Wipe HDD & Re-Install Windows ME

Anonymous
2021-07-14T08:09:11+00:00

I'm hoping someone can help me out as I'm a little stuck. I have an old Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop running Windows ME. Me intention is to wipe the HDD so I can sell/recycle it safely, but I'm really stuck how to do this.

Few extras:

  • I have a floppy drive, but no floppy disks to create a startup disk (and I'm hoping that's not the only way)
  • I have a "Reinstallation CD WMe" that came with the laptop, but I get the impression it's not something I can boot from. I could be wrong – if it was bootable I expected to be shown the option on startup.

Any advice would be very welcome!

Windows for home | Other | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-07-14T11:54:05+00:00

    Going to try again to enter command prompt after restart. I don't know what this is that I'm looking at (it looks exactly like cmd), but something's not right. Maybe when exiting the installer it takes you somewhere strange.

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  2. DaveM121 936.1K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2021-07-14T11:53:09+00:00

    Hi Taffston,

    Are you still booting from the Installation Disk, or are you actually inside the installed Windows Millennium?

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-07-14T11:46:15+00:00

    I get "Bad command or file name" when typing "diskpart" after "C:>"

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  4. DaveM121 936.1K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2021-07-14T11:41:44+00:00

    Hi Taffston,

    If you are in Command Prompt, try running these commands to wipe the drive:

    Run this command and hit Enter:

    diskpart

    Run this command and hit Enter:

    list disk

    (Make note of the disk number you want to wipe and enter it into the next command - replace X)

    Run this command and hit Enter:

    select disk X

    Run this command and hit Enter:

    clean

    Run this command and hit Enter:

    convert mbr

    Then close Command Prompt

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-07-14T11:39:27+00:00

    Actually I've got to command prompt by exiting the installer, so I'm in there now. Didn't know that would happen.

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