J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message
,

The default disc system for XP is NTFS (XP will run fine on FAT32, but
that isn't the default). DOS - even assuming you could find a way of
booting into it (remember you haven't got a floppy drive, usually -
certainly not on
any netbook I've seen) - can't access NTFS: it would
say it couldn't find any hard drive.

In that I have had no problems with file read errors, and that I have
poked around in the dos "window", made a dos directory with cd.. ; md
DOS ; dir /p and dos edit works fine in fact I edited a .zulupad ini
file with it; I have just made the assumption that these Acer's must
be fat32 formated. How would I find out if that assumption is wrong?

The F8 on bootup gives the option to boot in safe mode command prompt
but it turns out disabled. I just ran Aida32 on it but am not much
wiser, there is a REM in autoexec.nt to the effect that that file
initializes the ms-dos evironment. Similar in sys.nt.
I was just looking at the bootloader initialisation file boot.ini
Could this be edited to accomplish a clean dos boot when desired? Yes,
of course the first sector would have to be fatx wouldn't it. hmm

The boot entry is:

boot.ini = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft
Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

would it be prudent to edit this?

. whew, a lot of stuff to think of in just a couple of days,
considering that when I got the things it was to use them more or less
like a glorified cellphone.

Yes, you _can_ use the restore
console from the XP CD (assuming you have one), and _possibly_ boot into
it even if you don't have one,

I accessed cmos on bootup once but don't remember if it boots from USB
or not,

you need something that can read NTFS discs, and I used BartPE (on the
recommendation of the chap - Lars, I think - who wrote ERUNT, when I
asked him that very question [how do I get at my backups]). System
restore requires you to at least be able to get some way into Windows to
use it; regrestore I haven't heard of.

I got it wrong I meant the dos command: scanreg /restore, sorry.

BartPE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BartPE sounds like just what
the doctor ordered IF these Acer Aspire's boot from USB because as you
say, there's no cd/dvd/floppy bays, nor even a true serial port for
DCC. First thing in the morning when I have some energy I will look at
the bios again and find out

So yes! I must find out how to access the data on the machine in the
event that the current ms OS self destructs as has happened, my first
thought being of course to always have it backed somewhere else on the
lan, or flashdrive,or web for that matter. Also you know if my
writings can't be saved on the machine in dos readable form or
something equally sensible I'll have to wipe xp and put knopix or
ubuntu on them. Linux runs skype perfectly, and recoverability of data
is a sure thing.

bye for now

douglas

If only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.