HELP! Can't uninstall Windows ME!

[xtreme404]

Hey guys, I have this HP 6830 machine with windows ME. I am trying to get windows 2000 on there. It won't pick up the cd when it boots up. I went into the bios and made sure the CD was searched before going to the HD. There is no uninstall in the control panel, and I can't seem to boot into dos mode to format. And even if I do format I have a weird feeling it still won't pick up the cd to install.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[kraigc]

doesnt it have an autorun that you can start the install from windows? I know xp does......

[legendary]

Have you tried creating a boot disk (http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm)?

[stool]

Put the 2k CD in your drive, and either let it open and choose Browse the CD, or using Windows Explorer, open the CD, and find the directory Makeboot. You will be able to create the four floppies you need to get started on the install.

[fiji]

use fdisk and delete the windows ME partition??

theres a windows version that you can put on a boot-disk and erase the partition/create whatnot


but i like to use a bootable-linux distro that will generally come with all the GNU toolkit

and has things like

fdisk
cfdisk
parted
alot the makefilesystem programs

i also use it if i can't boot to windows and need a way of backing up my data

if your interested -- download knoppix (or arkaine23's remaster of kn oppix has alot of closed sourced modules-- ifyou have nforce2 and whatnot)

[mbentley]

when in windows, simply put in the win2k cd, and then a box should pop-up. if you have autorun disabled, just run setup.exe on the cd and windows setup will start. if you want to start fresh (recommended), then select the clean install option. if you just want to upgrade to win2k and keep all your files and settings (will work, not recommended for best stability though), select upgrade. simple as that...

[xtreme404]

Yeah I tried that loading from windows but it says it can't find a file it needs to continue in the C drive....so i dunno about that

[hibner]

Run the system file checker in ME, It should replace any sysem files needed to uninstall ME.

But as legendary said, I would recommend creating a Win Me boot disk, and then run fdisk from the floppy to format the hard drive

[xtreme404]

Hey guys, I created the win2k boot disks and that did the trick to let me format and load win2k.

Thanks for the help!