Need help reinstalling windows

Discussion in 'Software' started by speedstar, Jul 28, 2007.

  1. speedstar

    speedstar Private E-2

    I have a computer that I have assembled from several old computers. The motherboard,case and one of the drives is out of a e-machine. The power supply, hard drive and cd drive is out of a gateway I had. It is running on Windows Me and there are some problems so I wanted to do a fresh install.
    I have the Recovery discs from my gateway computer but I don't know how to install/run it. Does it matter that the motherboard is from a e-machine and my recovery disc is a gateway?
    I just wanted to do a clean install, I appreciate any help. Thanks
     
  2. hopperdave2000

    hopperdave2000 MajorGeek

    Chances are, because the CD is from a different company than the motherboard, you'll run into driver problems. Luckily, it's not as big of a problem with Windows ME as it would be with Win2000 or XP. Boot to the CD and start setup, formatting the drive if the option is given; if not, you can boot into DOS (from the CD) or use a 3rd party hard drive tool- check the Drive Utilities section here at MajorGeeks- you'll find something useful. After you've formatted the drive, install the Windows from your CD. No guarantees here! It may or may not work due to the differing companies. Like I said, if it does install completely, you'll need the drivers from EMachine. To get 'em, you'll need the model number of the EMach and go to www.emachines.com and go to the drivers/downloads/support page and select your model; hopefully all the drivers will be available for WinME. EMach is famous for not posting all the needed drivers on their web site, especially for older models. You may have to download the drivers from here (the Drivers section here at MajorGeeks) or another site like www.driverguide.com....
    Good Luck!!!

    hd2k
     
  3. speedstar

    speedstar Private E-2

    Thanks for the reply hopperdave heres my problem. When I put in the cd I don't know what to do. When I put it in the drive nothing happens so I open/explore it and I don't see anyway to install it. There are 2 folders dos and recdat. In the recdat folder there is a recovery icon but it just opens to a black screed that says recovery.exe. The dos folder has a install icon but it does nothing.
    How do I install it?
     
  4. speedstar

    speedstar Private E-2

    Can anyone help me.
     
  5. hopperdave2000

    hopperdave2000 MajorGeek

    Hmmmm.... the CD is from Gateway, and therefore may have proprietary files on it that MUST be used with a Gateway PC. I'm not sure if this is an option with WinME (it's been a while since I've worked with it) but you may need to enable viewing of System Files/Folders and Hidden Files/Folders in order to see everything on the CD. It could be that the CD is designed to be used in conjunction with a restore partition/program that isn't available.... I'm not really sure I can help you from here.... try booting to DOS (with a WinME boot floppy) and read the CD from DOS and try running whatever's on it. Maybe it'll work (hopefully???) Well, good luck. I'm not sure there's alot more I can do. If you make any progress, let us know, and we'll do our best.

    hd2k
     

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