WINDOWS ME STARTUP ERROR

[HANNAN DALVI]

I HAVE WINDOWS ME. WHEN I START MY COMPUTER, IT GIVES ME
AN ERROR MESSAGE THAT SAYS WINDOWS CANNOT UPGRADE FROM %1
TO %2. I WENT ON THE THE MICROSOFT WEBSITE AND TRIED THE
FIX THEY POSTED, WHICH WAS TO USE THE WINDOWS ME BOOT DISK
AND MAKE THE CHANGE SHELL=PROGMAN.EXE. THIS SHOULD HAVE
FIXED THE PROBLEM BUT IT HASNT. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS?

[Mike M]

The KB article that you read (How to launch System Restore from a command
prompt) has nothing to do with the problem you are seeing and is unlikely to
help as your problem is most likely to be a damaged system restore archive.

First boot to DOS using a floppy and check whether you have a WININIT.INI
file in your C:\WINDOWS folder. If present rename it to something like
wininit.old and try booting again. It is also probable that you will have to
repeat the last software install or update that you made. See MS KB283069 -
"Error Message: (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=283069).

If you can't find a wininit.ini file then I suspect your problem is due to the
C:\_RESTORE\TEMP folder having around 64K files in it which is the limit
(2**16) for the number of files that can be located in a folder using the
FAT32 filing system. This can also lead to the "Cannot upgrade file %1 from
%2.." message when booting. I suggest you try deleting the _RESTORE folder
with the loss of any system restore checkpoints you might have (not that I
think they are now usable) and see if that solves the problem. [BTW do you
have any Symantec applications installed? I ask because LiveUpdate is
implicated in this problem.] Delete the folder as follows:
a) Boot to DOS using a floppy. Do NOT choose "Minimal Boot" from the menu
when booting from a floppy but rather choose "Start computer with (or without)
CD-ROM support" otherwise the ATTRIB command will not be available.
b) At the DOS A:\> prompt, type:

A:\> ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\_RESTORE
A:\> REN C:\_RESTORE OLDREST

c) Remove the floppy
d) Reboot your PC

Another problem though is that the update you were doing was probably never
completed so your system may still be unusable. If however it does manage to
boot then
e) Delete the folder C:\OLDREST
f) Check that an automatic system restore checkpoint was created.
g) Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder:
System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore slider
to your preferred setting. A figure of 200MB is normally more than adequate
for day to day use allowing perhaps a week of checkpoints to be available
although increasing this to perhaps 400MB for a few days during periods of
large installs such Microsoft Office is advisable.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



HANNAN DALVI > wrote:

> I HAVE WINDOWS ME. WHEN I START MY COMPUTER, IT GIVES ME
> AN ERROR MESSAGE THAT SAYS WINDOWS CANNOT UPGRADE FROM %1
> TO %2. I WENT ON THE THE MICROSOFT WEBSITE AND TRIED THE
> FIX THEY POSTED, WHICH WAS TO USE THE WINDOWS ME BOOT DISK
> AND MAKE THE CHANGE SHELL=PROGMAN.EXE. THIS SHOULD HAVE
> FIXED THE PROBLEM BUT IT HASNT. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS?