Need Help with Windows ME Install

[Tomcat]

I have a Dell Inspiron model 4100 laptop that I upgraded to Windows XP Home Edition OEM OS. The machine works great with the XP OS.....absolutely no problems. I now have a new dell inspiron laptop, so I have sold the 4100 laptop. The original OS was Windows ME.

Now the problem....I want to reinstall Windows ME before give it to the buyer. I have the Dell Windows ME restore disk.
I reformated and partitioned the hard drive...changing back to FAT 32. When I do a new OS install with the Dell Windows Me disk everything goes fine until the point of hardware identification.....the install hangs at about 16 percent of the ID process. Ive tried rebooting...and it hangs again.

For what its worth, I have reinstalled XP again without a hitch.

Ive checked the Dell ME restore CD and it appears to be in good condition without any scratches.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong.....got any ideas? I've done about everything I can think of except write Os to the HD.

The Dell model 4100 is a 866 MHZ pentium 3, with 128 meg of ram and on board video chip, on board NIC, 10 gig HD, sony CDRW drive, pcmcia 56 K modem card

[GaryRouth]

Just in case you missed a detail somewhere, here's the Dell page for using the restore disk for reinstalling WinMe/2k/Xp: http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems...ng.htm#1116484

Did you remember to disable the AntiVirus in your Bios Setup first? That can cause this sort of trouble.

Also, don't have any peripherals, network connections, or PCMCIA cards in.

[did you add any hardware since you bought it?]
. . . Gary

[p.s. ... since it's a laptop with a smaller hard drive, you could try fdisk again, and try just one partition.... if Dell has a non-Dos proprietary partition, I'd leave that one alone, and just reformat the other]