swapping pre-installed Vista for XP

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Many thanks for the helpful advice in the replies. One small point about
Ken Blakes comments on the D drive. Acer have said "Doing a restore back
to factory default will erase everything completely i.e. even
viruses/trojans on your C:\ drive. Restore back to its original state.
The D:\ drive will be left untouched as it contains your Recovery image
file which is hidden away." which led me to suppose that data files should
be kept on D as otherwise it would be erased.

The recovery partition is set at a size that will hold all data necessary
for complete recovery without ever generating a 'low disk space' error. As
you have already been advised, backups (saves) should be on media which can
be physically removed from the computer configuration.

An external drive is good for the purpose, as are DVD's. Flash drives are
not so good as they can just 'pop' without any warning..

--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Many thanks for the helpful advice in the replies. One small point about
Ken Blakes comments on the D drive. Acer have said "Doing a restore back
to factory default will erase everything completely i.e. even
viruses/trojans on your C:\ drive. Restore back to its original state.
The D:\ drive will be left untouched as it contains your Recovery image
file which is hidden away." which led me to suppose that data files should
be kept on D as otherwise it would be erased.

The recovery partition is set at a size that will hold all data necessary
for complete recovery without ever generating a 'low disk space' error. As
you have already been advised, backups (saves) should be on media which can
be physically removed from the computer configuration.

An external drive is good for the purpose, as are DVD's. Flash drives are
not so good as they can just 'pop' without any warning..

--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

Mike Hall - MVP;1595565 Wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message
...-
Many thanks for the helpful advice in the replies. One small point
about
Ken Blakes comments on the D drive. Acer have said "Doing a restore
back
to factory default will erase everything completely i.e. even
viruses/trojans on your C:\ drive. Restore back to its original
state.
The D:\ drive will be left untouched as it contains your Recovery
image
file which is hidden away." which led me to suppose that data files
should
be kept on D as otherwise it would be erased.-

The recovery partition is set at a size that will hold all data
necessary
for complete recovery without ever generating a 'low disk space' error.
As
you have already been advised, backups (saves) should be on media which
can
be physically removed from the computer configuration.

An external drive is good for the purpose, as are DVD's. Flash drives
are
not so good as they can just 'pop' without any warning..

--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

I have an Acer Aspire L3600 mini PC, a great little second PC but for
the
fact that it came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed in a "hidden"
part
of 'D'.


Almost certainly, Vista is preinstalled on C, not D. What's on D is
not Vista pre-installed but what you need to reinstall it--to reset
the computer to the condition it was in when it came from the factory.
And it's not "part" of D, it's all of it; D should be reserved for
that use, and nothing else should ever be written there, since doing
so can screw up the restoration info that's there.




--
pratishtha

Mike Hall - MVP;1595565 Wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message
...-
Many thanks for the helpful advice in the replies. One small point
about
Ken Blakes comments on the D drive. Acer have said "Doing a restore
back
to factory default will erase everything completely i.e. even
viruses/trojans on your C:\ drive. Restore back to its original
state.
The D:\ drive will be left untouched as it contains your Recovery
image
file which is hidden away." which led me to suppose that data files
should
be kept on D as otherwise it would be erased.-

The recovery partition is set at a size that will hold all data
necessary
for complete recovery without ever generating a 'low disk space' error.
As
you have already been advised, backups (saves) should be on media which
can
be physically removed from the computer configuration.

An external drive is good for the purpose, as are DVD's. Flash drives
are
not so good as they can just 'pop' without any warning..

--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

I have an Acer Aspire L3600 mini PC, a great little second PC but for
the
fact that it came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed in a "hidden"
part
of 'D'.


Almost certainly, Vista is preinstalled on C, not D. What's on D is
not Vista pre-installed but what you need to reinstall it--to reset
the computer to the condition it was in when it came from the factory.
And it's not "part" of D, it's all of it; D should be reserved for
that use, and nothing else should ever be written there, since doing
so can screw up the restoration info that's there.




--
pratishtha

1. if not too late, before you do anything, create the restore DVD disk
using Acer's utility
before you attempt anything. this way you will have the option to go back to
vista anytime.

2. if you insists on going back to xp, you will either
a- slipstream the xp install disk with the drivers required like people
suggested
- and install the usual way
or
b- create the floppy for sata driver
- start install with xp
- add the other drivers from floppy or external drive when xp is
installation is done
- note you don't need audio, usb nor lan to get xp installed
most of the time the basic video drive will get you by until xp
install is done
- do install security software before connecting to internet to apply
updates

If you all you want is the flexibity of have D; data drive, you can after
creating the restore disk, boot form the restore disk, and do custom vista
install.

and you can have then be able to choose say 50 to 60 GB for C: the OS, the
rest for your data drive D:

you can also make vista to behave like winxp if you prefer. However with
powerful pc CPU and gpu ( experience rating of 4.5 is adequate), I found
vista is easier for me to get any applications running or selected from a
number running apps.

and if you do like to run very large number of apps or do you some fancy
photo editing, 64 bit vista with 4 or more GB of ram works far better than
xp.

Also studies have show vista has lower infection rate by malware then xp


"Bill" wrote in message
...
I have an Acer Aspire L3600 mini PC, a great little second PC but for the
fact that it came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed in a "hidden" part
of 'D'. It has a built in facility where 'C' can be wiped completely
clean
and restored to its factory default condition, data etc on 'D' hopefully
being untouched.

