Uninstalling Windows ME

[chakka35]

I gather that to install my new OEM version of Windows XP Home I have to get rid of my present Windows ME. Is there any way of doing this without having to format my hard-drive?

[peanut]

there are 2 options, 1 format your drive and do a clean XP install or 2 you can buy the windows xp upgrade cd for half the price and it will just install over the ME version. Option 2 will keep all of your settings, favorites, accounts and whetever else you have. The drawback to option 2 is that i think in order to reinstall XP ( say on a new hard drive ) you need to reinstall ME first.

[vehelpfulguy]

Dont even bother installing XP over ME.

Buy a new PC sysytem unit for �200 (which is probably only twice what you paid for the XP software).

This will have a faster processor, more memory, bigger disk and be "tailored" for XP.

Putting XP on a machine built for ME is like putting a racing car engine in the body of a 10 year old Mini, waste of time.

XP is not just a new verson of ME. It is a far more complex and memory hungry operating system, and requires a modern system unit.

[qapmoc]

Putting a racing car engine in a mini is not a waste of time, it allows you to blow all the idiots with BMW, Mercs etc.. who obviously think they are something special just cos they got a more expensive box with wheels then you, into the dust,

[j2buttonsw]

Just as a note to peanut. If you do fresh install of XP using an upgrade CD it will ask you for a valid code for an upgradeable OS (NT4, Win9x, WinME or Win2000) it won't ask you to install the upgrading OS first. I would do a clean XP install (which will require formatting the hard drive) just make sure that your old machine is up to it (>PII 450, >256 MB RAM. > 2 GB HDD) otherwise it will be a dog. I wouldn't want to risk lagacy issues by upgrading WinME.

[chakka35]

Very many thanks to peanut, vehelpfulguy and gapmoc. vehelpfulguy's advice sounds absolutely sound except that I have upgraded my PC quite considerably since it was supplied to me with Windows ME installed. So I'll try peanut first. The trouble now is that when I try to format my Local Disk the computer refuses to do it on the grounds that I would be removing the very OS on which the computer works! Please tell me the way around this. Again thanks to you all.

[peanut]

Well the way i do it now is by creating a bootable cd. The manufacturer of your hard drive should have the tools for this on thier website. I use a program called " Gw Scan ". I use this to zero fill my old drive so that there is an absolutely clean drive to do a new install on. Note, you dont nessesarily have to zero fill your drive. The bootable cd should have the tool to just format your drive. It wouldnt hurt to run a disk test too while you are at it. You are right, you cant format the drive windows is on while using windows. You need to be sure that your computer is setup in bios to boot from the cd (or floppy if you prefer) first then hard disc. Then before restarting put the disc or floppy in the drive. When you reboot the computer will boot from that disc instead of loading windows. Then you can do your format or whatever.

[peanut]

You can wait for other responses if you prefer, but I just thought id give you one option that i know will work. There may be easier options available to you.

[oldbob]

Well, seems to be a bit of mis-information on here. Firstly, if your machine runs Win ME effectively it will happily run Win XP Home. I recommend you do a full install of Win XP (upgrades are always trouble). The first thing to do is to back-up/save all your personal files to another HDD or DVD etc. To install Win XP you need to format your C: drive (this destroys ALL data on the drive) . I usually format the hard drive as FAT 32 by using a Win 98 floppy boot disk (download a suitable boot disk from here - http://falcon.jmu.edu/~jarvislb/utils/boot_cd.html - ) then when you try to install win XP off the installation disk you will be presented with the choice of either keeping the existing file system (FAT 32) or re-formating as NTFS. Bith systems have their good and bad points but thats a whole new thread.