i have a digital hiNote 2000 laptop and have winME installed i tried upgrading win2000 over it and it says it cannot located the current version of windows i have. im installing over a newtwork because my CDROM is broken.

The upgrade from Windows ME to Windows 2000 is not supported. Windows ME came out AFTER Windows 2000 and there are signifigant differences from the rest of the 9x platform that the Windows 2000 installer doesn't see or know what to do with. Just count yourself lucky that the install did not go through(problems... many, many problems) and format/install 2000 if you want to run it.

newgrl- im installing over a newtwork because my CDROM is broken. ive even tried copying win2000 install files to my Laptop and then tring to installing win2000 that way but i get the same error: unable to find what current version of windows? Question: if i boot up my laptop with the install disk for win2000, how would i install win2000 if my CDROM is broken (i know it sounds like a stupid question) would it be possible to do it over a network. my fear is reformatting and then not having the correct disk for my internal NIC card and then id be really screwed because my cd burner is broken! hell, where do you work, ill come over at get that dam disk. ha ha ha. any how, well back to the drawing board and figure out how im going to do this. any other advice/ideas would be great. thanks again.

Windows 2000 will install fine over a network. You should be just fine there. Your problem is you are attempting to use a Windows 2000 upgrade cd and use Windows ME as a qualifying product. The upgrade cd is not seeing ME as a qualifying product. Windows 2000 randomly checks for over 90 files being in the correct place in order to pass the compliancy check. Your install of ME is not passing. Your options here are kind of limited due to the absence of a cd rom drive. What you would generally do is, when the install came to the qualifying product portion, you would swap out the Windows 2000 cd for a Windows 98 or NT cd. The installer would see it and would install whereever you would like. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen here. You are most likely stuck without a cd rom drive and ME on your box. My suggestion here would be to take back the Windows 2000 upgrade cd and buy a full version. As far as your NIC drivers go (and all the rest of your drivers) you can look up your specific hardware on both the big, bad boy: Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List or the one specifically made for Windows 2000 Pro: Windows 2000 pro HCL You can see if Microsoft has tested your NIC with Windows 2000 and see if it passed the basic tests. You can also look for drivers on the manufacturer's website. Even if Microsoft hasn't tested it, it does not mean it does not work... just that they either haven't tested it or they don't want to support it for some reason. At this point you're kind of in a stuck place. The upgrade needs to find a previous operating system and it is not seeing the ME you have installed as one. You do not have a cd rom so you could borrow a 98 disk from someone and put it in for the compliancy check. I would take the upgrade back and get a full install disk. If whereever you bought it won't take it back, Microsoft will... as long as you have a receipt and you bought it recently(I think 30 days... it may be 60).

thanks for the info, ill give it a try and let you know what i come up with. -doc