View Single Post
  #1  
Old March 8th 09, 01:52 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.setup
CookyMonzta
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 2
Default WinME goes into perpetual loop upon attempt to install

I have a 1.8GHz Pentium Dual-Core machine with 2GB RAM and two hard drives
(each 320GB). The partitions (created with Acronis Disk Director 10) are
configured as follows:

Drive 0
C: 240GB NTFS, Vista installed
J: 80GB FAT32, empty but reserved for WinME (this partition was set to
active before attempting to install WinME)

Drive 1
D: 160GB NTFS, empty but reserved for XP
K: 40GB FAT32, empty but reserved for Linux
(120GB, Acronis Secure Zone)

My DVD drive is labeled E and I have a floppy drive.

Since neither my machine nor Acronis OS Selector could detect my Windows ME
(full version) CD upon restart, I created a WinME boot disk (thanks to
www.bootdisk.com) that would access both my partition intended for WinME and
my DVD drive. The partition was designated as C, and the DVD drive R.
After placing my WinME CD in the DVD drive and typing SETUP, the operation
seemed to run normally, asking me to place a blank floppy in the floppy drive
to create a boot disk, then finishing the installation process in under 6
minutes.
After automatically restarting, I got the WinME logo screen for a good 2
seconds, before the screen went blank and was replaced by the Windows
Millennium Startup Menu, with the following 4 choices:

1. Normal
2. Logged
3. Safe mode
4. Step-by-step confirmation

In addition, I got the following message:

Warning: Windows did not finish loading on the previous attempt. Choose Safe
mode, to start Windows with a minimal set of drivers.

I chose 'safe mode' expecting to go into safe mode, but instead my machine
rebooted and brought up the same Windows Millennium Startup Menu screen. I
tried 'Normal', and this screen came up yet again. I tried all 4 choices,
and each time my machine booted back to the startup menu screen, with the
same message telling me that Windows didn't finish loading. I repeated the
installation process, to see if I missed anything (I don't think I did), and
still my machine repeatedly reboots to the startup menu screen.
I have to admit I don't have much of a clue what to do with a boot disk,
but I tried using both of them (the one with the WinME files I got from
bootdisk.com, the other created by the WinME installation process) to restore
the command prompt screen. I checked the contents of my WinME partition, and
it looked normal, with nothing out of the ordinary that I would notice.
So, I typed WIN, and after a 3-second pause, I got these messages:

Registry file was not found. Registry services may be inoperative for this
session.
XMS cache problem. Registry services may be inoperative this session.

They came up in a split-second before the screen went blank and my machine
rebooted.

When I boot back into my OS Selector screen, the WinME logo shows up as one
of my boot choices, but when I click the icon my machine immediately goes to
the Windows Millennium Startup Menu screen.

I had a 2.8GHz Celeron machine (with WinXP) before this one, and I had no
trouble booting into WinME in my attempt to create a multiboot system. So,
what have I left undone that is keeping WinME from activating on my new
machine?