Vista Headaches RU

[Ericuhl]

how do you get rid of preinstalled vista on acerlaptop
Having issues with Acer Aspire 5810TZ-4238 Laptop. Laptop, will boot from CD, how do you install raid drivers? This laptop did not come with a floppy drive. The computer keeps wanting to recognize something that is not there!
I have all drivers on an 8GB sandisc USB flasdrive, and on a Seagate external Drive 1.5 Terabyte, neither is recognized at the time to install raid drivers. I am trying to rid myself of this vista headache, when booting up
it says to press any key to continue, then I press F-6, for any devises to install drivers at the end it will not recognize anything. I have all drivers for acer to work in xp. I paid for a Special Custom CD off the internet. It was known the type of computer, new OS to be installed. I am doing something wrong can you please point it out ? Specifically, I really need clear directions, I will follow them to the letter! I have purchased a full version of Windows XP home Editon with the License. Microsoft checked said, "all is well with them good license, good disc." Now, if I could just install it this would be great!
My e-mail is (rickuhl5723@yahoo.com). Thank you for any help.

 

[Ericuhl]

I noticed that I have had plenty of readers, was my first mistake in purchasing na Acer Asire Laptop. I have spent
$140.00 on all of the so called proper materials! I even purchased a USB 2.0 / e Sata Desktop HDD Dock with 2 port
& All in One Card Reader. I took the hardrive out and tried to re-format the drive through my desktop and this would
not happen either. I am really lost in this issue, I could really use the help. Thank you for any assistance.

 

[JDFan]

Since you purchased the full version of XP the easiest method would be to go into the laptop BIOS and ensure that it is set to boot from the CD drive as the primary boot device - then place the XP disc into the drive shut down and reboot the system off of the XP disc -- it should start to boot up and take you to the XP setup.exe -- choose to format the HDD during the install - so it will wipe all of the old files off of the HDD before installing the new XP install -- If that still does not work find out what HDD you have in there and go to that manufacturers website and download their version of HDD tools (normally they offer a free download but some will verify that you have one of their HDDs in the system or will not work (unless you buy a full version of the tools)) -- then use those tools to reformat the HDD using the instructions provided with the tools ( ie. SEAGATE has a program called Seatools -- Maxtor uses MAXBLAST -- etc.

 

[Ericuhl]

choose to format the HDD during the install - so it will wipe all of the old files off of the HDD before installing the new XP install -- If that still does not work find out what HDD you have. I have need of some additional information, the above statement has me at a disadvantage, I am not sure of what you mean on formating the HDD? Will you please be a little more discriptive. I am a heart patient and these medications slow the old mind down. I can follow directions
I would appriciate any help you can offer.

 

[JDFan]

Here is a step by step tutorial -- the only difference for your install is in step 6 it will show the partition that currently has VISTA installed -- select it and answer yes that you want to use that partition (this will then delete the vista partition and create and format it so that you can then install XP instead of vista. ( Note : it will give you a few warning prompts to ensure this is what you want to do and since you want to get rid of VISTA and install XP it is what you are wanting - so confirm it when prompted --- NOTE : BE SURE TO make a backup copy of anything you want to keep before doing this as none of it will be recoverable after you continue since it will be deleted and overwritten !!!)

 

[Ericuhl]

I sure appriciate the help, how do you install the raid drivers when the computer is in the installation process?
I believe I mentioned this in the first writing, it asks do you need to add third party drivers? I get stopped in my tracks each and every time. I do not know how to set up this process. I push F-6 at the beggining and when it gets
to this step in the installation, nothing is recognized, not the 8GB Sandisc flashdrive or the 1.5 Terabyte external drive and each has all of the needed divers ! What do I do first? Thank you again for any assistance here.

 

[JDFan]

Shouldn't need to add any RAID driver for your laptop -- A RAID array would be used if you had several HDDs that were going to be set up to mirror the information over several drives to speed up performance and\or add more security by having multiple copies of each file over the set of HDDs instead of just a single copy on a HDD - SEE HERE for details on RAID ARRAYS

Which for a laptop would normally not be done. as far as it seeing the USB drive and thumbdrive once it installs the OS it should also add drivers so that it will recognize them during the installation of the OS.

