dos command

Hi,

I am not at home and my pc bit the dust. So I am trying to talk my wife thru the reformat process / reinstallation of the OS (WinMe on a Dell PC).

My PC won't boot up, even in safe mode (scandisk try’s to load and then locks up). Some kind of FAT and or registry error. If I try to boot up in normal mode the Pc gives us a registry error and then shuts itself off. So I figured lets reformat. But from the "A" drive (using the boot disk) it will not allow me to format drive "c". I get a ""insufficient memory to load system files". So I figured I would just path over to the "c" drive and do the format command (format c.

But nothing I do gets me to the "c" drive. Can anyone please explain to me how I can boot my pc up so I can get to a dos mode so I can get to the "c" drive. I have tried a couple dos commands but no luck. Is it possible that the hard drive is so bad that I can no longer get to the "c" drive (it is making really loud and weird noises).

Thanks
Logan

 

A:> C:
C:> A:\Format C:

A:> Format C:

 

Hi,

And thanks but none of those worked. I boot off the start up disk and end up at the "a" drive. I get the error "insufficient memory to load system files" when trying to do the format command from the "a" drive. And nothing I do will path me over to the "c" drive.

I was hoping there was a way to boot up my pc and have it come up on the "c" drive itself. Not sure why I cannot path from "a" to "c" but it just won't do it. Perhaps the hard drive is just too far gone.

Thanks again,
Logan