reboot
17. choose setup Windows ME
18. A:\ change to D:\ as above
19. type in D:\winME\format C:
20. that should get it to display: Formatting Hard Disk. Please wait; set-up is formatting your hard disk. it'll display progress in %'s
21. next should be "seup" is preparing to install Windows". with an initialization step first folloewed by others.
22 then "performing a routine check of your system". you may have to press enter to continue
23. it'll enter ScanDisk mode.
24. it'll setup the registry
25. eventually you'll want to make the choice to boot from Hard Drive instead of the CD-Rom with help or just from CD-Rom alone.
26. when it boots from hard drive, you have an installation.

Now, this is for reference because I don't know for a fact how winME differs from win98 in it's exact load process. Basically I mention the above to help you understand that loading the OS will require that you follow prompts, use the Command Prompt screen and kinda how it works. the steps basically are:

• CD in to be read
• fdisk with wipe existing drive
• re-formatting is required
• setting up partitions is required
• boot from CD-Rom is first
• boot from CD-Rom w/ help might be in the sequence
• boot from HD will be what you want as the final stage
• exactly how it goes, maybe someone else can contribute
• winME might offer the FAT32 or FAT16 which are file system organizations. FAT32 is preferred, and I don't think an option exists for NTFS, but if it does, keep in mind what system was on the PC before you enacted a re-load to make sure it will be able to "read" his data that may/may not be backed up onto CD's. If I had CD's from win98 that I was using FAT32 at the time I made them, I'd be outta luck tryin' to get them to work right now that I use NTFS, which IMO is better.

Best thing to do is to keep in mind this. The computer can sit and wait for your decisions along the way to final reload. Just let it ... and post or email for questions as you go along if that seems safer to you. The data will be lost. Get over it at the start, and you can re-do most anything you do while reloading. You're not crashing the system... it isn't up to be able to crash, yet.

Thanks phawgg. Copied, pasted and printed for my friend. I will let you know how he makes out. Oh, and just for laffs.. please see the HjT I posted lol