 

[Ericuhl]

Thank you again for you quick responce to my questions. The Acer Aspire requires specific drivers, chip, gaphics and
sound. This is the way that I am understanding, Acer, said, that unless this was put on before the installation process
that it would be vertually impossible afterward. I had a custom CD made with all of the drivers that Acer requires and XP. If I do not press the F-6 key the installation process always stops at the blue error screen, saying windows has
shut down due to an error to prevent damage to your computer. It will boot from the CD and load all of the files, but it
never gives me the option to continue. I am very confused on how to get past this point, each and every time I end
up at the same point. Holding the power button to shut down, and then picking the option to re-start windows nomally. Next thing that you see is windows vista home primium. Thank you for helping.

 

[Ericuhl]

I have been saying raid drivers and that is not what I meant. I googled this a
few messages back, I wanted to know how to get my flash drive seen while
installing the new operating system? This paragraph should explain it more clearly.


Installing from flash drives any drivers can be installed from a flash drive as long
as the computer can see the flash drive. Most flash drives are USB-connected, and
so there shouldn't be a big problem.


How do I cause the computer to see the flash drive during Windows installation?
Acer has had some issues with the sound drivers, that is why I am wanting to install
chipset, network and sound all together with the install through the flash drive if
possible. I am not even sure if this is making any sense to you. I have been fighting
this problem for at least two month's. My next college course is due to start on the 22nd
of November so I am pressed to finish soon. Thanks

 

[JDFan]

I have been saying raid drivers and that is not what I meant. I googled this a
few messages back, I wanted to know how to get my flash drive seen while
installing the new operating system? This paragraph should explain it more clearly.


Installing from flash drives any drivers can be installed from a flash drive as long
as the computer can see the flash drive. Most flash drives are USB-connected, and
so there shouldn't be a big problem.


How do I cause the computer to see the flash drive during Windows installation?
Acer has had some issues with the sound drivers, that is why I am wanting to install
chipset, network and sound all together with the install through the flash drive if
possible. I am not even sure if this is making any sense to you. I have been fighting
this problem for at least two month's. My next college course is due to start on the 22nd
of November so I am pressed to finish soon. Thanks

To get the system to see the USB drive you would need to set the BIOS option (on my Gigabyte MOBO it is under the Integrated peripherals page and the option is Legacy USB Storage Detect

 

[Ericuhl]

[Which for a laptop would normally not be done. as far as it seeing the USB drive and thumbdrive once it installs the OS it should also add drivers so that it will recognize them during the installation of the OS.]




as far as it seeing the USB drive , (once it installs the OS) it should also add drivers so that it will recognize them during the installation of the OS.

This is the problem, Vista, will not allow the ( once it installs the OS it shuts everything down with the blue error
screen.) After, it finishes the windows setup, I watch the files being loaded each and every time and it stops after
everything seems to be loaded not with a continue but the error screen. Is the Vista program so large that XP has
no where to go?

 

[JDFan]

So you are trying to have both Vista and XP ?? -- If so then the easiest method is to format the drive - install XP and afterwards install VISTA and set it up as a dual boot installation -- TO add XP onto a VISYA system is a bit more complex and requires some work !! (Due to the problems your seeing)

Read through this article if that is what you are trying to do -- on pages 3 and 4 it explains what you need to do in order to add XP to a VISTA SYSTEM as a dual boot (Since XP is older and does not recognize VISTA.

(I was thinking you wanted to get rid of VISTA completely and just reformat the HDD and install XP instead)

 

[Ericuhl]

I want to remove Vista completely and do a clean install of Windows XP Home Edition. The computer will boot
from the Full Version CD but it will not continue without ending up at the blue error screen. Just simply hitting any
key to continue does not work, it loads the files and then ends up at the error screen each and everytime!

