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Windows ME Reinstall



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 5th 06, 03:23 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.setup
Bruce
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 9
Default Windows ME Reinstall

I have a five year old ABS Athlon system with 640MB RAM, 40 GB HDD, DVD
Drive, CD Burner, floppy, etc. I recently updated bios, then upgraded from
Windows ME to XP in order to use new software. My HP printer would not
install and between HP tech support and me and the possible failure of my old
HDD, we messed up my system enough that it made sense to reinstall. While at
it, I decided to replace the HDD. I removed the 40 GB drive, installed the
80 GB as the master and started off.

After a couple of botched attempts to get the Maxtor software to setup the
HDD, it finally did. When I tried to use my recovery disk and Windows disk
that came with my system, I got a error message stating that this version of
Windows could not be installed. SU0173.

All of my software either came with the computer or was purchased from Comp
USA, Staples, etc. and is legitimate.

My desire is to go back and reinstall ME to make sure that I would not lose
all of my initial software. How can I resolve the issue of the error message
and get ME to setup?

Thanks,

Bruce

(After I get it up and stable, I'll run the upgrade to XP again)
  #2  
Old September 5th 06, 03:52 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.setup
Mike M
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 2,047
Default Windows ME Reinstall

Bruce,

SU0173 Are you sure about this error? I ask because not only is the
error not reference in KB129971 ""SU" Error Message List for Windows 95,
Windows 98, and Windows Me Setup"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=129971) but I can also find no
reference to this error number in the confidential partners knowledge
base.

What media are you using for your install? A Microsoft Win Me CD, and OEM
Win Me CD or an OEM Recover disk? Note that having 640MB of RAM installed
is also going to cause problems. Try temporarily reducing this and then
when Win Me is installed add the lines
[VCache]
MaxFileCache=512000
to the file system.ini after which you can add back the rest of the
memory. For details see MS KB 253912 - ""Out of Memory" Error Messages
with Large Amounts of RAM Installed"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=253912). The reason is that allocating
more than 512MB of RAM to vcache will exhaust all available upper memory
addresses and thus prevent them being used for other purposes. Note that
this will still mean that all memory is available to applications but is
simply limiting the amount used as virtual cache memory.

I do have one last question though and that is I don't really understand
why you need to install Win Me if you are going to then upgrade to XP? Is
this because you have an XP upgrade disk and only have a Win Me Recovery
disk?
--
Mike Maltby



Bruce wrote:

I have a five year old ABS Athlon system with 640MB RAM, 40 GB HDD,
DVD Drive, CD Burner, floppy, etc. I recently updated bios, then
upgraded from Windows ME to XP in order to use new software. My HP
printer would not install and between HP tech support and me and the
possible failure of my old HDD, we messed up my system enough that it
made sense to reinstall. While at it, I decided to replace the HDD.
I removed the 40 GB drive, installed the 80 GB as the master and
started off.

After a couple of botched attempts to get the Maxtor software to
setup the HDD, it finally did. When I tried to use my recovery disk
and Windows disk that came with my system, I got a error message
stating that this version of Windows could not be installed. SU0173.

All of my software either came with the computer or was purchased
from Comp USA, Staples, etc. and is legitimate.

My desire is to go back and reinstall ME to make sure that I would
not lose all of my initial software. How can I resolve the issue of
the error message and get ME to setup?


  #3  
Old September 5th 06, 04:43 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.setup
Bruce
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 9
Default Windows ME Reinstall

I'm sure about the error. I looked at the knowledge base, too, and did a
search on the Microsoft site and found nothing.

I have a MAGNELL Recovery CD and a floppy disk that says Windows ME
ESD111500. Both came with the computer.

There are a couple of reasons that I want to reinstall Windows ME before XP.
The first is like you mentioned, my recovery CD has Windows ME. Another is
that the software that came with the computer is on the MAGNELL disk, too,
and I have no way of knowing how to pull out the programs that I want. Three
years ago when I had to format the drive, I just reinstalled everything and
uninstalled the software that I didn't want before adding the software that I
purchased. It worked okay then, but I had not upgraded the BIOS and I had
not put in the larger HDD or added the memory.

I read something on the internet about a protection that Microsoft built
into the version of Windows that manufacturers used that caused it to fail to
install if any components had been changed from the original configuration.
Would this be what is hanging me? How do I get around it?

I can and will pull the extra memory until I get everything back.

