[tiffin]

when i clicked into floppy it read do you want to format and i said yes so i dont know what to do inside the box that comes up like do I keep it FAT and then just do quick format button

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That should be fine...give it a shot.

[wannabe1]

That should be fine...give it a shot.

[tiffin]

now when i try getting that 98SE again it says floppy cant be acceeded thats after i formated it

[wannabe1]

Did you try a different disk? Maybe the download itself was bad...that happens sometimes. Try a fresh download and a fresh disk.

[tiffin]

ok wannabe it worked this time fresh disk and fresh download and no errors downloading its all good so now what?

[wannabe1]

These are the "generic" instructions for this procedure...we may have to adlib a little along the way...

To accomplish a complete format, you will need a Win98 startup disk, either your ME recovery cd or ME install cd, and your product key code. If you have all that together then do the following. You might want to print these instructions out for reference.

Put the Startup disk in drive A and reboot. At the options screen, press Shift + F5 for the command prompt. At the A:\ prompt, type fdisk and press "Enter". In the Next screen, type Y to enable large disk support and press "Enter"

On the "fdisk Options screen", use the arrow keys to select option 3 "Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive and press "Enter" You will need to delete all partitions, beginning with any Logical drives and then the Primary DOS partition. When this step is completed, you should be at the Create DOS Partition screen. Here you want to choose option 1 "Create Primary DOS Partition" and press "Enter". On the next screen, type Y to make the partition active.

Now we have a clean, partitioned drive, but it will have to be formatted. press the Esc button until you exit fdisk...then press Ctrl + Alt + Del together to reboot. Leave the startup disk in the drive.

At the options screen, press Shift + F5. At the A:\ prompt, type format C: /s (Note the spaces) and press "Enter". At the next prompt, type Y to Proceed with the format. This is going to take a while...be patient.

When the fomat is complete, put your installation cd in the cd-rom drive (again, leave the startup disk in the floppy drive) and press Ctrl + Alt + Del together to reboot. When you get the Options Screen, use the arrow keys to choose option 1 "Start Windows setup from cd-rom" and press "Enter" Windows setup should begin.

If you have any problems or any questions, please let me know...

wannabe1

[tiffin]

the startup disk that i need is the one i just downloaded right?

[wannabe1]

Yes...that's the one. We may have to change the last step in the procedure and start setup from command prompt, but you should have everything you need to do this.

Will you be online while doing this?

[tiffin]

also the windows ME im using is a burned copy from my grandfather (computer wiz) and we have used this ME before and it worked what im wondering is if the code is in the cd already i forget

[tiffin]

im formatting the computer i am on now so no i wont be online

[wannabe1]

Hold on....

You must have the product key before you start this procedure or it's likely to be a while before we hear from you again. ME won't install without a valid product key code....

If you don't have that, let's work with the Win2000 installation...have you posted in the malware forum?

[tiffin]

ok good thing i asked as of now yes i have posted my hijack thing in the malware but no respond its frustrating i realize its busy here and im very surprised at how fast you responded this is an excellent site.

anyways the windows NT was on this computer already when i got i thats teh problem.

[tiffin]

the virus that came up was w32.randex.gen and it blocks ip addresses thats what it does and thats what is wrong with my computer

[wannabe1]

The Malware forum is our busiest area...those folks are just swamped all the time. BUT...they ARE very good at what they do. If anyone can get that virus off your machine, it's them. Be patient...they WILL get to you.

Had you gone ahead with the format and tried to install ME without a valid key code, you would have been left without a running machine and no way to make it run without buying an Operating System for it. Once the format is under way, it's too late...there'd be nothing to go back to and no way to go foreward...

[tiffin]

ok thx wannabe when i start up the disk just on the desktop the disk being my windows ME copy it says these things

CDEXTRA.ENG
DOCS
LANG
OEMFILES
PRELOAD
SAMPLES
TOOLS
BOOTCAT.BIN
BOOTIMG.BIN

is the code stored in any of these you think.. because i have used this before but i just cant remember how we did it