RE-Install Licensing Problems

[Guest]

2 years ago I upgraded my ME OS to XP Home. No issue at the time because the
upgrade software discovered the ME OS. My computer just hard crashed (can't
even read the C: drive). REcovery option fails. Attempting to Re-install,
but the licensing software cannot find a valid OS and the only CD I have is
the bundled software from HP that is not being accepted. What to do?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

I hate this situation, as the recovery disk doesn't work as a qualifier for
the OS reinstall. Find a friend with a Win95, Win98, or WinME disk and ask
to borrow it for a few hours. You aren't going to actually use it (and yes,
the Win95 disk is sufficient), you just need to qualify the installation.
The alternative would be to use the recovery disks to wipe the system and
reinstall WinME, then do the upgrade again. Incidentally, IIRC, burning the
%windir%\options\install folder of WinME to a CD will work to qualify the
upgrade in the future.

Also, you say the hard drive cannot be read. Generally it means you will
need to remove the existing system partition and create a new one in order
for it to become useful again. Have you tried running chkdsk c: /r from the
recovery console yet?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org