My windows ME system (running on Campaq Presario 5000)has been getting
alot of System Unstable messages
lately. After a bunch of troubleshooting attempts I've purchased a new
Seagate hard drive 160 GB and am trying to install it as the new boot
drive. I've backed up my data, have installed the seagate with it's
install SW telling it I have ME. That install looks successful. The sw
sees the drive and knows its characteristics. When I try to do
Quickrestore to build a clean OS on the seagate I get Quickrestore
error 50:4 and everything stops there. I found what I thought was a
fix, involving caps lock and numlock keys. When I did that,
Quickrestore asked a few more questions (English?)and instructed me to
insert the restore
diskette, but then gives me 50:4 again. I made the restore diskette
from the current OS on my old drive just yesterday. (I also tried
giving it a restore diskette made using VCOM Fixit utilities. Same
result.) I have disconnected my old drive to avoid trashing it by
mistake. How do I get Quickrestore to successfully install Windows ME
on my new drive?

Ok well what you can do if you are having problems is make sure that
your new hdd is set to master. You may have to go into the bios and
manually insert it in there. Then install a fresh os.

The new harddrive is set to cable select and is on the end of the
ribbon cable. I can set the jumper to master if you think that will
make a difference. I'll give it a shot when I get home. If I need to
insert it in bios - how do I do that?

I set the jumper to master - same problem.

It may be FAT32 problem,

With FAT32 you may only partition the HD up to 32Gig. With NTFS you
can get up much more then that.

Try to partition you HD into 32Gig partitions.

Okay, I gave up and spent the 40 bucks to get HP to tell me the
solution. Here it is for others who may run into this problem.  When
the Quickrestore box flashes hit the caps lock key. When it stops
flashing hit the numlock key and IMMEDIATELY hit control Q. Then when
it asks for your restore floppy just hit escape.  Make sure all
printers, scanners, and phone lines are disconnected. Mystery solved.