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Buy a new drive, they are cheap, use the original C drive as the second drive to save your files, do a clean install on the new drive. If you already have two drives take out the C drive and install a new drive in it’s place ... move files back and forth until you have them all recovered.

I have been through this scenario myself. If you are using a WinXP upgrade disk to upgrade ME to XP, that can be problematic.

The italics above present the best option (in my estimation) and is my standard operating procedure when upgrading anyone's machine to XP. Install XP to a new drive ( a biggun') and use the old drive as a slave unit...moving documents and data at your leisure then using your old Program Files directory as a guide to what needs to be installed on the new drive.

Heck, you can even create a new folder on your new drive called "Old C:drive" and copy all the old drive's contents there then toss the old drive and get a new big one as a slave drive for snapshots for backups using Norton Ghost (the ONLY Symantec product worth using).

Unfortunately, it would entail purchasing a new copy of XP since the Upgrade disk will not install clean without the presence of a pre-existing Microsoft OS.
But, there is hope. If you can get your hands on a copy of Windows 98, install THAT first on the new drive, then upgrade to XP with your Upgrade disk. That should work....just use your ME disk and do a clean install of that first, etc, etc.

Bon Chance mes ami!

Unfortunately, it would entail purchasing a new copy of XP since the Upgrade disk will not install clean without the presence of a pre-existing Microsoft OS.

Actually you can install an upgrade to a clean drive. You just need to have the original CD for the old OS version available. At some point during setup XP will ask you to insert the disk for the upgrade qualifying product before continuing setup.