Installing ME using CD as boot disk

[needhelp]

I am trying to format the C: drive partition, and reinstall ME on my friends computer. I have changed the first boot up to CD ROM drive and thats fine, but when it boots up I get to the screen where I select set up windows with cd ROM support and the thing goes through its process and loads the Oakridge thing but doesn't seem to install the diagnostic tools.
and I get an A: prompt although I have no disks in the A: drive. I can change the prompt to D: and type in "format C:"
but I get a message bad command. I have tried to do this at the A, D and E prompt and the C: prompt but same message.
I can type in "setup" in the D:/ drive and ME starts the setup installation but I want to format the c: drive. before I install the OS.
If I go ahead with the installation does ME format the C: drive automatically, if so thats fine but will it also format the other partitions at the same time. I dont want to format the other partitions cos I dont want to lose the data on them.
I can get the format thing to work if I use the floppy start up disk but I have done it the other way before and I have been able to format as always.But this time it wont let me.
why isnt it installing the diagnostic tools at boot up with the CDROM disk.

any ideas guys.

[yellohut]

try getting a bootable floppy and running fdisk
you may be able to just run fdisk from the cd, but i'm not sure

[pillainp]

Hi needhelp,
Not to worry. You do not need a floppy to boot and do either a format or an Fdisk on your HDD. Simply boot off your CD and follow the instructions below. The CD boot is set to emulate a floppy disk ad will therefore land you at the A:\> prompt every time, but the diagnostic and boot tools will not be loaded. This is normal, and the reason why trying to do a format from here will give you a "Bad Command or File Name" message.

Try this instead:

1) Insert CD in drive. At the boot mode selection screen select "Boot from CD" (Choice 2 in the list).
2) At the next screen, select "Start computer with CD-ROM support" (Choice 2 again). It will proceed to load the Oak Ridge drivers (for your CD drive - normal again).
3) At the A:\> prompt, change to the drive that holds your CD by typing the drive letter followed by a : (eg. D: ) and do a DIR to dtermine if you are in the right drive.
If you have reached your CD drive, type the following at the prompt: "CD WIN9X" and press ENTER.
4) Now type FORMAT C: and the normal format dialog will appear. You can also do an FDISK from here.


Hope that helps. Please let me know.

NPP

[HAL9000]

When you boot from a CD, the bootable portion of the CD becomes your A:\ drive, your floppy becomes B:\. To format the drive, you must switch to your CD drive. Assuming you only have one hard drive partition, this will be D:\. Then you must switch to the WIN9X folder where the FORMAT command is located. Now you can type in the FORMAT command and have it work.

[needhelp]

Thanks for your suggestion yellout. Yes I can do all that using a floppy but wanted to do it through the CD ROM drive.
Pillainp, Hal what you suggested worked just fine.I dont know what I would do without the advice I get here.
Just out of curiosity though,when i boot through the CD ROM and get to the A: prompt, if I decided not to go ahead and format the hard drive and wanted to return to Windows, can it be done from there or does the computer have to be shut down and rebooted to get into Windows.

[HAL9000]

Just do a three finger salut.... CTRL-ALT-DEL