I don't like Vista much and would prefer to install my full retail version
of Win XP on this PC. I don't mind giving up Vista completely.

Acer's support is OK as far as it goes but they make it clear that they do
NOT recommend this course of action ,saying that they do not support
downgrading the unit with anything other than what came pre-installed on
the
machine. They warn of the risk of "product failure".

If the 'downgrade ' to Win XP can technically be done I'm willing to take
the risk but need a bit more help on the mechanics of doing it. I have
installed OSs on other PCs from scratch but this process, i.e. totally
removing a pre-installed OS which is in some hidden and protected part of
the hard drive, appears to be rather more involved and I'm way out of my
comfort zone! I need help and advice.

Acer say that to run XP I will need to create a bootable disk with SATA
drivers otherwise Windows will not detect the hard drive when the CD is
run.
I think I've tracked these down on their download site, at least in the
driver download section these were the only ones to show up.

What's come up are a total of 6 for Chipset, Audio, Lan, Modem, VGA and
Wireless Lan. Each one is in a zipped folder.

Out of interest I compared these to the drivers listed for the
pre-installed
version of Vista. The chipset version number is identical to the XP
version
but the others have different version numbers and there is a additional TV
driver for Vista Home Premium (the L3600 is media centre enabled).

So,

1. Are these 6 drivers in fact the SATA drivers Acer are referring to?

2. How do I create the bootable disk they refer to. When I've
installed
an OS in the past I've used a floppy which was inserted early during the
install process when prompted to do so. I don't recall there
being
6 separate drivers though.
I have an external floppy disk drive and wonder whether this could
be
used in this case? If not can anyone tell me how to do it and what the
procedure is when installing XP.

3. Is the removal of the pre-installed material simply a question of
formatting the entire hard drive? I thought of abandoning the idea of
having two partitions, 'C' and 'D' and, on this PC, using external drives
for all data storage.

4. Is there anything else of which I should be aware?

Regards,

Bill

1. if not too late, before you do anything, create the restore DVD disk
using Acer's utility
before you attempt anything. this way you will have the option to go back to
vista anytime.

2. if you insists on going back to xp, you will either
a- slipstream the xp install disk with the drivers required like people
suggested
- and install the usual way
or
b- create the floppy for sata driver
- start install with xp
- add the other drivers from floppy or external drive when xp is
installation is done
- note you don't need audio, usb nor lan to get xp installed
most of the time the basic video drive will get you by until xp
install is done
- do install security software before connecting to internet to apply
updates

If you all you want is the flexibity of have D; data drive, you can after
creating the restore disk, boot form the restore disk, and do custom vista
install.

and you can have then be able to choose say 50 to 60 GB for C: the OS, the
rest for your data drive D:

you can also make vista to behave like winxp if you prefer. However with
powerful pc CPU and gpu ( experience rating of 4.5 is adequate), I found
vista is easier for me to get any applications running or selected from a
number running apps.

and if you do like to run very large number of apps or do you some fancy
photo editing, 64 bit vista with 4 or more GB of ram works far better than
xp.

Also studies have show vista has lower infection rate by malware then xp


"Bill" wrote in message
...
I have an Acer Aspire L3600 mini PC, a great little second PC but for the
fact that it came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed in a "hidden" part
of 'D'. It has a built in facility where 'C' can be wiped completely
clean
and restored to its factory default condition, data etc on 'D' hopefully
being untouched.

I don't like Vista much and would prefer to install my full retail version
of Win XP on this PC. I don't mind giving up Vista completely.

Acer's support is OK as far as it goes but they make it clear that they do
NOT recommend this course of action ,saying that they do not support
downgrading the unit with anything other than what came pre-installed on
the
machine. They warn of the risk of "product failure".

If the 'downgrade ' to Win XP can technically be done I'm willing to take
the risk but need a bit more help on the mechanics of doing it. I have
installed OSs on other PCs from scratch but this process, i.e. totally
removing a pre-installed OS which is in some hidden and protected part of
the hard drive, appears to be rather more involved and I'm way out of my
comfort zone! I need help and advice.

Acer say that to run XP I will need to create a bootable disk with SATA
drivers otherwise Windows will not detect the hard drive when the CD is
run.
I think I've tracked these down on their download site, at least in the
driver download section these were the only ones to show up.

What's come up are a total of 6 for Chipset, Audio, Lan, Modem, VGA and
Wireless Lan. Each one is in a zipped folder.

Out of interest I compared these to the drivers listed for the
pre-installed
version of Vista. The chipset version number is identical to the XP
version
but the others have different version numbers and there is a additional TV
driver for Vista Home Premium (the L3600 is media centre enabled).

So,

1. Are these 6 drivers in fact the SATA drivers Acer are referring to?

2. How do I create the bootable disk they refer to. When I've
installed
an OS in the past I've used a floppy which was inserted early during the
install process when prompted to do so. I don't recall there
being
6 separate drivers though.
I have an external floppy disk drive and wonder whether this could
be
used in this case? If not can anyone tell me how to do it and what the
procedure is when installing XP.

3. Is the removal of the pre-installed material simply a question of
formatting the entire hard drive? I thought of abandoning the idea of
having two partitions, 'C' and 'D' and, on this PC, using external drives
for all data storage.

4. Is there anything else of which I should be aware?

Regards,

Bill