# ok you DOS aces...



## bill not in oh (Jul 27, 2004)

I'm going to make a copy of my Windows ME installation CD on a hard drive via DOS. I'm hoping that if I can get a duplicate on a slave, that maybe I can get a complete [re]install on my primary (see "can't reload ME").

Is *Xcopy/s/h/k e:\*.* d:\installation* the correct command/parameters?
'e' being the CD drive
'd:\installation' being the slave and directory to copy it to


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Maybe this'll help...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294727


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## Rocky Fields (Jan 24, 2007)

Hey.

If you're going to do networking you should be using XP Pro or 2000 Pro.

Since you're melting down and trying to reinstall, do this:

Boot from ME floppy boot disk

Use format utility on disk to reformat drive

Reinstall OS on your freshly formatted HD


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Well, if we want to get technical, if you want to do ANYTHING you should have some other OS. LOL


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

bill in oh said:


> I'm going to make a copy of my Windows ME installation CD on a hard drive via DOS. I'm hoping that if I can get a duplicate on a slave, that maybe I can get a complete [re]install on my primary (see "can't reload ME").
> 
> Is *Xcopy/s/h/k e:\*.* d:\installation* the correct command/parameters?
> 'e' being the CD drive
> 'd:\installation' being the slave and directory to copy it to


I don't know why you would have any better luck installing ME from a hard drive than from the CD. It should work exactly the same. 

If this is the same machine that you have the corrupted suwin.exe problem with on another thread, you will probably need to specify a different directory for the Windows installation than the \windows directory. It may suggest \windows.000 which would work fine. By doing that, the contents of your hard drive will still be there, but you will need to reinstall all applications that require registry entries and also your hardware drivers. Again, installing from the second hard drive should work the same as directly from the CD.

That said, to move the installation files from a WinME CD just copy the entire contents if the \win9x directory to the second hard drive. That's the only directory you need. You should probably create a directory for those files to avoid cluttering up the root directory of the second hard drive.

Here's what you should do (assuming the second hard drive is drive D and the CD drive is drive E).

md d:\win9x
xcopy e:\win9x\*.* d:\win9x /s /h

(First line creates the \win9x directory on the second hard drive. The second line copies the contents of the \win9x directory on the CD to the \win9x directory on the second hard drive, including subdirectories and hidden files.)

The instructions Kung gave you the link for will work fine, but for what you want to do the only files you need are in the \win9x directory.

To begin the installation, execute setup.exe found in that directory.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

I thought about that...but I wasn't sure, because I don't have quite the experience with ME that I do with 2K/XP.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Kung said:


> I thought about that...but I wasn't sure, because I don't have quite the experience with ME that I do with 2K/XP.


Honestly, I've had that suwin thing before and the only way I got out of it was to install Windows in a different directory. There are a dozen things that can throw that error, even the time in the system clock being something Windows doesn't like. It's a nasty problem and I never got to the bottom of it.

His best bet is to upgrade to 2K or XP, but I'm assuming he knows what he's doing and doesn't have the resources. No question about it, XP would be the best solution in the long run.


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## bill not in oh (Jul 27, 2004)

Thanks for the ideas and help folks. I would (and will this summer probably) go to XP but this system is the bare minimum configuration and I've read enough of what you guys have said about that to know better so it's gonna take more $$ to upgrade hardware than I'm willing to part with right now. Nevada it is the same machine... unfortunately it's gone from bad to worse to comatose. I got the 2nd drive installed and everything configured master/slave just fine I believe. This bios has a primary and a secondary IDE 'channels' and apparently the CD needs to be a 'slave' on one or the other - when I set the HDs up as primary master and slave with the CD as secondary master (or slave) it didn't recognize the CD (just a note). Then as I was checking the connections in the [ATI] bios, there was a parameter that I wasn't familiar with called 'silent boot' and from the description it seemed that it would allow one to observe the command executions rather than see the generic Windows logo at startup. Well apparently that's not the case. At this point (booting from the ME startup floppy) I ceased to get the bios options of " F2 - enter bios" or "F10 - boot menu" and the system gave me a DOS window stating that Windows had successfully initiated the video and in order to use the monitor on the Windows desktop to go into control panel and adjust the settings. Now it was locked up and didn't go anywhere. Scratching my head now... Light bulb comes on - reset the bios by unplugging the system battery (works for system passwords after all). Now the comatose part... Nothing. Is it just toast or is there some way to get back into the bios, reset to defaults and start over?

