Windows ME boot problem

bjv53 · #1 26-10-08, 09:17

I have dug out an old laptop with a view to using it wirelessly about the house to run firefox and not much else. It runs on windows ME. In the process of deleting unwanted files and programs the laptop crashed and now won't boot (I think a defrag tool that I had forgotten about automatically kicked in part way through the clean up). I get a SONY screen (it's an old Sony Vaio) and then a Hardware Profile/Configuration Recovery Menu from which I can choose profile 1 or 2 etc. Whatever my choice I get a little bit of action and then the flash of a blue screen with a message I can't quite read and then a return to the Hardware Profile screen. My guess is that I need to run my recovery disk (s) and start from scratch but I can't find the disk(!). Is there anything I can do? I have contacted Sony but am told the wait is 6 weeks for a response.
Maybe I just need to buy a new laptop as even with a memory upgrade I'll be surfing with just 256MB but I hate to throw things away...

putasolutions · #2 26-10-08, 10:09

256Mb for surfing is sufficient. No need to throw it away just yet

Has the laptop got either a cd drive or a floppy disk drive?

bjv53 · #3 26-10-08, 14:59

it has a CD drive and i also have an external floppy drive (back to the old school) that came with it

putasolutions · #4 26-10-08, 15:17

That's a good start. Go to This page and download Boot CD – Win ME boot CD with internal CD-ROM support

Burn the ISO to cd, and then set the lap top BIOS to boot from Cd

From there, try going into safe mode by pressing the F8 key, and trying a system restore

bjv53 · #5 26-10-08, 17:41

will give it a go. many thanks

bjv53 · #6 27-10-08, 19:48

Gave the above a try with many thanks but no joy. The laptop makes all the right noises as if trying to boot from disk but then eventually tries to boot form the hard drive. Any other ideas welcome with thanks.