make and gcc are different programs, the version of gcc you have is
irrelevant; that is not what is running or giving the error. Make may be
used to run gcc, but in this case make is failing to even start up.
What would be more interesting is the version of make you are running:
make --version
If that does not work, then you are probably not running GNU make. I
reckon that is a safe bet since GNU make does not use startup.mk as far
as I can tell (reading the documentation). MKS make does however. If
that is what is running then
make -V
will show the version.
Search your disk for files called make.exe. If you want to run a
specific one, specify its path completely, or place it ahead of any
other in the PATH environment variable, or change its name. or just
remove the redundant ones. This one does not even run so I would say
that it is redundant!
Unfortunately 'make' is a common name for a number of different build
management utilities. Only Microsoft that the good sense (yes I said
that) to rename their implementation 'nmake'!
Clifford