Friends Computer F**ed up

[zaphodiv]

Floppys!!
Well apart from the fact it will take days to shift any significant amount, yes you should be able to boot it and copy data to floppys. You may be able to use the recovery console on your xp corp disk to get to a command prompt. You will need to know the dos commands "dir" "cd" and "copy".

I not certain the XP recovery console will work on an ME installation but it probably will. IF not a win98 boot floopy should get you to command prompt.

I estimate the bandwidth of floppy disks to be about 25 megabytes an hour, assuming have the common problem of another computer not reading the floppy you have just written. Floppys are horriflyingly unreliable these days.

>He'll lose all his data if you do that.
Only if he chooses to format and install xp.

[zapjb]

That's what he said.

[Chewie]

How do we know this isn't a hardware problem? It doesn't sound like software.

What do the errors say, exactly? I mean the exact wording.
Are they the same errors on every boot or different?
Are there any strange noises, like a loud click from inside?

I ask because if it's a memory fault, nothing but repacement is necessary. If it's a hard drive fault, then the quickest and easiest solution is to buy another, install Windows on it with the original as slave and copy over the files.

Of course, if it's a Windows SNAFU, then installing ME over itself will cure most ills and give you time & the opportunity to backup before upgrading to XP.

[Chewie]

"I went over to a friend's house the other day. He was having problems with his computer and he asked me to look at it, and I realized he had Windows Me and it's like, oh no—that's your first problem."-Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell.

That's a brilliant quote. Obviously the word irony isn't part of his vocabulary.

[orcutt989]

That's what he said.

Alright, I have a copy of Windows Xp Pro Corp, can I use that? And then I just load it in, and boot from the disk? And then just copy what he needs to like a ton of floppy disks, or burn them to cds? (He just needs photography that he didnt save on flash memory). If that would work I dont see any need of switching the hdd's, I wouldnt want to fuck up another computer.

No that is what I said. I didnt think I said "reinstall the OS" anywhere in there. You guys were saying that I could boot xp from my disk, and then copy the files he needs to cd's or floppys.


And @ Chewie, there were no strange sounds, and the errors were the same each time I booted to the desktop. First it was about some mcaffe updating exe, and said it had an error, I click okay, then it says some dll file has an error, and I click okay, then it says explorer has an error, I click ok and the computer freezes. And IM not able to do anything except click okay, while these errors are happening. I think a while back I tried to remove some useless programs from starting up, and I might have stopped something else by accident, I dont know.

[orcutt989]

*oops

[Chewie]

OK, re-install Windows over the top of itself - it'll only take 30-40 minutes and doing so should give you a large 'window' to backup everything before upgrading.

[orcutt989]

Okay, so I need to have my friend find the ME install disk? Or can I use my XP cd to do this? And will it allow me to burn files to cd, or just to floppies?

[Chewie]

Use your friends Windows ME CD - as long as it's a 'proper' disc, not a 'restore disc'.
If it's a 'restore disc' (popular with Compaq, HP, PB, Tiny, Dell etc) then using it would wipe all data and leave you with the machine as it came from the 'factory'. In this case, the installation files are stored on the hard drive, although I don't recall the exact location, sorry!

[orcutt989]

Okay, so he has a compaq, and this is the same thing I was telling him I would do, but everytime I asked him where his disc was, he said NOO THAT WILL ERASE EVERYTHING, so I assume it is the "restore" disc, and he doesnt have a proper disc. Could I *get* my own copy of ME and do this cd boot thing to backup his files?