reformat hard drive

Get operating system can't be found message and safe mode
is severely crippled when trying to boot Win ME. Want to
reformat hard drive and start over. But I can't get to
any windows functions or the start menu. Just trying to
get to ms-dos and I can reformat and do recover, but
can't get there. Any suggestions?

You cannot format the partition containing the operating system whilst
running the operating system therefore to format the drive containing your
Windows folder you need to boot to DOS with a floppy and format the drive
from the DOS prompt.

For details of how to fdisk and format see the Microsoft Knowledge Base
article 255867 - "How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to
Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255867) as well as the file
CLEANHD.TXT which is in the Win 9x folder on the Win Me CD and also as
KB271673 - "Windows Millennium Edition Cleanhd.txt File Contents"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=271673).
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP [2001-2004]



stan wrote:

Get operating system can't be found message and safe mode
is severely crippled when trying to boot Win ME. Want to
reformat hard drive and start over. But I can't get to
any windows functions or the start menu. Just trying to
get to ms-dos and I can reformat and do recover, but
can't get there. Any suggestions?