 

[JDFan]

That is probably due to already having VISTA installed and\or the laptop manufacturer adding some security feature -- a couple choices that you could try --

First would be to create a new partition on the HDD using the currently unused portion of the HDD (as shown in the article linked above) and then install XP to that new partition (doing this should avoid the blue screen you are getting (since you are then not trying to overwrite the VISTA install - which VISTA is probably blocking from happening and causing the Blue screen) - After getting that working you could then either set it up as a dual boot system by following the rest of the guide and restoring the VISTA boot loader - or delete the partition containing VISTA after getting XP installed and running

2nd - get a DOS version of HDD tools (like Seatools, MaxBlast, etc. - depending on the HDD make) and do a complete format of the HDD Partition that has vista installed using those tools (you want a bootable DOS version not a Windows version of the tools and boot using the tools so you can format the VISTA partition to get rid of it (which you can not do from inside the OS) - Then install XP using your XP installation disk (IT should no longer blue screen since VISTA will not be on the drive to block it)

 

[Ericuhl]

I really do not want to sound ignorant, but, I do not understand how to, [First would be to create a new partition on the HDD using the currently unused portion of the HDD.] I am learning this as I go along, I have done a clean install
before, but this is a real hair puller when it comes to this acer. I like the sound of forcing Vista out by installing XP also
and then deleating the partition that vista is on. I just do not know how to do these steps in order. Can you define the HDD, the last install that I did was really self explanatory. The computer was not fighting me all of the way and
the operating system had already been on the computer. It was not vista trying to down grade to xp, the OS had
been messed up by a trogen and I had to dump everything and start over. This computer let's you start but not
finish! I sure do thank you for all of your patients and imput.

 

[JDFan]

No problem -- On the Guide I linked in the earlier post ( Here ) on page 2 it has a link to a program called Gparted Live and gives a link to an .iso that you can download and copy to a CD to create a bootable disk with the program on it to be able to adjust the partition size on your HDD (hard Drive) by doing this it creates unused space on the drive to create a new partition to install XP onto while also leaving VISTA installed on the original partition - IT also discusses a couple other options that can be used to do the same thing. After using one of those options to create a new partition with enough space to install XP you can then shut down and boot from the XP installation disk and install XP to that new partition (thi will leave VISTA installed on the original partition and install XP as a second OS instead of deleting Vista and may bypass the error you are running into.

After it installs and is working you can then use that same method to delete the partition with VISTA on it and create more freespace or you can follow the rest of the guide and set it up so that when booting you choose which OS it loads (XP or VISTA)

Another method if you have another computer would be to remove the HDD from the laptop and install it into the other system and then from that system choose to reformat the entire hard drive to make it an empty drive that you could then install in the laptop and install XP on like it was a brand new hard drive.

 

[Ericuhl]

Thank you again for your help, I will be silent for a bit to see if I can do this as you suggested.

 

[Ericuhl]

I am still having issues with this stubborn OS. I have managed to shrink an area and I gave the drive the letter Z to make the seperation, I used the way that vista provided for a duel boot setup, but now that I have a fomated an allocated space I am not sure what to do with it! I have definately created a new drive with space, I am just not sure if it is the right space . I have three areas, 11.72 GB Unallocated, Acer (C 208.29 GB
NTFS Healthy(System,Boot,Page File,Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
and the new space I created New Volume (Z 78.08 GB NTFS Healthy(Primary Partition). I am not sure what to do at this point, how much space
does XP actually need to function properly? I sure could ues some understanding here, thank you for any assistance.
Som additional info I ust noticed on my (C 208.29 Cap. 126.21GB Free Space 61% Free, Fault Tolerance NO New Volume (Z 78.08 GB Cap. 77.43 Free space 99%, Free Fault Tolerance NO.

 

[Ericuhl]

I was able to sreenshot this to show what I am seeing, I wish I understood more. Which one of these areas do you attempt
to install XP on. Can you send an attachment it is a picture of my desktop?