Strange formatting issue - anybody know what's going on?

I bought a used P4 and I have Win ME, so I formatted the hard drive
(both C and D, in this case), and then began the ME installation
process. Once it got to the point where it said to restart and remove
the floppy, it restarted but there was a message, and it just freezes
up. I can get back to the startup disk and run install again, but the
same thing happens over and over again. Nothing I've tried works. Any
thoughts on what could be causing this?

Thanks in advance.

oops!!
Tue May 30 02:11:46 CDT 2006


Please post the exact error message.

Zee






<monty1945@lycos.com> wrote in message
news:1148972481.144074.322760@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>I bought a used P4 and I have Win ME, so I formatted the hard drive
> (both C and D, in this case), and then began the ME installation
> process. Once it got to the point where it said to restart and remove
> the floppy, it restarted but there was a message, and it just freezes
> up. I can get back to the startup disk and run install again, but the
> same thing happens over and over again. Nothing I've tried works. Any
> thoughts on what could be causing this?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>

Noel
Tue May 30 05:03:21 CDT 2006

Sounds like you may have a RAM issue - try removing one of the RAM sticks
until the install is complete (how much RAM is there, total?? - if more than
512MB, then issue is to be expected!)


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
<monty1945@lycos.com> wrote in message
news:1148972481.144074.322760@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>I bought a used P4 and I have Win ME, so I formatted the hard drive
> (both C and D, in this case), and then began the ME installation
> process. Once it got to the point where it said to restart and remove
> the floppy, it restarted but there was a message, and it just freezes
> up. I can get back to the startup disk and run install again, but the
> same thing happens over and over again. Nothing I've tried works. Any
> thoughts on what could be causing this?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>

monty1945
Tue May 30 08:33:31 CDT 2006

Okay, I went back to it after it saw for a few hours and it let me
continue with the ME install, but it kept freezing up before it would
finish. I changed around the startup sequence and that error came
back, which is "no operating system found press F1 to repeat boot
sequence. I then reformatted C:, and tried to install Windows 95, just
to see if that would work, and it did go smoother, but then saide that
there was compressed volume or disk-cache utility and to remove it
before it could proceed. And it also said that a Windows NT file
partition was detected and that those files would not work. Not sure
which came up first. Now, however, I can't get to the setup screen to
change the startup sequence and it will only go to the startup floppy
disk in A. From there I can go to C: and try to start up windows, but
it says that a file is missing and it totally freezes everything up.
So should I delete this utility and can I get rid of all partitions, or
is this more likely the RAM issue?

Thanks.

Mike
Tue May 30 08:46:03 CDT 2006

You haven't said how much RAM you have installed so knowing whether it is
a RAM issue is somewhat difficult to answer.

Given the reference to having a possible NT formatted partition
(presumably this means NTFS) and given that you appear to want to clean
install an operating system I would suggest that your best approach would
be to fdisk the hard disk, clear all existing partitions, repartition,
then format and finally install your preferred operating system.

For more details see 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).

See also KB255867 - "How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to
Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255867).
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows [2001-2006]
mike.maltby@gmail.com


monty1945@lycos.com <monty1945@lycos.com> wrote:

> Okay, I went back to it after it saw for a few hours and it let me
> continue with the ME install, but it kept freezing up before it would
> finish. I changed around the startup sequence and that error came
> back, which is "no operating system found press F1 to repeat boot
> sequence. I then reformatted C:, and tried to install Windows 95,
> just to see if that would work, and it did go smoother, but then
> saide that there was compressed volume or disk-cache utility and to
> remove it before it could proceed. And it also said that a Windows
> NT file partition was detected and that those files would not work.
> Not sure which came up first. Now, however, I can't get to the setup
> screen to change the startup sequence and it will only go to the
> startup floppy disk in A. From there I can go to C: and try to start
> up windows, but it says that a file is missing and it totally freezes
> everything up. So should I delete this utility and can I get rid of
> all partitions, or is this more likely the RAM issue?
>
> Thanks.

monty1945
Tue May 30 08:56:46 CDT 2006

I can't get to startup so I guess the only way I could tell how much
RAM there is would be to take open the box, right?

monty1945
Tue May 30 09:11:59 CDT 2006

Okay, I will try it and post back with results.

