re-installing XP! (1 Viewer)

[olley]

Hi decided that after having to wait 10mins for XP to load it was time for a freshen up on the old Acer laptop.

Its not done bad, must be 3-4 years old and has loads of rubbish installed and un-installed on it. Had a hunt around on the Acer help files, and found theirs a programme called Disk-2-Disk that you run on boot up and it restores it to original spec; which is XP sp1, off loaded everything I wanted to keep, including all my email settings. Why haven't M/S made that simple?? export addresses, dig in the registry for rules, copy the messages from somewhere else, export accounts, what a palaver. :Sad:

Ran the Acer D2D programme and it worked like a charm, booted it up, big smirk until I realised, no wi-fi :Angry: Only taken me 3 hours to sort that.

Still its all ok now email is all re-installed, updates; SP3, IE8 plus about 40 others downloaded and installed oh: and it now boots in a much more respectable 1 mins or so. So one happy Bunny.

Olley

 

[Jim]

Hi Ian, I have two machines that need a new install, I keep putting it off as I know what a headache it can be. But as you say its worth doing. maybe next week

 

[Bulletguy]

Must admit i hate being faced with this job.......usually through having to endure an entire reformat.

Problem is, the bigger the hard drive, the more sites or programmes etc you will stick on it (why else buy a big hd if you aren't going to use it?) many of which will have settings, passwords, etc etc.

I now try and keep an updated written copy of passwords, email addresses and settings to every site/programme i install. Keeping copy on disc is all well and good but you invariably cannot find the right disc when you most need it!

There is no simple quick solution as re-installing takes time but i generally begin by installing av first.....then everything else on top of that including updates and service packs etc.

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[olley]

Hi BG yes I was expecting to have to reload XP after a format, so was pleasantly surprised to find Acer's D2D which only rewrites the first partion, unfortunately I now find out its in a hidden 11gig partion, its only a 40gig drive and 25% is locked away.

So if I can find some free disk image software, I can reclaim that space.

Olley

 

[Tinyk]

Hi BG yes I was expecting to have to reload XP after a format, so was pleasantly surprised to find Acer's D2D which only rewrites the first partion, unfortunately I now find out its in a hidden 11gig partion, its only a 40gig drive and 25% is locked away.

So if I can find some free disk image software, I can reclaim that space.

Olley

There is no good way of arranging drives when the operating system is installed its much better to do it when its blank.

If you did it again you would obviously have to have an XP disc at hand as once you delete the partion you will loose the setup files, just boot from the xp disc and it will give you the option of deleting the partion and formatting to one large drive, then install again.

You might want to make sure you have a copy of the drivers to hand though, i did this on daughters laptop and i've never managed to get the damn wifi working again since. The problem is manufacturers use loads of wifi cards and typically when you go to their site to download the drivers they will have 3-4 diffrent drivers for diffrent cards and the damn things have a mind of their own, mind you after 3 hours trying to sort yours you already know that LOL

Good luck but as i say only used disc utils once to move around partitions and i wished i hadnt cause i had nothing but errors afterwards till i formatted again.

Cya

Kevin

 

[olley]

Hi Kevin if I copied a disc image I could reformat the drive and copy the image back with all the XP updates. This would get rid of the hidden partion and regain that 11gig of space.

I could then also change from FAT32 to NTFS which you can't do at the mo because Acers D2D doesn't work in NTFS

Olley

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[Tinyk]

Yes that would work but i would think you would need a dos based program to lift a clean image of your xp drive, if you tried taking it whilst xp is running i would bet that it would miss some important files because they were being used.

 

[jhorsf]

Hi Kevin if I copied a disc image I could reformat the drive and copy the image back with all the XP updates. This would get rid of the hidden partion and regain that 11gig of space.

I could then also change from FAT32 to NTFS which you can't do at the mo because Acers D2D doesn't work in NTFS

Olley

i have an acer laptop about the same age it has a prog called acer e manager on it this allows you to make a cd or dvd backup of the original software, if you then run this it reformats and removes the hiden partition its risky as if the backup fails your in a mess but it is probably there to help if you have to change your hardrive

 

[olley]

i have an acer laptop about the same age it has a prog called acer e manager on it this allows you to make a cd or dvd backup of the original software, if you then run this it reformats and removes the hiden partition its risky as if the backup fails your in a mess but it is probably there to help if you have to change your hardrive

Hi jhorsf checked mine lastnight, its got "emanager" but that doesn't have the function you mention. However I realised lastnight as I reinstalled my Maxtor 160gig usb mini drive (Its password protected and you have to use their software program to access it) that it comes with a disc image program that does a byte to byte copy.

My 40gig internal drive has two 20gig partions so I copied the first one, so I can play now. Unless I am seeing things it appears the hidden partition has disappeared as the disc now reports 20gig per partition? And Treesize shows about 6gig in a restore folder, with a read only attribute. So if I can change that and delete it, then disable D2D in the BIOS I can gain a bit of room.

One other advantage of the XP reinstall is that the wi-fi now works after "suspend" rather than turning off the computer, previously if it put itself to sleep the wi-fi wouldn't reconnect without a re-boot.

Olley

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[jhorsf]

Glad you sorted it out im due a new laptop mine is 3 years old and the case around the hinges is cracked and the mains input plug is iffy thats my excuse anyway, i dont know what to buy that is well made and you can buy extra warranty for accidental damage like the acer but it will not be an acer, anyone any ideas?

 

[olley]

Hi jhorsf I think PCWorld offer this on all their products, but from memory its expensive.

Olley

 

[duetto owner]

jhorsf

make sure the lappy has built in intel wi fi, if using Vista you will need 2g of RAM memory [some crap ones put in just 1g of RAM] XP is OK on 1g of RAM. I would wait till the autumn when the new microsoft system "WINDOWS 7" comes out.

We only have a sony laptop its very reliable and well impressed. But the sore points very poor support if you need help & a little pricey, luckly I am OK with computers.

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