Now, now, don't laugh too loud. I was given an old 286 with a 40 mb Hard Drive. I would like to get the critter running well enough that my kids can use it for homework (basic word processing) when dad needs his computer to do his own work. I can boot to the C: drive and see the directory (dir/w) without a problem. I can run other programs that are on the hard drive and in other directories. The previous owner had lotus, windows 3.1, a couple of games, and some misc other software installed. However, if I change to the "windows" directory (win 3.1) and then try to view the directory the following errror message pops up. "general failure reading drive C: abort, retry, fail?" This error message pops up every time in the "WINDOWS" directory only. Any ideas? There is nothing I need on the hard drive right now. So wiping the slate clean is a feasible idea if someone can supply step by step instructions. I have the disks for dos 6 and win 3.1. I am just not sure wether they are still good. Do I need to reformat first? If so how do I do it? I have seen warnings about formatting a hard drive on this list in the past few weeks and don't want to kill a potentially useful computer. Any help is sincerely appreciated. Dave Thuillier Chief scripter & Master of the arcane web at Dreamer's Den Game Shoppe - Hillsboro, New Hampshire http://www.dreamersden.com mailto:[log in to unmask] Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to Digest mode - visit our web site: http://nospin.com/pc/pcbuild.html