If you don't already have one, make a Windows Millennium Start-Up bootdiskette ( in safe mode if you can) by going to your Control Panel, Add-Remove programs, Start-Disk. You will need one new and formatted floppy diskette.
If you can't do that for some reason download the Windows Millennium OEM image file from the link below to any computer's hard-drive, put the floppy in the A: drive and double-click the image file.
This will make a bootdiskette for you.
Go to
www.burzurq.com and add delindex.bat to your bootdiskette. Move the write-protect tab across on the bootdiskette to prevent viruses being written to it. (Small plastic slider.)
With the bootdiskette in the A: drive re-boot your computer and allow the program to load, which it will do automatically. Choose Minimum Boot and allow the DOS prompt to load.
At the DOS prompt type: A:\>delindex run, and press Enter.
You will see a read-out of the before and after free-space on your drive. Now type:
A:\>scandisk /all /surface , and press Enter, and allow scandisk to perform a FULL thorough surface scan to look for drive errors. This is ESSENTIAL!
When this is completed type:
A:\>scanreg /restore , and press Enter.
Choose a date/time before things went wrong, if there is still one left. Highlight it and click OK, and Windows should automatically restore a good working registry.
When you can reduce the size of the System Restore file cache and run scandisk from the desktop and then run defrag.
If they won't run you can run them both from safe mode.
If your computer is compatible I would suggest that you purchase XP Home and do a clean install and you will have a MUCH better experience when it comes to using Microsoft's latest Operating System.
I used ME for four years and had a LOT of trouble with it. So far I have not had a single BSOD and have never had to reboot to recover system resources.
XP is a FAR superior operating system.
(I use XP Professional SP2 Gold on NTFS, the New Technology File System.)