I am working on a PC that the owner tried reinstalling a "Boot Leg" copy of XP Pro. I'm trying to format and install Windows ME and cannot. I have changed the boot sequence to A and attempted the use of a boot disk, however, all that happens is the XP starts to load and stops at an error message. The error message indicates that certain necessary windows files could not be loaded. When it is shut down and restarted it all happens again. How can this PC be formatted and a new O/S be installed.

Enter the Bios 'setup' program and make sure that the floppy drive is first in the boot sequence. Otherwise it will keep trying to boot from the hard drive. Download Delpart and put it on a bootable floppy diskette. Boot from the floppy and have Delpart remove all partitioning from the hard drive. Then retry the XP install. The install will take care of partitioning and formatting the drive. http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm

or, boot to the xp cd, press 'R' for recovery console, type 1 and enter, leave password blank and press enter. type 'diskpart', then delete all partitions. press esc and type 'fixmbr', y for yes, then type exit and press enter. then try to install a new xp on a new partition.

What kind of boot disk are you using? Most put disk just end with an "A>" prompt. Is this what yours does? IF not what does it do? Where did you get the boot disk from? Never say Never Romeo Void Firefox 1.0.5 Thunderbird 1.0

Just wanted to let you both know that I ended up using the "Delpart" thing. All is okay now, thanks for your help.