Format trouble - in serious NEED of help

[weiser701]

Ok this is a real simple question most all of you should be able to answer. I used to operate Windows ME on my Compaq Presario 1800t because that is what it came with. Well, after a while it just got so messed up I decided to just reformat. When I reinstalled ME the resolution was all messed up and I just couldn't manage to get the right drivers to fix it. I then decided I'd rather have 98 or 2000 instead. I have reformatted using an ME boot disk I created and would like to install 2000. That's when I realized it won't work will it? Do I need a 2000 boot disk or what? I've never familarized myself with this type of stuff. It's just sitting there without an OS right now. I have a Windows 2000 CD. I forgot to mention that I had installed 98 after I reformatted the first time but then my audio wasn't working. Again, I tried all the drivers and nothing and that's how I got to where I am now. What do I do? Any help is much appreciated. TIA

[renegade600]

what happens you you place your os into the cd drive and boot?

[weiser701]

I get a message in DOS that says something like "error reading disk. insert _____ disk and press any key" or something along those lines. the ____ means i can't remember what it says there

And then i can't type anything, like get to a: or d: prompt. pressing any of the keys just produces the same message over and over again. It's wierd because I thought when I installed 98 I just stuck the disk in and booted it up. Using the ME boot disk to reformat prior to that. Well......I got ahold of an XP disk so I can try that out. I just want an OS on this darn thing. That's all, lol. It's a 2001 model by the way. Finally decided to get her running again. I'd use the original ME that came with it but that just doesn't want to recognized drivers anymore. I'm thinking this is all because it's a Compaq, lol. My old friends that were smart with computers never said good things about it. Man, it sure is loud compared to the new laptops. Anyways, I guess I can go ahead and try XP now and see how that works out. If that works out it should have no problem locating drivers. The audio and resolution problems I was told wouldn't occur if I installed XP. If I get the same message what do I do? This is my last resort.

[Landon]

I'm assuming that you are still working on this...

Go into the BIOS and set the first Boot Device to be a CDROM drive, exit out of the BIOS and have it save your settings.

VERY QUICKLY put your Windows 2000 CD in the drive, it should boot up on its own and then prompt you through several things. When it gets there use whatever settings it wants to use to partition and format the drive, (when you get to the option) use NTFS instead of FAT32. Installing Win2K can take a LONG time, go read a book or do something else.

IF BOOTING FROM THE CD DOES NOT WORK... Boot with the Windows Me boot floppy and choose the option to BOOT WITH CDROM DRIVE SUPPORT, once that loads and leaves you at a DOS prompt make your way to whatever drive letter it assigned to your CDROM drive and then type SETUP.EXE and hit [ENTER], the installation should start itself.

Hope this helps and was not too confusing.