Reinstalling ME and getting rid of ALL files

[Two|Bit]

My bro has an old computer running ME and it is swapped with too much crap...I have the reinstall CD, and I want everything removed. I have backedup the important stuff. Do i have to reformat before i reinstall or can the reinstall format for you? Whats the process of reformating?

[Mesaeus]

Just boot from a boot floppy, then copy c:\windows\command\deltree.exe to c:\, and use deltree to remove C:\Windows and C:\Program Files. Et voila, fresh start. If you insist on reformatting (which I never do), you can also use "format c: /u" after booting from the floppy. To my knowledge, Windows 98/Me setup requires you to do any partitioning/formatting beforehand.

[Two|Bit]

Ok your going to have to simplify that a bit, take me through step by step... how do i make a boot floppy, and copy that thingy? What is that last point of yours? Are you saying is does or doesn't require partitioning?

[GaryRouth]

Hi Two|Bit

In your first post, you mention "I have the reinstall CD". Is the reinstall CD a "Recovery Disk" set or a "Restore CD"? If so, such disks usually have a "complete recovery" option that will boot directly into a procedure which will repartition, reformat, and reinstall the software to its original state as it first arrived home from the store. [All you have to do to prepare for such a Recovery is to check in the Bios Setup screens to see if the computer is set to check for a bootable CD before it looks at the hard drive while booting -- this is usually in a menu item called "Boot Order", "First Boot Device", or other such wording].

If you have a Recovery CD, it helps your chances of success if the major hardware is still the original, or exact-match replacements of the original hardware. After such recovery operations, you'll need to reinstall all the Security patches since then, and if you do so online = be sure to have both a firewall and an antivirus program installed and active before you reconnect to any networks or the Internet. Scan any personal data saved to other media before restoring it to the fresh installation (scan for both viruses and for spyware).

If you have a regular Windows Installation CD, you have more choices, but also potentially more work to do. If you have a full-installation CD of Windows, that's the sort that will require you to have the hard drive partitioned before you let Windows Setup format the drive and proceed with the installation. Such floppy bootdisks are available at http://www.bootdisk.com , if you don't have a WinMe bootdisk handy. Use the fdisk utility to delete the current partitions, then create a new one (or two). Mark the system partition "active" and you're ready to pop in the Windows CD and start Setup.

Best of luck
. . . Gary
_____________________
P.S. --- If you want to be really, really, really certain the drive is clean (before you run your reinstall) -->

If you want to ABSOLUTELY certain the drive is COMPLETELY erased, many disk-diagnostics programs often have "zero-write" options that will fill the entire drive with zeroes (it really means what it says - absolutely zero is left on the drive - or should we say, millions of zeroes!). Usually this step isn't necessary - - - but it does come in handy for erasing hidden partitions and rootkits, and other such hard-to-banish troubles.

[Two|Bit]

It says on the CD that it is "For reinstallation of ME"... doesn't say anything else. Could i not just use "boot and nuke" and than just pop the windows disk after the hardrive it nuked?

An i downloaded a bootdisk for ME and all it did was ask me if i wanted to boot from CD Rom, or not, or a minimal boot.

[Two|Bit]

Ok so a nuked and booted, and than reloaded windows and its good. But now my drive is only 2 Gb big... whats the deal? I don't think i partitioned it, but if i did wouldn't it show up?

[flanzig1]

If the NIC is a plug in kind, go to the makers web site and download drivers there. If you can't find them try www.driverguide.com

[Two|Bit]

Yeah I got the internet to work on it, now i have a drive problem... it should be like 20GB but im seeing only 2...

HORRAY!!!!! I downloaded this free partitioning software: http://partitionlogic.org.uk/index.html. There was a 2GB partition and the rest was blank, so i made a new partition. It was the first time for me partitioning and I'm happy it worked out perfectly. Thanks everyone for reading and trying to help out, but i got this one ;)

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

Glad it all worked out. I'll have to take a look at that free partitioning tool you found - I haven't seen many free tools that can do non-destructive partitioning (where the current data is left untouched). Partition Magic is a wonderful retail tool, but a recent version usually costs around $65 (USD).

The most likely reason that you could only see a 2gb partition after your first try -- is that you may had inadvertently created a FAT (also referred to as FAT16) partition [this was the file system native to Windows 3.1 and the original version of Windows 95]. The largest partition size possible on a FAT16 partition is 2gb.

. . . Gary

[Two|Bit]

Yes i do believe it was a FAT16 partition... funny thing is that the second partition is the same format, fat16... do how was i able to get like an 18GB partition with it...

[Mesaeus]

There's no way that the second partition is also FAT16, I think you (or the program you're using to view it) are confusing it with FAT32.

[Two|Bit]

Well i told it to make it with the same format that the first one was because i didn't know which one to pick, so maybe it did just convert into fat32 behind my back. Oh well its working and thats all i care about...