Mike
Tue May 30 09:24:21 CDT 2006

Most users know how much RAM they have installed in their systems however
if you don't know this you should see it reported by the bios on the
splash screen when the system is first switched on. I feel though that if
you can't remember how much RAM is installed it is unlikely that you have
more than 512MB and therefore the amount of RAM is unlikely to be a factor
in the problems you are seeing.
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows [2001-2006]
mike.maltby@gmail.com


monty1945@lycos.com <monty1945@lycos.com> wrote:

> I can't get to startup so I guess the only way I could tell how much
> RAM there is would be to take open the box, right?

monty1945
Tue May 30 09:52:57 CDT 2006

Yes, I am surprised by this computer, as it does not report such data,
and only sometimes does it allow me to hit F1 and get to the setup
screen. Also, often when I am in the setup screen the screen gets all
messed up and it is difficult to see what I am doing, so I have to wait
and move the around in the screen until it clears up enough for me to
tell what changes I am making.

monty1945
Tue May 30 23:31:31 CDT 2006

I went to FDISK and had to delete a couple of partitions, then it
allowed me to install the ME with miminal problems. However, now, with
the most basic setup, it freezes up very easily. Is this
characteristic of ME? The only thing that I can think of is that it
has a PCI ethernet card that does not have drivers and did not work
when I tried to get to a web site through IE. I restarted and tried to
install a program without the cable connected to the PCI card but it
froze up on me right away.

Thanks.

Mike
Wed May 31 03:49:14 CDT 2006

> Is this characteristic of ME?

No but it is a characteristic of perhaps having incorrect drivers
installed for your hardware however without more information it could in
all honesty be anything. If you need further help you really are going to
have to provide some information so that others might be able to help.
--
Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com



monty1945@lycos.com <monty1945@lycos.com> wrote:

> I went to FDISK and had to delete a couple of partitions, then it
> allowed me to install the ME with miminal problems. However, now,
> with the most basic setup, it freezes up very easily. Is this
> characteristic of ME? The only thing that I can think of is that it
> has a PCI ethernet card that does not have drivers and did not work
> when I tried to get to a web site through IE. I restarted and tried
> to install a program without the cable connected to the PCI card but
> it froze up on me right away.
>
> Thanks.

monty1945
Wed May 31 22:39:05 CDT 2006

Thanks again Mike. Yes, someone else told me to take the PCI card out,
and if I can't get drivers for it, to get a new card, since they are
cheap. It has 256 MB of RAM so I assume that is not the problem. I
never intalled any drivers, though, I just let ME do the typical
installation.

monty1945
Thu Jun 01 23:46:24 CDT 2006

Okay, the PCI card is built into the motherboard, so I guess I should
disable it, then look for drivers on the internet for it. But is it
usual for a built in card like this not to work with an installation of
ME?

Godfrey
Fri Jun 02 03:56:01 CDT 2006


<monty1945@lycos.com> wrote in message
news:1149223584.633562.72730@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
> Okay, the PCI card is built into the motherboard, so I guess I should
> disable it, then look for drivers on the internet for it. But is it
> usual for a built in card like this not to work with an installation of
> ME?
>

Drivers for onboard devices usually come on CD supplied with the
motherboard. If you don't have a CD you need to find the make and model of
the motherboard and go to the manufacturers website where hopefully you'll
be able download the required drivers.
From previous experience I found ME extremely good at detecting hardware and
installing drivers but remember that it's now an old OS with an outdated
driver database.

Mike
Fri Jun 02 05:27:16 CDT 2006

PCI "card" and "built in" sounds rather like a contradiction to me. PCI
cards do not form part of the motherboard but rather are additions. As
for drivers, you need to download the necessary drivers Win Me from the
manufactures web site and install them.

> But is it
> usual for a built in card like this not to work with an installation
> of ME?

Think about it for a moment. Win Me contains only the most basic drivers
for hardware that was available at the time of release (June 2000) so yes
it is perfectly normal for a user to have to install drivers for their
hardware when installing any operating system especially the drivers for
their motherboard.
--
Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com


monty1945@lycos.com <monty1945@lycos.com> wrote:

> Okay, the PCI card is built into the motherboard, so I guess I should
> disable it, then look for drivers on the internet for it. But is it
> usual for a built in card like this not to work with an installation
> of ME?