BleepingComputer.com: Windows ME "booting from removable media"

One of my computers HP Pavilion N3410 will not open windows, this is a windows ME edition. During a recent boot the laptop opened with a black screen that read the following: 550 Mhz AMD K6-2 + CPU Booting from removable media.
This happened when I did a cold boot and had left a floppy in a drive I was copying photos on, also had a Polaroid Photo Max installation disk in my D drive.
I am unable to get past this screen to windows, if anyone had knowledge on this antique OS could you please walk me through this?
I use this older computer for my polaroid 90's era digital camera to post photos of my trade work and for sale items on craigs list and ebay, have owned it for almost 10 years with few problems in the past, grant you it isnt what my xp pro and vista comps are but I've had no sucess installing the older camera program on the newer versions.
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
Charlie

Welcome to BC Charlie.

charlie j, on Aug 2 2009, 09:47 PM, said:

What you could try is starting in Safe Mode then do a restart. As your computer is starting up keep the Ctrl key pressed until you see the DOS menu then select (3) Safe Mode.

To stop this happening again go into the CMOS/BIOS and change the boot sequence remove the floppy drive and change it to your hard drive. If at some time you need to boot of a floppy then you just change it back.

You have the exact same processor and speed as my old computer.

Keithuk, on Aug 2 2009, 04:42 PM, said:

Hey Keith,
Thanks for the reply. gave that suggestion a try unfortunately it had no effect, so I'm still in a pickle with that windows ME computer.

Charlie

did the floppy disk just have photos ?

mabye in the bios
you can tell it to go back to deflaut

charlie j, on Aug 3 2009, 05:53 AM, said:

Ok Charlie the only other option that I see is to do a System Restore in DOS. Because WinME is still a DOS based system you can't access DOS through the DOS start menu you have to use a boot disk. Very poor system compared with Win98SE and the WinME Windows System Restore doesn't work.

If you don't have a boot disk then you can download a WinME one from here. You will obviously need a friend with a floppy drive fitted to make this boot disk for you.

Once made start your computer up with the floppy and boot disk insterted. CMOS/BIOS should be set for floppy first.

Once at the A:\ prompt you can do this in one of two ways to can set the Path type in Path C:\Windows\Command[ and Enter the type Scanreg /restore. Or you can type in C: and enter. Then type in cd c:\windows\command and enter. Once at the c:\windows\command prompt just type Scanreg /restore (thats with a space in between the 2 words) and choose the date the computer last started up and ran correctly, then it will restore the settings and restart.

You can actually increase the number of days it stores then default is 5 but thats another story if your interested.

Keithuk, on Aug 3 2009, 08:21 AM, said:

So what is your reply Charlie those are just quotes? Does the boot disk work to do a scanreg /restore ?

The Photo Max can be loaded onto XP,I don`t know about ME. I have Photo Max on my comp.,it`s a great easy to use program, kinda like a Model T. I think I used the Compatibility Wiz. to load it.

Hi...
I have some information on booting ... so i wanna share that.... One potential security weakness in Windows 98 is the boot sequence, which can be interrupted to allow system access before policies are in place. To ensure that the system cannot be compromised in this manner, you must secure the boot process by editing the Msdos.sys system file with Notepad or another text editor (specific guidance is provided later in this chapter). System administrators should be aware that this setting will disable the ability to boot the computer into safe mode, which is desirable in order to keep malicious users from bypassing security measures. However, this setting will make system troubleshooting more difficult, and will have to be reset in order to use alternate boot sequences for system maintenance.Because the boot process can be interrupted by booting from removable storage, computer basic input/output system (BIOS) configuration should be set to boot from the primary hard disk only. Most computers allow entry into BIOS settings with a control key during system startup. After setting the BIOS for secure booting, you can secure it further by setting an administrative password. This approach is not perfectly secure; many system BIOS settings can be reset by an “emergency” key sequence that is often published on Web sites, and nearly all can be reset by opening the system case and changing the position of a hardware jumper. In settings where physical security of the computer is uncertain, you should physically lock the system chassis.Trey engineers modified the boot timeout value for each computer running Windows 98 in the domain. All desktop and mobile computer users were given cable locks to secure their computers. Also, on computers that support it, BIOS settings were changed to restrict alternate booting.

As someone said boot to bios and check your boot sequence. If it is set right, make sure you have no disks in the computer and let it boot. If it will not boot to c: and start windows then reate a boot disk for Win Me. Boot from the boot disk and work your way to c:\windows. If you can't access c: then chances are the drive might be bad.

One of my favorite options for Me computers is to reformat and install Windows 98 SE2. Still the most reliable OS till you get to XP.