Hello Mesich, Just when I thought the problem was solved, GATES rears his ugly head. I have run into one of many m$ bugs, the dreaded -generic installer error, message su99405, updateinis=processing error cox(195). Of course m$ has no clue as to what was causing this error, as a matter of fact error 99405 represents unknown cause of error. Checking google led me back here and found many with the same problem, they gave me some leads to track down the error, since I can't load the os until this is cleared up. Hopefully I don't run into any more bugs from m$, thanks again Mesich, frank

Hi Frank, It seems you've spent a lot of time trying to get this to work...but is there a reason why backing up important files, reformatting, & doing a fresh install is not an option?

Hello Jam, It's all the files and programs collected since 1997, I don't want to erase all this material because an os cannot be conceived at m$ that cannot be loaded with the hassles you buy from this company. I know you will say in a perfect world, this would not happen. I feel this is not rocket science as 15 year hackers tear these programs apart. I am just annoyed of patches and updates to correct many holes in their products. I will get off the soap box now Jam and try to fish around to find an .ini file that could be a cause of this problem, as many have reported at comp net. What next, a self destruct sequence. If possible I would like to save my 6 year collection of letters, programs and files. This outfit don't make anything easy, I thank those who contribute their knowledge and experience to those like myself who grope in the dark looking to correct some fault or flaw in hardware or software, I thank you Jam for your help as well as Mesich who is a big contributor to this website, frank

Believe me, I'm not a big advocate of going to the extreme...that is, reformatting & then reinstalling the OS, drivers, software, updates, etc. I cringe at how often reformatting is recommended in these forums, especially when many times, the fix appears to be relatively simple. Sometimes it's necessary, but I usually try to steer people into trying other things 1st. I hope you're able to get things sorted out. Good luck.

I use this procedure instead of format when I have a problem or virus and don't want to lose data, especially the info I keep in My Documents: Boot from Me boot disk At A:\ type [C:\] [enter] At C:\ type [deltree windows] [enter] this will take some time At C:\ type [attrib -s -h -r] [enter] At C:\ type [del *.*] [enter] Press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] and let the computer restart with the boot disk. Insure your bios is set to boot off the floppy drive, cdrom drive, and hdd in this order before you start this hassle. When you restart your computer make sure you select the option to start with cdrom support. Type X:\setup where "X" is the drive designation of the cdrom that contains your Me install disk. e.g., if it used to be e:, now it will be f: Me will now give you a fresh install, however the data on your drives will remain intact. The only folder you will lose is Windows and all its subfolders. You will need to reinstall all drivers and all programs that ran under windows. Make sure you have your cd collection close at hand. This is a pretty long experience as I have outlined but it is worth every minute if you have data you can't do without. Remember that you will need to reinstall everything...all the drivers, programs, and updates you currently run in Windows. If you choose to do this, your program files and stuff will still be there but windows won't know until you reinstall everything. All your motherboard and hardware drivers will be gone and if you don't have all this stuff at hand, don't do it. Good luck, Skip

Thank you Skip for the information, I will try your procedure and hope I can get my old comp to work, it's been a faithful machine and don't want to throw it away, thank again Skip, frank