Depending on your method of installing the operating system again: that is to say, whether you have a standard operating system CD as an aftermarket purchase or a recovry CD received with your system, should you need to use the emergency boot disk to reformat, then if you need to reformat from the floppy drive (or the RAM drive if using a Win 98-generated boot disk), the command would be format c: /s, where C: is the letter for the drive or partition you want to reformat. Change the drive or partition letter according to the one you want to work with.
Should you need other information on the process, such as instructions for fdisking if desired, go here and here. Although you are using Win ME, unless you are using a recovery CD, the instructions used for Win 95 and Win 98 systems are much the same.
Post back if you are using a recovery CD and need instructions for using it.
Running the zztop utility will restore your system install to the condition it was in when it left the factory, and this is a different procedure than reformatting and reinstalling Win ME using the recovery CD.
These instructions from David Voegtle, a former Dell Tech here, may give you the information you need. This is run from DOS, so you will need to boot to DOS using either an emergency boot disk, or some other bootable floppy disk.
If you want to reformat and reinstall Windows ME, this is a more complicated process, and it doesn't sound like you did that with the tech on the phone, but in the event you did, these instructions from the Dell Knowledge Base will be helpful. This article tells you how to change the boot order of devices to be able to boot to the CD-ROM.
Look these things over and see if anything jogs your memory from yesterday so that you can use the procedure you would like to use. The zztop one, if possible to use, is faster and less complicated. The advantage of a clean install of only the operating system and drivers, then you install the third party software is that you don't have the clutter of some of the software that comes with a newly manufactured system on the hard drive.
I am hopeful that the power glitch you describe did not permanently harm your system. As soon as possible, I recommend getting a good surge protector, an APC unit, if you can swing it, since these devices are all so touchy with power surge and static events.
Hope this helps, but please post back if you have any questions at all, so that this can go smoothly for you and do what you want.
hello,
i am using a recovery cd "for the reinstallation of windows me." i talked to a dell tech yesterday and he walked me through the steps. just after i hung up there was a power glitch so i had to start over. the only prompt i could remember was zztop. could you please post the instructions. my computer is a xps b1000.
KayH
1.1K Posts
0
April 4th, 2001 10:00
HI,
Depending on your method of installing the operating system again: that is to say, whether you have a standard operating system CD as an aftermarket purchase or a recovry CD received with your system, should you need to use the emergency boot disk to reformat, then if you need to reformat from the floppy drive (or the RAM drive if using a Win 98-generated boot disk), the command would be format c: /s, where C: is the letter for the drive or partition you want to reformat. Change the drive or partition letter according to the one you want to work with.
Should you need other information on the process, such as instructions for fdisking if desired, go here and here. Although you are using Win ME, unless you are using a recovery CD, the instructions used for Win 95 and Win 98 systems are much the same.
Post back if you are using a recovery CD and need instructions for using it.
HTH,
Kay
KayH
1.1K Posts
0
April 5th, 2001 00:00
Hi,
Running the zztop utility will restore your system install to the condition it was in when it left the factory, and this is a different procedure than reformatting and reinstalling Win ME using the recovery CD.
These instructions from David Voegtle, a former Dell Tech here, may give you the information you need. This is run from DOS, so you will need to boot to DOS using either an emergency boot disk, or some other bootable floppy disk.
If you want to reformat and reinstall Windows ME, this is a more complicated process, and it doesn't sound like you did that with the tech on the phone, but in the event you did, these instructions from the Dell Knowledge Base will be helpful. This article tells you how to change the boot order of devices to be able to boot to the CD-ROM.
Look these things over and see if anything jogs your memory from yesterday so that you can use the procedure you would like to use. The zztop one, if possible to use, is faster and less complicated. The advantage of a clean install of only the operating system and drivers, then you install the third party software is that you don't have the clutter of some of the software that comes with a newly manufactured system on the hard drive.
I am hopeful that the power glitch you describe did not permanently harm your system. As soon as possible, I recommend getting a good surge protector, an APC unit, if you can swing it, since these devices are all so touchy with power surge and static events.
Hope this helps, but please post back if you have any questions at all, so that this can go smoothly for you and do what you want.
Kay
seabass2
3 Posts
0
April 5th, 2001 00:00
i am using a recovery cd "for the reinstallation of windows me." i talked to a dell tech yesterday and he walked me through the steps. just after i hung up there was a power glitch so i had to start over. the only prompt i could remember was zztop. could you please post the instructions. my computer is a xps b1000.
thanks again,
seabass2
KayH
1.1K Posts
0
April 5th, 2001 05:00
Hi,
I am so pleased to hear it :) That's great news :)
Thanks a lot for letting me know, and enjoy it.
Have a good one,
Kay
seabass2
3 Posts
0
April 5th, 2001 05:00
thanks again
seabass2