Ok I need a bit of a dummies guide to doing this.

Windows XP has been installed on a machine that isnt capable of running it (ie hardwares a bit poo)

This replaced windows 98.

It wasnt me who did it before anyone moans!

No obvioulsy the machine will not start XP, it crashes and it only starts in safe mode- which runs like an aged dog, and being XP the PC no longer has MS DOS on it so it wont start the installer for 98 or millennium.

I need to format the drive to start from scratch and install either 98 or ME again and cant do this without DOS (either installing, or formating), unless there is a way around this and CMD.EXE wont allow a disk format or the installer to work


Can someone who is a bit more PC technical than I am help me please?

It most likely it will be windows ME that goes on as this is the oldest software that will work on this machine compatible with Sky Broadband.

Well you can't format the drive WinXP runs from...

If you boot using windows 98 / ME floppy (get one from www.bootdisk.com) then it will load cd drivers and get you to a c:\ prompt.

WinXP usually resides on a partition using the NTFS file system which Win98 is incompatible with. So you can delete the WInXP partition using FDISK (on Win98 CD) and reboot with a blank hard disk. Win98 /me setup will then take over and install a fresh new win98 partition (called FAT32) and install the operating system.

Its pretty straight forward... Email me if u have trouble...

Martin
([email protected])

Don't install Windows ME whatever you do. It's bug ridden and troublesome and really not worth it - Microsoft had no end of problems with it and quickly replaced it with Windows 2000.

Windows 98SE is regarded as one of the most stable of the Windows operating systems and is generally trouble free, but is old and not supported anymore (shame, it is a nice system). If you can't get XP to work try Windows 2000 Professional with SP4. I'm running that and it seems to work fine on a PIII 700mhz PC

I must have been the only person in the world who ran ME with no issues. :woot:

2000 Professional. That's the one you want.

Can ye not use the WinXP Recovery Console to format the drive?

It would either have to be loaded from the WixXP CD or you would have to add it to the boot menu.

Easiest way, as mentioned above:

Win98SE boot Disk / Load using boot disk / C:\>FORMAT C: (enter) / Y

and your done.... after about 15 minutes or so.

EDIT: can you not uninstall WinXP and go back to the previous OS? The option might be available in ADD/REMOVE programs. depending on how it was installed, Windows will have the old OS on the Disk Still and will be able to revert back to it.

I still use Windows 98 Second Edition.