booting from the Startup disk is what gets the error message I posted... and a partial recovery doesn't work either...

basically, DOS works fine and is the only part of the system we can access to do any type of recon on ... but we're working on it...

if nothing else works, we'll just have to try upgrading to WindowsXP from 98... it's the only thing left that will let us keep our files

My XP runs straight from startup, and I upgraded from ME, so no, mine doesnt startup as ME and makes me switch to XP. It starts as XP.

Hey, Lorenzo, anyway I can delete ME off my PC if it was already on here when I bought my PC?

if you upgraded to XP from ME, XP should have overwritten your ME...

invalid VxD dynamic link call from CDUDF"03" + 000001AB to device "048B", service 1.
Your Windows configuration is invalid.

VFAT device initialization failed

A device or resource required by VFAT is not present or is unavailable. VFAT can not continue loading. System halted.

Good ol'Google. Check here for some links:
www.google.com/search?q=Y...8&oe=utf-8

Anyways, I have a question for you guys. Does anyone know whether the WindowsXP upgrade for Windows98 will run straight from start up, or do you have to begin it from the already running Windows98 program?

Either or. If your system BIOS supports booting up via a CD, you can do it at startup.

How many beeps do you hear when your computer tries to start up, if any at all?

That depends heavily upon your BIOS and Motherboard manufacturer. If it's not beeping, it wouldn’t be going to POST, which is a Very Bad (tm) thing. Last time I had that I had a dead CPU.

basically, DOS works fine and is the only part of the system we can access to do any type of recon on ... but we're working on it...

I'm unfamiliar with DOS, but I would try backing up files you absolutely need to some floppies, you may be in for a reformat.

Hey, Lorenzo, anyway I can delete ME off my PC if it was already on here when I bought my PC?

Reformat your hard drive. If you did an upgrade, instead of a clean install, the previous operating system will remain in place incase you wish to uninstall XP... I think.

Damalis, check the link above for some more info, I didn't have time to dig too deep. You may have to reformat though. If you have a second computer, try pulling your first hard drive out and slaving it in the other computer. If you're able to do that (some hard drives refuse to be a slave) you will be able to simply copy and paste your files onto the other computer.

If that works, my best suggestion is to reformat the hard drive and install Windows fresh.

What Kas has put is a good thing try, and yes Jade.

XP won't nescessarily overwrite ME if you have two or more harddrives on your computer.

A clean install is the best thing to do when upgrading, IMO.

That's what I did after my computer got @#%$ over...

You might try finding a good, independent computer guy (the best ones, I find, are the ones who travel by Word of Mouth), who can relocate all your essential files (you might keep My Documents and some of the more important stuff in your main letter Drive). Then it can be formatted and a new operating system installed fresh.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

First of all, I dont have any ME files, as it was already installed on my PC when I bought it. The only Widows files I have to uninstall is XP, not ME.

I want to get rid of ME so I have more space to work with, but I wasnt sure if I could get rid of it since it was on my PC when I bought it. I never installed it, the HP Company did, before I bought an HP Pavilion from them at Wal-Mart.

I have a good computer guy :b Archie does all that, he's got a degree in the stuff so I let him have at it :) he just hasn't had the time to sit down and really get down to getting the comp up and running

Plus I actually made the comp throw out errors he'd never heard of before :b thanks for the links Kas, I've been storing all this stuff up so Archie can get to sorting through it and trying it this Sunday