Cant Boot UP WIN ME

[FleA808]

OK so i got a free comp and im using that for my embroidery machine that requires WIN ME.
So when i star it up it says its missing a boot file for example C:/win/vmm32.exe. in the black DOS screen. SO what i was thinking is that i was going to reformat it and reinstall win me. but heres the problem: when i type in reformat C:/ it says file missing. So is there anything i can do to either replace that file or load it somehow from DOS, or perhaps reformat my computer?

[gore]

deltree or fdisk. Or just load the CD and reboot.

[Double//Cut]

did you type reformat C: or format C: ??

Throw in any windows 9x/me cd, and boot it, get to a console and type 'format C:\ /q /s' or which ever switches you like...

Dont know about Windows ME, but im sure you could just install over the top of your current install to fix the files, thats if you dont want to format, and you actually want ME on your machine...

Other than that, if you havent already, i dont see why it would hurt to throw a linux distrobution onto the machine to check-it out...

just my opinion

[nihil]

Hi,

OK, it won't boot windows and it sounds as if DOS is corrupt as well, if it can't find the format command ("reformat" would have produced an invalid command response )

The FIRST thing to do is to go into your BIOS setup and check your boot sequence. On a Win 98/ME box I usually go for Floppy - CD - HDD.

As recommended by others, you need to boot from external media. Your CD might work, otherwise you need a Win 9x boot/installation disk. There is a Win ME boot disk attached to this post. Download it, rename it to BOOTME.exe and create the floppy by running it.

Unfortunately I have to warn you:

The combination of "free PC" + corrupt Windows + corrupt DOS suggests that the hard drive is on the way out. This would be the first thing that I would check when it gets going.