A tip for reinstalling hardware devices Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 4:10 am Windows Me Annoyances Discussion Forum Posted by Ed (741 messages posted) Sometimes the Windows directory will contain hardware driver files that the computer vitally needs: for running the printer, modem, USB ports, scanner, PCI Cards (if any), etc, etc. It is a good idea (if the hard disk has enough free space) to boot into DOS and rename the Windows folders as C:\WinOld and C:\Win1Old before doing the reinstall. Then reinstall Windows. This should create a new directory C:\Windows and install Windows into that. The other directories will normaly survive, because the WinME installation CDs from Microsoft usually only overwrite the C:\Windows directory (but if you use an OEM "restore" CD, it will wipe the entire hard disk). Then shutdown normally, and attach the hardware devices. Then restart the computer: it will tell you if any hardware needs driver files. In that event, you can point the Windows plug-and-play wizard to the old folders C:\WinOld and C:\Win1Old in turn. When you've had the machine up and running a couple of days without any problems, and have tried out the hardware and made sure it works properly, you can then delete those two old directories. Written in response to: re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (C K: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 1:01 pm) Responses to this message: re: A tip for reinstalling hardware devices (Ed: Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 4:21 am) All messages in this thread [show all] Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (Ed Crosby: Wed, Jul 21, 2010, 1:56 am) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (C K: Wed, Jul 21, 2010, 1:01 pm) A tip for reinstalling hardware devices (Ed: Sat, Jul 31, 2010, 4:10 am) re: A tip for reinstalling hardware devices (Ed: Sat, Jul 31, 2010, 4:21 am) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (Ed Crosby: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 12:43 am) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (Steve: Wed, Jul 21, 2010, 6:40 pm) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (Ed Crosby: Wed, Aug 18, 2010, 1:44 am) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (Ed Crosby: Wed, Aug 18, 2010, 1:29 am) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (C K: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 10:52 am) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (Ed Crosby: Thu, Aug 26, 2010, 1:59 am) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (C K: Tue, Aug 31, 2010, 9:50 am) re: Purpose of WINDOWS1 directory? (Ed Crosby: Tue, Sep 7, 2010, 4:25 am) Reply or follow-up to this message Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows Me Discussion Forum