[sandisman]

I am trying to get my main computer up and running. I took it to the shop and they say they have to completely wipe it and reinstall windows. Here is my question, exactly how hard is this to do? I have reformatted this(older gateway, win 98) before with no problems.
The other puter is a newer gateway with XP, I have a reinstall disk, no floppy drives. Whenever I put in the disk it says not a bootable disk reinsert and press any key. I am a newbie, but learn pretty quickly. The shop wants to charge me 100.00 to fix it, and I really don't have that kind of money. Can I do this myself?

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First, hopefully your reinstall disk has the operating system on it. (winXP, 98, ME, 2000). Next you'll have to go into bios (cmos) and setup your CDRom as your primary boot device.
When turning on your computer look for a screen that says press x to enter setup (f2, del, whatever) do that.
Look for boot devices or boot order. This really depends on the cmos (bios) being used. You may have to change pages. Set the CDRom as the primary (1st) boot device.

Put the CDRom in the drive and exit bios. Hopefully your CDRom will allow the puter to boot off the CD and you'll get a menu that allows you to reload your computer.

If all else fails, call Gateway support, even if your computer's not in warranty, it shouldn't cost $100 to get them to help you.

[BobWerner]

First, hopefully your reinstall disk has the operating system on it. (winXP, 98, ME, 2000). Next you'll have to go into bios (cmos) and setup your CDRom as your primary boot device.
When turning on your computer look for a screen that says press x to enter setup (f2, del, whatever) do that.
Look for boot devices or boot order. This really depends on the cmos (bios) being used. You may have to change pages. Set the CDRom as the primary (1st) boot device.

Put the CDRom in the drive and exit bios. Hopefully your CDRom will allow the puter to boot off the CD and you'll get a menu that allows you to reload your computer.

If all else fails, call Gateway support, even if your computer's not in warranty, it shouldn't cost $100 to get them to help you.