Questions... Answers... Suggestions...


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

bill in oh said:


> reset the bios by unplugging the system battery (works for system passwords after all). Now the comatose part... Nothing. Is it just toast or is there some way to get back into the bios, reset to defaults and start over?
> 
> Questions... Answers... Suggestions...


You've knocked something lose in the case. Make sure the CMOS battery is properly seated. Reseat the memory module and also reseat the AGP card if you have one.


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## bill not in oh (Jul 27, 2004)

Everything looked tight, but I unseated and reseated them. No change. So I removed the spare HD, reconfigured the original as a stand alone, rebooted and voila - at least got back to the "If you can read this Windows has successfully initiated the video display....." screen which goes nowhere from there. Still no option to "F2 - enter setup" or "F10 - Boot menu".

SO... I guess the BIOS is working at least parts of it - it knows the hard drive is there. The processor and hard drive are finding each other... The video card is apparently OK - at least a signal is getting through it... I just don't know where else to go.


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## bill not in oh (Jul 27, 2004)

OK - update...

I got back into the BIOS, unselected the 'silent boot' setting and got it back to the original problem of Windows quitting halfway into the boot with the suwin message.

THEN... the second time I booted to make sure I actually was back where I thought I got a black Screen of Death that made a reference to the FAT. I shut it off immediately. I've now written this HD off as usable in the future however there are some very valuable files on it that I would like very much to retrieve. Some of them I have fairly recent backups of, the rest would take me weeks to rebuild. I've heard of software that will attempt to rebuild/restore file allocation tables, but have no first hand experience with any of them. Any suggestions?


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## insocal (May 15, 2005)

Reinstalling Windows ME is like putting lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig.

I have a computer at home with Windows ME, 6 years old. I have a brand new one at the office with Windows XP Professional. You get one guess which one makes me happier.

Windows ME is mentally retarded. It can't be fixed.


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## bill not in oh (Jul 27, 2004)

At this point I'm not trying to 'fix' ME.... I'm trying to retrieve files from a hard drive.


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## chuckhole (Mar 2, 2006)

Just a thought. If you can get Windows 98 SE, use it instead of Windows ME.

Have you tried starting the machine up since you got the FAT error? Exactly what did it say? If you boot with your Windows boot floppy, can you type in C: at the command prompt and then type dir /s and still see a bunch of files and folders?


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## bill not in oh (Jul 27, 2004)

I'm gonna be totally bald from scratchin' my head over this... 

Chuck, I went back to boot with the startup disk being relatively certain I wouldn't be able to read the HD - but I could. So I took out the startup disk to see if I could get the 'FAT message' and the crazy thing started booting in ME! - right up to the point that I got the 'Failure loading Explorer.exe. You will have to reinstall Windows". From my other thread regarding this machine - when I begin reinstalling Windows, it throws and error message about halfway through the install - [SUWIN.EXE caused an error at .....]

Back to unable to square 1...


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## chuckhole (Mar 2, 2006)

Before you rebuild from scratch, try the following:

Boot your PC with your Windows ME boot disk. If there are options in the bootup, choose the minimal startup option.

Then type c: and press enter. Then type cd\windows\command.

You should see C:\Windows\Command> just before your cursor. Type scanreg /fix and hit enter.

This will detect and repair problems in your system registry. To restore your registry from a point it time when your system worked properly, type scanreg /restore and select a date from the available list of recovery dates.

Reboot your computer without the boot floppy disk and try a normal startup.


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## bill not in oh (Jul 27, 2004)

Well this box is running. I've learned a couple of thing through this process.

Explorer.exe may not load [in Win ME] if you have an incompatible or malfunctioning video card/driver. This causes the OS to refuse to load and requires you to reinstall your OS.

Win ME installation won't go beyond 65% of the file transfer process [at which point it provides a SUWIN error message] if you have Windows Media Player v9 loaded on your HD.

Nevada's wrong about there being a dozen things that can cause the dreaded SUWIN error message... It's closer to 148 thousand things, LOL

Running ME with a low end video driver is UGLY...

Thanks for all the suggestions and help - it certainly gave me the encouragement to keep after these problems.

Bill


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## Rocky Fields (Jan 24, 2007)

Hey.

By now you probably have corrupted everything in sight.

I now notice in your post that you want to access files.

You might still be able to access your computer files in SAFE MODE.


RF


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