How to reformat HD in Me

[BlacksB71]

I have a friend who is running Windows ME. The other day her PC would not start up. She keeps getting error messages that relate to the KERNEL32.DLL. I have tried rebooting in safe mode and it still won't work. The desktop will not come up.
She wants to wipe the HD and install a new OS. I tried getting to a DOS prompt and running FDISK and FORMAT but they will not work.
How do I get rid of ME and start over?

[GretaP]

I tried getting to a DOS prompt and running FDISK and FORMAT but they will not work Were you using a startup floppy disk in order to get to a DOS prompt? If so, then you may not be using the right type of startup disk or the disk is corrupted.
You can d/load the file to create a new startup disk from here (http://bootdisk.com/original.htm) . Click on the link for either Windows ME OEM (but ONLY IF you're going to be installing Windows ME again) or Windows 98 SE OEM (this one would be my choice). When the file is d/loaded, put a formatted floppy disk in the drive and then double-click on the d/loaded file to create the startup disk.

Now, the first thing that I would do is to ensure that you will have CDROM support when you boot from this startup disk (you should........but anomalies happen). Boot from the startup disk, and choose to start WITH CDROM SUPPORT. Once you are at the A:> prompt, look at the lines above it……..there should be one that refers to the drive letter that, for this session, will be assigned to your CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM, whichever is the type of ROM drive you have).
It will say something like this:

Drive x: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0
(where the x will be replaced with the drive letter for your CDROM for this session)

If you see this line, you're good to go. Format the C drive and then, when you are returned to the A:> prompt following the format, put the install CD in the CDROM drive and key in:
setup <ENTER>

[BlacksB71]

Thanks for the quick response. I was rebooting from the Win 98Se start-up disk. This may be a stupid question but do I run FORMAT from the A: prompt?

[GretaP]

It's not a stupid question, and yes, you run format from the A: prompt

A:>format C: <ENTER>