I just installed an Hitachi DVD drive in my computer and when I boot the computer it goes into Windows ME and then errs out - cmdinit.exe

MB is NEC with Celeron 433
PC/100 IDE controller with 2 40GB Maxtor HDD
Phillips 48X CDRW
256MB RAM

I dual boot with Linux and the DVD works in Linux. I had this same problem when I added the 2nd HDD

Welcome to SAF, djheadley.

Cmdinit.exe is unknown in Googleland, so it may be malware of some kind. Can you post the exact error message you are getting.

When you're in ME is everything functional?

From: Aumha

A somewhat related, but quite distinctive, process occurs in Windows ME when you open a command prompt (that is, a “DOS window”). Windows ME does not have a provision to shut down to DOS. However, when you open a command prompt window it executes commands contained in the CMDINIT.BAT file in the C:\Windows\Command folder. By default, CMDINIT.BAT launches the DosKey program for each command prompt session.

In 98SE, the wininit.bat file is created when something has to be added to the system which can't be done while windows is running. On startup, the system checks for this file via wininit.exe. When the actions outlined in the .bat file have completed, windows renames the file to winint.bak.

So to correlate, your system may be missing the .bat file (or it's corrupt causing windows to not load) so cmdinit.exe is providing the error message.

Hope this helps.