Any other suggestions?

--
Bruce


"Mike M" wrote:

Bruce,

SU0173 Are you sure about this error? I ask because not only is the
error not reference in KB129971 ""SU" Error Message List for Windows 95,
Windows 98, and Windows Me Setup"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=129971) but I can also find no
reference to this error number in the confidential partners knowledge
base.

What media are you using for your install? A Microsoft Win Me CD, and OEM
Win Me CD or an OEM Recover disk? Note that having 640MB of RAM installed
is also going to cause problems. Try temporarily reducing this and then
when Win Me is installed add the lines
[VCache]
MaxFileCache=512000
to the file system.ini after which you can add back the rest of the
memory. For details see MS KB 253912 - ""Out of Memory" Error Messages
with Large Amounts of RAM Installed"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=253912). The reason is that allocating
more than 512MB of RAM to vcache will exhaust all available upper memory
addresses and thus prevent them being used for other purposes. Note that
this will still mean that all memory is available to applications but is
simply limiting the amount used as virtual cache memory.

I do have one last question though and that is I don't really understand
why you need to install Win Me if you are going to then upgrade to XP? Is
this because you have an XP upgrade disk and only have a Win Me Recovery
disk?
--
Mike Maltby



Bruce wrote:

I have a five year old ABS Athlon system with 640MB RAM, 40 GB HDD,
DVD Drive, CD Burner, floppy, etc. I recently updated bios, then
upgraded from Windows ME to XP in order to use new software. My HP
printer would not install and between HP tech support and me and the
possible failure of my old HDD, we messed up my system enough that it
made sense to reinstall. While at it, I decided to replace the HDD.
I removed the 40 GB drive, installed the 80 GB as the master and
started off.

After a couple of botched attempts to get the Maxtor software to
setup the HDD, it finally did. When I tried to use my recovery disk
and Windows disk that came with my system, I got a error message
stating that this version of Windows could not be installed. SU0173.

All of my software either came with the computer or was purchased
from Comp USA, Staples, etc. and is legitimate.

My desire is to go back and reinstall ME to make sure that I would
not lose all of my initial software. How can I resolve the issue of
the error message and get ME to setup?



  #4  
Old September 5th 06, 05:56 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.setup
Mike M
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 2,047
Default Windows ME Reinstall

Any other suggestions?

Bruce,

I'm sorry but I don't think I am going to be able to help. The error you
mention is in neither the public nor confidential partners knowledge base
so all I can suggest is that you contact the OEM concerned, presumably
Magnell who I have never heard of before today, and see if they can help.

One possible reason for your problem is that the recovery CD is locked to
a specific version of the bios so you may want to consider rolling back or
reinstalling the previous version. The protection you mention is
something OEMs, that is computer manufacturer's, may or may not implement
and it is the OEMs who produce the recovery CDs rather than Microsoft.
You mention also that you replaced your hard disk. Whilst I don't think
the fact that this has changed is likely to be the cause of the problem it
is possible that the recovery CD is baulking when it finds the disk to be
a different size (80GB rather than 40GB). Initially I thought the cluster
size changed when crossing the 64GB boundary but it seems not and that
32KB clusters are used for partitions of 32GB or more.
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows



Bruce wrote:

I'm sure about the error. I looked at the knowledge base, too, and
did a search on the Microsoft site and found nothing.

I have a MAGNELL Recovery CD and a floppy disk that says Windows ME
ESD111500. Both came with the computer.

There are a couple of reasons that I want to reinstall Windows ME
before XP. The first is like you mentioned, my recovery CD has
Windows ME. Another is that the software that came with the computer
is on the MAGNELL disk, too, and I have no way of knowing how to pull
out the programs that I want. Three years ago when I had to format
the drive, I just reinstalled everything and uninstalled the software
that I didn't want before adding the software that I purchased. It
worked okay then, but I had not upgraded the BIOS and I had not put
in the larger HDD or added the memory.

I read something on the internet about a protection that Microsoft
built into the version of Windows that manufacturers used that caused
it to fail to install if any components had been changed from the
original configuration. Would this be what is hanging me? How do I
get around it?

I can and will pull the extra memory until I get everything back.

Any other suggestions?


  #5  
Old September 5th 06, 06:56 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.setup
Bruce
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 9
Default Windows ME Reinstall

Thanks for your help, Mike.

