Windows Me: Re-installation problem

[SteveD]

I have an old(ish) Packard Bell PC (bought in 2001) which ran Windows Me without problems until a few weeks ago when it refused to boot up. The hard disk would whirr away, the Windows Me screen would appear for a second then the screen would go blank with only the cursor flashing in the top left of the screen. I failed to get it to do anything other than this.

I decided to reinstall Windows Me using the red rescue floppy disk and the 3 master CD ROMs supplied with the PC. Following the instructions to insert each CD ROM in turn, everything seemed to proceed normally (including removing the CD ROM and the floppy disk) until a window appears saying: "Windows Millenium Edition is now setting up your hardware and any plug and play devices you may have".

At this point everything freezes and the only way out is Ctrl-Alt-Delete which will restart the computer and it will proceed to boot up to the same hardware set-up window. The only devices connected are a mouse and a keyboard.

Does anyone have any advice about what to do next ?

[nuttychix]

Im no IT expert but i had a similar problem last week with my lap top....its was 5 yrs old..took it to a shop for some one to look at it...the hard drive had gone..they need changing every 4-5 yrs..he replaced it and now its as good as new... Only cost �100 for new drive and his time..well worth it, saves the cost of a new laptop.

[rojash]

I'm with nuttychix. Sounds like you need a new hard drive...

[fo3nix]

A drive is well less than �100 though, they can be got cheap from places like ebuyer.com (note what type you need), and they're easy to fit yourself if you feel adventurous.

Your issue then is that unless you have a backup, you want to try your best to recover the important stuff on your old drive, that seems to be dieing. To do this, you can use software like Ubuntu to read the drive and copy to a flash drive or external hard drive.

(Ubuntu is actually a free replacement for Windows, but it has the advantage that it can be run with basic features direct from the CD. So you can run from the CD, access your old hard drive, and copy to a new drive for protection.)

[ACtheTROLL]

I'm not so sure .... if the hdd was failing ... i'd expect it to fail while you were copying files during installing ... not after you'd installed .... during configuration

(the every 4-5 years tale is an example of the cr*p some fixer types use to justify charging �70 for a 5 minute job (an 80Gb hdd cost �30 retail!) - (sorry nutty ... no reflection on you) I have 8 machines that are 10 years old - used almost every day by lunatic trainees ... never lost a disc yet)

sounds more as if something else is refusing to be configured.

you can easily prove the point ....
go here
http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
and download a standard 98se bootdisc use it and when you get to the command prompt flashing cursor
.... type chkdsk /f

and go get a cup of tea
then fo3's idea is sound ... if you need to recover files ... a linux bootdisc will give you an easy method of recovering files ... and testing the machine's hardware.

make sure that you test the sound controller (which contains a few different devices and is where I'm putting my money!)... if it's a separate card ... you could try removing it and re-booting before you do anything else

then back to the 98 bootdisc and this time at the prompt type format c: /s
and go get another cup of tea