Cheap Lap tops and factory installed vista

Barrykgerdes · #1 15-09-2008, 01:04 PM

Hi

As most have seen there are a number of cheap laptops still available at under $500. These computers have all got Windows Vista pre-installed on a 80GB or 120GB HDD.

Vista is not a suitable operating system for these computers mainly because it is so slow to load and work but most believe they are stuck with it.

Here is what I have done to my Acer 4315:
After playing with Vista for 4 months I decided it was not suitable for my lap top but as it was my only copy of Vista I did not want to loose it completely.

With Acronis True image, the only imager I could get to work on Vista, I made a complete image of drive C: and copied it to 4 DVD's 15GB in all.

I then bought a new 160 GB SATA hard drive and put it into the lap top in place of the original. As I wanted a multiboot system I needed to partition the disk into 5 partitions. I tried to do this with FDISK on a Windows 98-2e CD, (I needed something that booted off the DVD drive). I gave up as was going to take hours to do it this way so I just made a 2 GB partition and Tried to install Windows 98-2e.

This would not work. The program crashed before it got anywhere. It could not be installed. I then tried to install a copy of XP. The same problem I could not even get past the first screen without crashing. I had a think about this and had a look at the BIOS setup and changed the HDD drive to IDE mode. This did the trick.

I then installed Windows 98 onto the first partition and then a copy of Partition Magic 8.0. This basic system allowed me to partition the drive easily into the five partitions I require formatting them as FAT32 except the one (F as NTFS as I intended to use for Vista.

Next I installed A copy of Windows XP as a dual boot on drive E Yes I still have a clean unused copy with SP2). This worked OK so I down loaded the XP drivers from Acer on another computer and copied them to a CD along with a few usefull utilities. (At this stage I could not get onto the internet from the lap top because there was no driver for the wireless). I installed all the necessary drivers and a copy of Acronis true image.

After loading all my favourite programs into XP I found that XP went like a dream.

The next part was the hard part. Getting Vista onto the drive F . I managed to borrow a Vista disk from my son and installed it as a dual boot. This worked without any problems except I would not be able to activate it however it gave me the dual boot capability. The multi boot manager is now on the boot sector so I could not configure it to my liking. However it worked correctly.

At this stage I took my chances booting into Widows XP and with Acronis True image I installed my Vista image onto drive F (which appears as drive C when Vista is running). Well it worked perfectly. I now have my multiboot system working. How long did the task take - 3 days working 12 hrs a day!

Barry

leon · #2 15-09-2008, 01:49 PM

Well Barry I take my hat off to you, you obviously have a vast knowledge of computers and how it all works.

If I was to do this, and it meant a free pass out of jail, I would be there for life,

nice going.

Leon

Barrykgerdes · #3 15-09-2008, 01:58 PM

No
Not a great knowledge just a determination not to be beaten! Thats why it took so long.

Barry

acropolite (Phil) · #4 16-09-2008, 09:36 PM

I wouldn't have bothered reinstalling vista..... We had a similar problem with Laptops at work, 2 came with Vista Business, which has a free upgrade (they call it a downgrade but we know better.

) to XP. We tried to buy a third laptop but could only get one with Vista home premium. XP simply refused to load but the XP upgrade disks from the other laptops installed just fine.

netwolf · #5 17-09-2008, 12:59 AM

Barry, have you looked at System Commander, long ago i used this for a 98/nt4/dos multiboot system.

Regards
Fahim

Tandum (Robin) · #6 17-09-2008, 01:09 AM

Barry, you're initial install of Vista on the laptop would have had a menu option of burning off the install/repair disks. If that option is still there when you boot vista, do it .... It may require a serial number to re-install it, which should be on a label under the laptop. Do not lose the re-install disks or the serial number or you will never re-sell the 5hit box.

Barrykgerdes · #7 17-09-2008, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tandum

Barry, you're initial install of Vista on the laptop would have had a menu option of burning off the install/repair disks. If that option is still there when you boot vista, do it .... It may require a serial number to re-install it, which should be on a label under the laptop. Do not lose the re-install disks or the serial number or you will never re-sell the 5hit box.

Hi
Yes that would have been great however the facility is not available on this installation even though the manual said to do this.

I was able to make an image with Acronis though and that was OK. The serial number on the bottom of the case was not the same as the one I recovered from the program with Keyfinder but reinstalling an image does not need the key. In any case I still have the fully operational old HDD.

I never need to resell my old computers, I get through about 6 a year. I either give them away or throw them in the garbage.

I learnt a bit more about the new method of multibooting with vista, it's in the "help". The details are in the "system, advanced". The computer is running nicely now with the main boot as XP, a secondary boot as vista and Windows 98 as a tool for running DOS, a very handy facility. Regretably Windows 98 does not run very well because I cannot get suitable drivers for it but this is not important as I only need the DOS 7.0 version to run ACAD 11 so I can recover and edit my old drawings which can be later manipulated in ACAD lite for windows.

Barry