I recently purchased an older Dell Inspiron 2100 notebook (older, but cheap) and 
want to completely (but safely) wipe the hard drive and re-install WindowsME.  Is 
there not a prompt that can be entered in Start>Run to completely wipe the hard drive? 
(Something similar to Start>Run>msconfig)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

To format, and reinstall Windows you need a Boot Floppy, if you don't have one, you can download the files to make one from Bootdisk.com. If you don't know how to use a bootdisk, then Google, Fdisk. That will lead you to a bunch of web sites that show how to prepare a Drive to install Window.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Laptops are filled with proprietary hardware for which you'll need to hunt down the drivers. This can be a tedious process, even on the OEM's website. What I would do is contact Dell and see if you can purchase a restore disk for that model. It will have the OS plus all the drivers. They usually can be purchased fairly cheaply. Another option is to search eBay. There are several vendors that have a wide selection of restore disks. This asumes, of course, that your laptop has a Certificate of Authenticity affixed to the bottom, then you can use that product key for the installation of the restore disk if the install process asks for it. If you go this route it will put the laptop in "out of the box" new condition. You can then delete any old trial software, games, and other crap Dell put on the disk and then go to the Windows update site to get about sixty updates. If you can't get a Dell restore disk you'll have to acquire a full (not upgrade) Microsoft ME disk. Used on eBay is again a good place, and make sure it comes with the product key. ME has excellent driver support, so with luck you'll only have to track down a couple of drivers from Dell once you've installed the OS. Good luck! ;-)


On Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 11:46 am, Amanda wrote:
>I recently purchased an older Dell Inspiron 2100 notebook (older, but cheap) and
>want to completely (but safely) wipe the hard drive and re-install WindowsME. Is
>there not a prompt that can be entered in Start>Run to completely wipe the hard drive?
>(Something similar to Start>Run>msconfig)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You must retrieve your Product Key (serial number) before using the Restore CD which the laptop's manufacturer supplied.

You will find it (a 20 digit combination of letters and numbers) at:

START > SETTINGS > CONTROL PANEL > SYSTEM

Alternatively, you can retrieve it from a DOS prompt by creating a batch file as follows-

Set DOSpath=%PATH%
PATH=%DOSpath%;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
FIND "ProductKey" C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT > C:\Product.txt

This will save the details in your C: root directory in a file called PRODUCT.TXT

Ed



On Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 11:46 am, Amanda wrote:
>I recently purchased an older Dell Inspiron 2100 notebook (older, but cheap) and
>want to completely (but safely) wipe the hard drive and re-install WindowsME. Is
>there not a prompt that can be entered in Start>Run to completely wipe the hard drive?
>(Something similar to Start>Run>msconfig)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

That's not the product key, it's the product ID and will be of no value in installing Windows. It's totally different than the product key, a twenty five character alpha numeric string divided into five groups. It can be found manually in the registry or by applets like Aida32 (aumha.org), System Information for Windows (gtopala.com), and others.


On Friday, May 4, 2007 at 9:10 pm, Ed wrote:
>You must retrieve your Product Key (serial number) before using the Restore CD which
>the laptop's manufacturer supplied.
>
>You will find it (a 20 digit combination of letters and numbers) at:
>
> START > SETTINGS > CONTROL PANEL > SYSTEM
>
>Alternatively, you can retrieve it from a DOS prompt by creating a batch file as
>follows-
>
> Set DOSpath=%PATH%
> PATH=%DOSpath%;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
> FIND "ProductKey" C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT > C:\Product.txt
>
>This will save the details in your C: root directory in a file called PRODUCT.TXT
>
>Ed
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Like you said, the number found in System Properties is the Product ID, which is 
not the number needed for installing Windows ME (or 98).

However, that is the correct number for Win95. It's the only OS that applies to.

I've had these instr. saved for years but didn't make a note of who posted them. 
:(

Quote:
The Product Key can be located from the command prompt (All One line)
Note: Space before and after " " only
type:
C:\Windows\Command\Find /I "ProductKey" C:\Windows\System.dat 

The first line of the screen dump will look like this: 

ProductKey XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX where the X's are your actual CD Key. 

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FIND(space)/I(space)"PRODUCTKEY"(space)"C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT". 
Also while 'playing' with the command, I found that by adding - ">C:\ID.TXT" (no 
quotes) to the end of the command, the output can be saved in the file ID.TXTfor 
future reference.

End quote


Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

Pardon me for mentioning that this command prompt solution happens to be exactly what I posted:

> Set DOSpath=%PATH%
> PATH=%DOSpath%;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
> FIND "ProductKey" C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT > C:\Product.txt

Ed





On Monday, May 7, 2007 at 10:53 pm, Carol J wrote:
>
>Like you said, the number found in System Properties is the Product ID, which is
>not the number needed for installing Windows ME (or 98).
>
>However, that is the correct number for Win95. It's the only OS that applies to.
>
>I've had these instr. saved for years but didn't make a note of who posted them.
>:(
>
>Quote:
>The Product Key can be located from the command prompt (All One line)
>Note: Space before and after " " only
>type:
>C:\Windows\Command\Find /I "ProductKey" C:\Windows\System.dat
>
>The first line of the screen dump will look like this:
>
>ProductKey XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX where the X's are your actual CD Key.
>
>C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FIND(space)/I(space)"PRODUCTKEY"(space)"C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT".
>Also while 'playing' with the command, I found that by adding - ">C:\ID.TXT" (no
>quotes) to the end of the command, the output can be saved in the file ID.TXTfor
>future reference.
>
>End quote
>
>

The registry key is -

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

and can be viewed using the program REGEDIT.EXE in the Windows directory. Go to -

  START > RUN

and type REGEDIT then click on "OK".

