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, It has been so long since I used that ME Installer. If you boot from the Installation disk, then tap the F10 key does that open Command Prompt in the Installation routine?

Hi Dave, The installation finished and the PC rebooted straight into Windows as before. There didn't seem to be any further options/steps that would allow me to further configure things. I booted from the CD again and thought I'd send over some of the earlier steps I didn't originally post in case they're helpful: That first option, which is hard to read says "Start Windows Setup from CD-ROM" Then you see this... Then this... I have always been selecting "Continue Setup..."

Okay thanks, it's now copying files. Will keep you posted.

Hi Taffston, Yes, that is the correct folder, okay, continue with the installation and see if your previous data is wiped.

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!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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44 answers

DaveM121 935.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2021-07-14T11:37:03+00:00

Hi Taffston,

It has been so long since I used that ME Installer.

If you boot from the Installation disk, then tap the F10 key does that open Command Prompt in the Installation routine?
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Anonymous

2021-07-14T11:34:19+00:00

Hi Dave,

The installation finished and the PC rebooted straight into Windows as before. There didn't seem to be any further options/steps that would allow me to further configure things.

I booted from the CD again and thought I'd send over some of the earlier steps I didn't originally post in case they're helpful:

That first option, which is hard to read says "Start Windows Setup from CD-ROM"

Then you see this...

Then this...

I have always been selecting "Continue Setup..."
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DaveM121 935.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2021-07-14T10:43:12+00:00

Okay Taffston, I will be here.
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Anonymous

2021-07-14T10:41:36+00:00

Okay thanks, it's now copying files. Will keep you posted.
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DaveM121 935.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2021-07-14T10:35:50+00:00

Hi Taffston,

Yes, that is the correct folder, okay, continue with the installation and see if your previous data is wiped.
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