Oh No!!! (1 Viewer)

[Samuel Des]

Because I've put in a lot of new hardware over the last year, I decided to do a clean re-install of Win Me. I backed up all data on a separate HD; erased and recreated the primary HD partition; formated the primary HD; and tested the boot disk that came with my Win Me. I then tested the boot disk to see if it worked -- it did.

But when I got ready to reinstall, the bootdisk FAILED! For some totally inexplicable reason, the media was corrupted within the 15 minute window between testing and that inital use!

So now I need a copy of the installation boot disk. I haven't been able to find a copy on the Windows site. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm not sure if the Google results I found are for the correct installation disk.

Ugh.

 

[Jay H]

Have you tried to boot from the Win ME CD itself, I thought that MS made all their installation discs (at least these days) bootable. I can do that on my SCSI drive and I'm told that you can do that on IDE drives too.

I think the bootable discs for windows used to be simply Command.com and MSCDEX drivers so you can access your CD drive. I've had to do it manually before (don't ask) by downloading MSCDEX and my ASPI drivers for my SCSI card and I was able to make a boot disc to give me access to my SCSI drives. Was quite a pain but it is doable...

Not sure if this helps you any but good luck... Also, have you tried to Norton diskdoctor or something similar to the floppy that was bad or try to do a disk copy?

Jay

 

[Samuel Des]

Thanks for the reply Jay!
I figure that I can create a boot floppy disk (MSCDEX, &c.), but now I need to know what executable to run at the command prompt run the actual install. I think that will about do it.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

The Me CD should be bootable.
If you need a boot floppy, go here: www.bootdisk.com
The setup program will most likely be setup.exe

 

[Todd Hochard]

The ME disc is bootable. Just about every IDE CD-ROM drive made in the last four years can be recognized as a drive without the CD-ROM drivers (for the purposes of booting, that is).

You may have to change the boot sequence in your BIOS to CD-ROM first, but it should work.

Todd

 

[Iain Lambert]

Also, the ME recovery bootdisk is worse than useless in my opinion - I've had no end of trouble with it. If you're going to do a fresh install of Windows, get the '98 one from the site Rob recommended - unlike '95 it can autodetect your CD devices, and unlike ME it can still do useful things without having at least part of an ME installation already there.

 

[Shawn C]

Yeah, the ME disk should be bootable. You MIGHT have to go into your BIOS setup to change the boot sequence to boot from the CD, but you can just change it back when you are finished.

 

[Richard Cooper]

My ME CD isn't bootable, and it came with a floppy. My old man's didn't come with a floppy and is bootable. The only thing is mine is the full version and his is an upgrade.

 

[AndyVX]

Richard,

I'm positive that all the WinME CD's are bootable. Your BIOS may need to be changed to boot from CD though. And if that doesn't work, it may be your CD Drive that isn't "bootable".

 

[Rob FM]

A *little* off topic, but if you need _more_ than Link Removed is offering, try:
Link Removed
I had to use them for an unattended installation of W2K, using DOS6.22 on a new HardDrive.
Good luck,
~Rob

 

[Richard Cooper]

Well I've booted CD's from my comp before and my old man's disc works fine. Maybe I got a wobbly one (the rest of it works!). It doesn't bother me as I have the floppy, but it does seem kind of strange

 

[Iain Lambert]

Richard, the full ME install here isn't bootable either, so it may well be something specific to version.

 

[Samuel Des]

Hey, that bootdisk.com was a Godsend! I really thought I was screwed, because I couldn't find a boot disk. The installation went off without a hitch once I figured out which CD-ROM drive it was "using." (One of the reason why I couldn't find setup.exe is because I was using the wrong drive.) For some reason, the CD driver recognized my SCSI CD drive, and ignored my IDE CD drive.

 

[Iain Lambert]

You've also got to watch out for the allocation of the RAMdrive by the bootdisc, which knocks the CD drives off a letter from their usual. Glad to hear you're motoring again.

 

[Rob FM]

Hey guys, I just build my first computer using WinME on a completely blank (unformatted) HardDrive and I think it booted itself?!?

My WinME was purchased Sept. 2001 and has a Version # of:

4.9.3000

Is this the same version you guys have?

~Rob