And, actually, the batch file I posted works too (and it saves the information to a text file):

Set DOSpath=%PATH%
PATH=%DOSpath%;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
FIND "ProductKey" C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT > C:\Product.txt

Ed





On Monday, May 7, 2007 at 10:55 am, Larry wrote:
>That's not the product key, it's the product ID and will be of no value in installing
>Windows. It's totally different than the product key, a twenty five character alpha
>numeric string divided into five groups. It can be found manually in the registry
>or by applets like Aida32 (aumha.org), System Information for Windows (gtopala.com),
>and others.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

That MAY work in ME but I don't have an ME box here at work to check it out. That location in the registry in XP only shows the same Product ID that you'll see in Control Panel>System>General. If someone isn't aware that that's not the Product KEY and formats their drive they will lose their key number and be SOL...unless they have the COA still affixed to their machine and thus still have the key number. Most people I would bet will see that ID number because it's easy to find (that's the first solution in your original response) and think that's what they need. That ID number is a twenty digit numeric only string. It's important for people to know that what they should find is the twenty five character ALPHA NUMERIC string that is the product installation key. That's why I would urge most users to use Aida or SIW because they're fast and foolproof. The other important thing that readers of this thread should note is that these Product Keys can only be uses to install the same "version" of the OS, i.e. retail, OEM, upgrade, volume license, etc. If you have a OEM key as in this case, it won't work to install an upgrade, for example, on a different machine.


On Tuesday, May 8, 2007 at 5:34 am, Ed wrote:
>The registry key is -
>
>  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
>
>and can be viewed using the program REGEDIT.EXE in the Windows directory. Go to -
>
>  START > RUN
>
>and type REGEDIT then click on "OK".
>
>And, actually, the batch file I posted works too (and it saves the information to
>a text file):
>
>Set DOSpath=%PATH%
>PATH=%DOSpath%;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
>FIND "ProductKey" C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT > C:\Product.txt
>
>Ed
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Ed is correct about the location in the registry. The Product ID and Product Key 
are right next to each other. The Product ID is similar to the Model Number.

What he stated that's Incorrect is, *it's 20 digits (when it's 25 digits), and *the 
number shown in System Properties is the number that's needed. That is NOT the number 
needed. 

Btw, there was/is no COA sticker on older machines. The Product Code is is stored 
in the registry on 9x systems. 



Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

Yes, I realize that batch file is the same as the instr. I posted. The thing is, 
your info./instr. are only partially correct. Larry's only partially correct also. 
(see my response to Larry)

Boy.. could this get confusing or what?! LOL




Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

That may be so about the location in the registry in 9x systems. I've installed 9x many times, I just don't have one here at hand to double check it. Aside from that however, I've worked on a lot of ME systems with a COA affixed. Maybe some home builders didn't bother with them but most if not all OEMs put them on.


On Tuesday, May 8, 2007 at 8:30 am, Carol J wrote:
>
>Ed is correct about the location in the registry. The Product ID and Product Key
>are right next to each other. The Product ID is similar to the Model Number.
>
>What he stated that's Incorrect is, *it's 20 digits (when it's 25 digits), and *the
>number shown in System Properties is the number that's needed. That is NOT the number
>needed.
>
>Btw, there was/is no COA sticker on older machines. The Product Code is is stored
>in the registry on 9x systems.
>
>
>

Carol...in the interest of increasing my knowledge, exactly what part of my information was "partially correct"? ;-)


On Tuesday, May 8, 2007 at 8:43 am, Carol J wrote:
>
>Yes, I realize that batch file is the same as the instr. I posted. The thing is,
>your info./instr. are only partially correct. Larry's only partially correct also.
>(see my response to Larry)
>
>Boy.. could this get confusing or what?! LOL
>
>
>
>

I was just going to add the Product Key being located in the registry may apply to 
2k, as well. I believe that changed with XP and Activation. 

Plus,  I also forgot to note that on OEM systems "OEM" is actually part of the code. 
As for the COA stickers, I was referring to the big box mfgrs. but you'd know more 
about that. 


Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

I just read your response again, and you did say it could be located in the registry. 
My mistake, Larry. 

Btw, it would be easier to read your posts, if you used this *Check this box to preserve 
your spacing, ... paragraphs help. :)
 


Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

Oh no it isn't.

On OEM machines, the letters "OEM" form part of the much derided Product ID, not part of the 25 digit Product Key.

Ed





On Tuesday, May 8, 2007 at 8:55 am, Carol J wrote:
> I also forgot to note that on OEM systems "OEM" is actually part of the code.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You're probably right about that. I was thinking Win95 again. My mistake... although, it's a harmless mistake, unlike some of the misinformation you've posted.

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