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So where do you want to go next?

What do you intend to do with that disk next? If you will be installing some other Operating System (whether later version of Windows or something more radical like Linux), you can probably find a way to just start with the new installation and overwrite what's there.

Of if, grin, you're going to destroy the disk with a hammer, you can do that just fine without erasing the ME bits first.

Or if you really want to give away or sell the disk or something like that, and must first erase it, then you need to boot from a floppy that does something more useful than just booting to Windows ME.

In general, I keep around a partition editor tool for such tasks, such as Powerquests "Partition Magic", or Paragon's "Partition Manager". I've just started using "Partition Manager" -- it's downloadable, a bit simpler (like no fancy undo operations not yet applied) and lower cost. I like it. Previously, I had used Partition Magic for years.

But much depends on what you want to do with this disk next.

You may need to go into your computer setup when it firsts boots (screen usually says F2 or Del to enter setup), look for a boot sequence or boot devices or something like that. You can set it to boot in a certain order, in other words to first look at your hard drive or maybe first look at your cdrom or floppy. Most likely it's hard drive first, you'll need to change it to floppy first, save the settings and exit, reboot, and provided the disk is in the drive it should boot to dos. Hope it helps, good luck. I'd also suggest using a program like Norton's Ghost to take a backup image of your system after you reload it. That way, when you want to do this again you only need to apply the image to your system (5 minutes) vs. formatting and reinstalling.

While the computer is starting up, press F-8 to get to the startup menu. From there, select "command prompt only". At this command prompt the drive will be free of open file handles and you will be able to have your way with it. Just be sure you have your original ME disk if you're going to install an upgrade version of a newer Windows OS.

And beware - if your computer came with ME preinstalled and only has what is called a "restore disk", a Windows upgrade may not recognize it as an original product disk. You might just want to do what others have said, just upgrade right over the top of your existing system.

Dave in Eugene