Heres my problem: I have a dual boot computer with 2 different hard drives. c: is ME, and d: is XP. The problem is that ME (c:) has lots of problems and a big virus times a million (Win16.Shrapnel.6067) thats one. ME doesnt even start up any more. I have tried to install windows me again but its still doesnt work. i figured that formatting it would help. now how do i format it. This is the c: drive. without stuffing up d: drive XP. Whateva i do i cant stuff up d: drive cause it has alot of important stuff on it please people i need some urgent accurate help.

To alleviate your concerns about "stuffin" your D: drive with XP, make a boot disk. Format a floppy under XP, copy NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, BOOT.INI and BOOTSECT.DOS (hidden files on C:\). Test it out by booting with it. You should boot to the XP GUI logon screen and be able to log in. Now that you know you can always get into XP, you could disconnect the D: drive before doing anything else (but it is not necessary). Could save you a fat fingering error. A Win98 boot disk (bootdisk.com) can fdisk/format your C: drive. fdisk /mbr should take care of any lingering MBR virus you may have. Then install your ME OS. To get back your dual boot, check out dougknox.com (reconnect that D: drive if you disconnected it). His little read.scr program works great (and fast) for making the needed BOOTSECT.DOS file (I've used it). I'm not sure if the bootcfg would do anything for you as you can just copy the BOOT.INI file from that XP floppy boot disk down onto the C:\ drive. Also copy down to the C: drive the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files (from the floppy) if they are not put down by the following repair procedure (the copying down can be done while you are booted into ME). Lastly, run the Recovery Console repair option from the XP CD. Run the fixmbr and fixboot commands. You should now have your dual boot back. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q314058 has info on running the Recovery console.

XP ought to prompt everyone to make a rescue bootdisk during the install like Linux does. Everyone should follow michael's advice above as it could really save you a lot of grief later.