When I start my computer I cant get to windows AT ALL. So I CAN'T get into safe mode. I have a boot floppy which I end up getting a message that says that my operating system is not found. I have a rescue cd from windows ME that starts to work but, then tells me that my disk it not partitioned. Help! I want to reformat, or just fix it, but I can't. Someone help. I have had people telling me to change my BIOS or start in sfae mode and stuff like that. Noone understands that I can't.

Um, man, you could be up THE creek without a paddle. If you're getting a message that says you don't have a partition, you most likely have an NTFS partition. If the drive is important to you, I suggest that you slave it over to another computer running XP (I THINK 2000 would be okay, but don't quote me), copy the files you wanna save, then either format the drive or try to install XP over on top of itself. If you can't get into Safe Mode...bad things have happened. You could TRY installing XP over the top of itself WITHOUT copying the files over you want to save, but you could end up losing it all...may as well try to keep the files. If you're just going to format, use fdisk to go in and delete the partition (s) and either re-create it, or just install XP and let it handle the partition creation(s).

Try the following. Go to the site below, http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/downrights_bootdisks.htm and download the "Boot Disk - Windows 98 SE boot disk (USA version)" and run it. Insert a diskette when prompted and have the program write to it. Boot your problem computer with this diskette in the drive. Eventually you'll get to a DOS prompt (A:>\ or similar). Type "FDISK" and hit the Enter key. If asked whether you want to support large disks, say Yes. At the menu, choose item 1 to create a new Primary partition, then follow the prompts to use however much space on the hard drive to create a new partition. Reboot the computer, with the boot disk still in the drive. When you get to the DOS prompt, this type type "FORMAT C: /S" and hit Enter. This will format your C: drive and make it bootable. Reboot again, this time with your Windows Me CD in the drive. You should now be able to install Windows Me, since the hard drive will now have a valid partition to use.

Um, man, you could be up THE creek without a paddle. If you're getting a message that says you don't have a partition, you most likely have an NTFS partition. If the drive is important to you, I suggest that you slave it over to another computer running XP (I THINK 2000 would be okay, but don't quote me), copy the files you wanna save, then either format the drive or try to install XP over on top of itself. If you can't get into Safe Mode...bad things have happened. You could TRY installing XP over the top of itself WITHOUT copying the files over you want to save, but you could end up losing it all...may as well try to keep the files. If you're just going to format, use fdisk to go in and delete the partition (s) and either re-create it, or just install XP and let it handle the partition creation(s).

When you put your WinXP OS disk in your CDROM and reboot doesn't it take you to where you can reformat and reinstall WinXP? If your bios is set to boot from a floppy change it to boot from CDROM. Normande

OK...try this to reformat. In bios get it to allow you to boot from CD. If you cant or dont know how dont worry about it....just get to a computer where you can download the FLOPPY version of the Windows XP Pro bootdisk from Microsoft. It is a file that will extract files and put them on 6 floppies. When you have your 6 disks, put the first one in your computer then turn it on. It will take you to a blue screen, where it will ask you to insert all the disks, loading files into memory for use. Now....it will then ask if you want to run SETUP or go to RECOVERY CONSOLE. Go to RECOVERY CONSOLE and type FORMAT C: /FS:NTFS. This will format the drive with the NTFS file system. Then put the first disk back in your computer when it is done and reboot. This time choose setup instead of recovery console and reinstall Windows.

I'm basically a lazy guy, so here are short instructions to wipe the partitions from your hard drive so you can install Me (yuk) or XP: Download a Windows 98se bootdisk; double-click on the file to create a bootable floppy. Extract GDISK.EXE to the bootdisk you just wrote. Boot your computer with the floppy. At the A:\ prompt type: gdisk 1 /del /all That will wipe all partitions, NTFS or other, from your primary hard drive. To create a new partition the size of your entire drive, quick-format it with FAT32, and label it "MYDISK": gdisk 1 /cre /pri /for /q /v:MYDISK