Installing ME problem

TimW · Jan 13, 2006

Hey gang,
Friend's computer (gateway g6-233 .....pos) crashed. Found virus in the mbr. Reformatted and installed xp after putting the hhd in one of my computers so I could run virus software and remove the mbr crap. (Couldn't run xp on his due to lack of ram). After cleaning his hdd, reformatted again, put in a boot disc and the me cd, but when in the a:\ prompt I can't access the cd .... invalid drive.
So I can't get a os installed (other than xp which won't run on his puter with only 32mg's of ram.) What to do?
Thanks for any help someone could provide!!

Brian C · Jan 13, 2006

Tim........How are you "cleaning" the drive and doing the format?

With the way some of the viruses are being written these days, I've found it best to go to the HDD manufactures site, and download their "disk tool". Then you can do a "Low Level" format of the drive with it. That overwrites the entire drive with zero's, including the MBR.

Also.......If your booting from a floppy and doing the partitioning using FDISK, remember, the CD drive letter gets moved UP one letter. So if the CD drive is "D", it will now be "E" just while doing the install.

TimW · Jan 13, 2006

Tried to do a format from the boot disc ..... wouldn't do it .... would run fdisk for partitioning, but not format C:
Put xp disc back in and started installation ...... stopped after it formatted the drive.
Back to boot disc, still no format option, didn't recognize the cd drive with either a D: or E: .... tried cd md\win95 \copy\*.* \win95setup.exe
again, invalid drive. (I was trying to at least put windowws 95 on it and hope to do an upgrade installation.

Brian C · Jan 13, 2006

Ok Tim. Cool you're doing a setup from a directory. Best way.
Try starting all over again. After you get your partitioning done,restart with boot floppy, and type in FORMAT C:/S <enter>
After the drive formats, restart again with the floppy, WITH cd rom support as your choice.
To install Me, type in the following:
md\WinMe <enter>
cd\WinMe <enter>
COPY E:\WIN9X\*.*
Put the Me Disk in the cd drive and hit <enter>
It should copy. Then type SETUP after the copy.
Now keep some things in mind Tim.......This is all assuming that the machine has only one CD drive, and had only a C: partition on the harddrive previously. If the harddrive was partitioned off with like C: D: E: etc, you will have to do a low level format first, with the drive mfg's disk tool, to get rid of those other partitions, and have a clean fresh drive.

Brian C · Jan 13, 2006

Tim.......ALSO......I HAVE had experience with the CD drive not being recognized before. But it's only happened twice, and both times it was in old Compaq machines. For some reason, the cd drive in them wouldn't accept the generic driver from a boot floppy. In the event you have THIS problem, you'll need to pull a cd drive from another machine, and temp hook it up to the Gateway. If your lucky, you'll have another comp you can just set next to the Gateway, and pull the power and ribbon cable out of the Gateway, and strech it over and plug them into the "donor" machines cd drive.
It rare this is encountered, but it can happen.

TimW · Jan 13, 2006

That ( recognizing the cd drive) has been the problem. Tried doing this in my computer (two cd drives ....both working fine .... ) only had the pos hdd hooked up and it was giving me the invalid drive message at the dos prompt. The hdd is not partitioned .... only a C: drive and given the age, lack of ram and slow processor.... I'm suggesting to the friend that he just dump it (after loading xp, it only had 1.7 mb left on it!!)
Will put it back into the gateway and try your suggestions .... then look for the nearest trash can.
Thanks.

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Installing ME problem

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

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TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member