I got the technical support people at ABS and here is what they told me:

1) They said that the size of the HDD would have no impact upon the
recovery disk and its implementation.

2) The Magnell recovery CD is basically Windows ME, only. (I found the
software CDs for Word Perfect Office, WinDVD, etc. on separate disks)

3) The Bios update that I did makes the Magnell CD unusable because they
(ABS) put a Bios identifier on the CD. He aslo told me that they cannot
provide support (because I have basically turned my system into a clone.)

Thanks again for trying to help me. Since I have a certificate of
authenticity for Windows Me, my copy of XP is an upgrade, and they have a
case number for me, I may call Microsoft and see if they will help me do a
clean install of XP as a work round.


--
Bruce


"Mike M" wrote:

Any other suggestions?


Bruce,

I'm sorry but I don't think I am going to be able to help. The error you
mention is in neither the public nor confidential partners knowledge base
so all I can suggest is that you contact the OEM concerned, presumably
Magnell who I have never heard of before today, and see if they can help.

One possible reason for your problem is that the recovery CD is locked to
a specific version of the bios so you may want to consider rolling back or
reinstalling the previous version. The protection you mention is
something OEMs, that is computer manufacturer's, may or may not implement
and it is the OEMs who produce the recovery CDs rather than Microsoft.
You mention also that you replaced your hard disk. Whilst I don't think
the fact that this has changed is likely to be the cause of the problem it
is possible that the recovery CD is baulking when it finds the disk to be
a different size (80GB rather than 40GB). Initially I thought the cluster
size changed when crossing the 64GB boundary but it seems not and that
32KB clusters are used for partitions of 32GB or more.
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows



Bruce wrote:

I'm sure about the error. I looked at the knowledge base, too, and
did a search on the Microsoft site and found nothing.

I have a MAGNELL Recovery CD and a floppy disk that says Windows ME
ESD111500. Both came with the computer.

There are a couple of reasons that I want to reinstall Windows ME
before XP. The first is like you mentioned, my recovery CD has
Windows ME. Another is that the software that came with the computer
is on the MAGNELL disk, too, and I have no way of knowing how to pull
out the programs that I want. Three years ago when I had to format
the drive, I just reinstalled everything and uninstalled the software
that I didn't want before adding the software that I purchased. It
worked okay then, but I had not upgraded the BIOS and I had not put
in the larger HDD or added the memory.

I read something on the internet about a protection that Microsoft
built into the version of Windows that manufacturers used that caused
it to fail to install if any components had been changed from the
original configuration. Would this be what is hanging me? How do I
get around it?

I can and will pull the extra memory until I get everything back.

Any other suggestions?



  #6  
Old September 6th 06, 12:12 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.setup
Mike M
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 2,047
Default Windows ME Reinstall

I thought the problem, as I think did you, was a bios locked recovery CD
rather than that you have changed the hard disk. Again may I suggest that
you consider temporarily flashing the bios back to the version required to
install Win Me using the recovery CD and then once reinstalled reverting
to the latest version.

I'm not sure that Microsoft will be able or rather willing to help as
their attitude could be that you have an OEM copy of Win Me and that it is
tied to the system with which it was supplied. Seems unfair I know but
OEM copies of the OS are sold at a considerable discount, however I wish
you luck and hope that you manage to wangle a key out of Microsoft. Now I
know I shouldn't say this but have you considered "borrowing" a Win
95/98/98SE or Win Me CD from a friend and using that as proof of your
eligibility to use an upgrade copy of XP and go for that clean install?
Who's to know after the event that you didn't upgrade from your recovery
CD and as you say you have a Win Me licence.
--
Mike Maltby



Bruce wrote:

Thanks for your help, Mike.

I got the technical support people at ABS and here is what they told
me:

1) They said that the size of the HDD would have no impact upon the
recovery disk and its implementation.

2) The Magnell recovery CD is basically Windows ME, only. (I found
the software CDs for Word Perfect Office, WinDVD, etc. on separate
disks)

3) The Bios update that I did makes the Magnell CD unusable because
they (ABS) put a Bios identifier on the CD. He aslo told me that
they cannot provide support (because I have basically turned my
system into a clone.)

Thanks again for trying to help me. Since I have a certificate of
authenticity for Windows Me, my copy of XP is an upgrade, and they
have a case number for me, I may call Microsoft and see if they will
help me do a clean install of XP as a work round.


 




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