switching from windows xp to windows me

flodis79

I am trying to uninstall windows xp and install windows me on a computer. when trying to format the hdd, dos says there's only 62.5 MB on the drive c: even there must be more.. I guess this is only the dos partition... I am unable to format the whole drive c: and this is very frustrating.. Have tried with delpart.exe, but it only found the same 62 MB as before... Is the drive still in NTFS mode?

I have a Win ME startup floppy and original win me reinstallation cd, but when entering the win me installation, it stops and displays message "SU0013", "setup cannot create files on your startup drive for Windows Millennium Edition".

Has the file system changed on any of my drives? How do I make an NTFS readable in FAT32?
Why can't the OS be detected?

Thanks for all help and suggestions!!

Endurance Man

May i ask why you are making this change from good to crap , just curious.

flodis79

The computer is too slow for win xp.. So I will just try to downgrade, maybe I upgrade again later

Ruu_Old

Can you give me some specs of your computer? Maybe all you need is some extra ram or something to run XP better.

Ciaran500

Not sure how to get ME/Dos to read NTFS but you could try starting the XP disk and formatting the HDD to Fat32 when it asks, then install WinME.

You'd probably be better off with Win98SE, much more stable.

Orion

If speed is the problem then go to 2000 or windows 98 - not ME!

You can't make NTFS readable by Windows 9x. The easiest thing to do is to boot from your XP cd and when you get to the section to format - Delete the partition and create a FAT one. Then install your OS of choice. Failing that you can boot from the Windows ME floppy and run FDISK to delete the "Unknown" partition.

[edit]Actually the Me bootdisk mightn't have FDISK on it. Get a boot disk from www.bootdisk.com to use FDISK.

Endurance Man

You would be better off finding a copy of Windows2000, WindowsMe is the devil :eek: . Actually i have an original copy i could give to you for a tenner .

Saruman

If your copy of XP (assuming its pro) is legit then you are legally able to unisntall it and put on 2000 pro instead. For the love of God do not put on ME

Tobias Greeshman

Yes do not install Windows ME, that is easily the buggiest, most unstable OS that Microsoft ever developed. They even said so themselves, that there was problems with it. I'd personally go with Windows 2000, if Win XP is too slow.

Is it just the GUI that's slow in XP? If so you can turn off most of the GUI themes, styles, and effects to increase speed.

flodis79

Ok thanks for all replies. Will think this over. I only have a legit copy of Win ME, not Win XP (don't have it anymore).. So all I can do is install Win ME. I cannot come into the OS anymore.. Some fault with it now.

unkel

Endurance Man wrote:

WindowsMe is the devil :eek:

Indeed it is. I must be blessed because for some reason ME is the only MS OS since DOS 5 that I have not installed on any machine :eek:

grasscutter

Hi

Dont go back!!!!
You might want to upgrade your pc... Dell are selling PCs for 399 at the mo.

cheers


grasscutter

ps that would come with xp, colour printer and other software.

zilog_jones

I'd rather pull my eyes out with a spoon than install Windows ME. Do yourself a favour and get *anything else*.

What kind of spec is this PC? Windows 2000 will run fine on anything over about 300MHz and 128MB RAM. Win2k is infinitely better than any of the previous Windows, especially with regards to networking and security, plus it is still being supported by Microsoft so stuff like Windows Update will still work for another while yet.

EOA_Mushy

HAHAHAHAHA.... Sorry.
With that out of the system use windows3.1 before going near ME. Other better options have been listed obviously...

XP wont allow other operating systems to be installed (or didnt use to, dont know if this has changed.) Either way some one posted a link to a boot disk... thats the best bet.

layke

I would like to add my support to my fellow geeks advice.

DO NOT INSTALL ME. IT IS THE TOOL OF THE DEVIL!!!

Go win2k m8, it will run just as fast as ME except without the headaches involved.

Explosive_Cornflake

Al you need to do is fdisk it and re partition it as fat from any bootup disk. I'd highly recommend having a copy of the the ulimate boot cd around.
I'd vote for 2k also, but you can speed XP up a lot by disabling unused services. Blackviper.com had a good run through of it, but it seems to be down at the minute

Capt'n Midnight

only use FDISK if you don't mind loosing everything on the hard drive.

use 98 instead of ME, cos the later was just a cynical marketing exercise

NTFS is yet another gotcha from microsoft if you want to roll back.
I've had bad experiances with partiton magic YMMV

Backing up:
USB support in 98/ME can be flaky unless the device comes with USB drivers (and even then 98 is not the same as 98 SE !)

best bet is to copy files to a second HDD

ntfsdos www.sysinternals.com will read ntfs but only nt/200/xp/2003 will write to ntfs safely because microsoft won't tell anyone how it's done ( linux can use microsoft drivers as a workaround but scary monsters... )

the 60 odd mb is the free space on the drive

a linux boot disk could be used to resize the ntfs partition and they you could create an fat32 one and move files to it, free up space and resize them both - takes a while - but that's what I do rather than risk partition magic again.

zilog_jones

layke wrote:

Go win2k m8, it will run just as fast as ME except without the headaches involved.

Unless he's got like 64MB RAM (which ME can run on quite competently), which will be slow as a... very slow... thing.

SeanW

First of all, don't touch WinME with a 10 ft. barge pole.

That said, if you insist on doing that, back up everything on your hard drive, use FDISK to delete all partations, then create a new FAT/FAT32 partition and install Windows Millenium on to that.

I would think very carefully about doing that however.

unkel

zilog_jones wrote:

Unless he's got like 64MB RAM

He hasn't only 64MB. He has XP currently installed on it

Agree with other posters that if he wants to put another MS OS on it, he'd be best of with Windows 2000. Or perhaps windows 2003 Server

SeanW

You could even do Windows NT if the machine is old enough and you aren't using it to play games, in fact that's the one I'd choose.

Capt'n Midnight

SeanW wrote:

You could even do Windows NT if the machine is old enough and you aren't using it to play games, in fact that's the one I'd choose.

no games,
no usb,
few drivers for new hardware
the built in program only works with tapes (in much the same way that the backup program for 2000 is about as tape unfriendly as can be while still making it possible to backup to tape)

advantages - will install happily on NTFS, slightly more resistant to malware - but only if you don't logon with admin rights

always remember to reapply SP6a after any change in network settings that copies files AND rdisk -s - before you reboot

Capt'n Midnight

just a reminder folks

regardless of which OS is suggested you can only install a version of windows for which you have a license. OEM licenses do not allow you to move the copy of windows to other hardware.

Read the EULA to see which versions of windows your licensed copy allows - many but not all will allow you to use an earlier version.

Beware though, microsoft have been known to change licencing terms in service packs and major security patches. (have a read before you click ok next time)

unkel

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

always remember to reapply SP6a after any change

Remember that all too well. Glad those days are over now