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!

Hi Taffston Add the Games, Themes and anything else you require in that list and click Next...

Please continue to show me any windows in that installation sequence. You should reach a window that shows the partitions on the internal drive When you see that, form the top down, delete all partitions, then when the whole drive is marked as unallocated space, select that and begin the installation.

Sorry for delay! I went through a few steps asking for computer name and language, which I just proceeded through and I've got to here...

Hi Taffston, Was there no window to select where to install Windows yet?

Before the step where I selected 'Custom' install, there was a step asking the below, but I clicked Next. Sorry if this was wrong!

Wipe HDD & Re-Install Windows ME

Anonymous

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!

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44 answers

DaveM121 935.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2021-07-14T10:10:24+00:00

Hi Taffston

Add the Games, Themes and anything else you require in that list and click Next...
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DaveM121 935.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2021-07-14T10:12:18+00:00

Please continue to show me any windows in that installation sequence.

You should reach a window that shows the partitions on the internal drive

When you see that, form the top down, delete all partitions, then when the whole drive is marked as unallocated space, select that and begin the installation.
Was this answer helpful?

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Anonymous

2021-07-14T10:29:04+00:00

Sorry for delay!

I went through a few steps asking for computer name and language, which I just proceeded through and I've got to here...
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DaveM121 935.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2021-07-14T10:31:00+00:00

Hi Taffston,

Was there no window to select where to install Windows yet?
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Anonymous

2021-07-14T10:34:17+00:00

Before the step where I selected 'Custom' install, there was a step asking the below, but I clicked Next. Sorry if this was wrong!
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