Reinstall(?) Windows XP Home on Acer Aspire One

TelfordTrev

Hello,

My son's Aspire One is critically low on Memory (<100MB). Also, since virtually day one it has run a disk check on startup 8/10 times.. so I'm thinking I should reinstall XP?

It only has the 8GB of onboard memory with a further 8GB on an SSD card.

XP home edition came preinstalled, and the pc was supplied with 2 discs - one labelled "System CD" and the other "MS .. XP Home edition SP3". Neither of these discs autorun so I'm guessing they are not recovery discs.

Additionally, I have an external CD/DVD rewriter that I can use and also a CD for XP Pro (running on my main PC).

So, looking at the various threads, I've tried the ALT F10 thing but that does not respond. Can I reinstall using my XP Pro disc? and if so how do I do that. I'm ok to "clean install" and then reinstall the apps also.

Thanks.

millwalll

Hi, If you want to do a clean install you will only be able to install windows xp home, as you will need the serial code on the bottom of the laptop. Doing a clean install this way you will loss all the applications and maybe some drivers so you would have to reinstall these again. In order to do this you will need to boot from the External cd drive you can do this by going into the bios or usally pressing f12 or escape to load the boot sequence. Hope this helps if you need any more help just ask..

Donnie

http://www.fixya.com/support/t4301393-use_recovery_disks_acer_aoa110_1588

TelfordTrev

Thanks, I tried this but when I hit F12 I only get 2 boot options

1) IDE 0: P-SD1800
2) Network Boot: Legacy PCI device

If I hit 1 it just boots up as normal, if I hit 2 it looks for a network connection

I have also tried going into setup F2 and changing the boot sequence but that has no effect either

What should I try next?

Thanks

TelfordTrev

millwalll wrote: »

Hi, If you want to do a clean install you will only be able to install windows xp home, as you will need the serial code on the bottom of the laptop. Doing a clean install this way you will loss all the applications and maybe some drivers so you would have to reinstall these again. In order to do this you will need to boot from the External cd drive you can do this by going into the bios or usally pressing f12 or escape to load the boot sequence. Hope this helps if you need any more help just ask..

Thanks, If I use the XP Pro disc will it ask about the version or just install the version linked to the product key?
Also, I did start down this path but there was a message about the version of XP being loaded was older than the one installed. I then realised that the disc was XP service pack 1a, but the preinstalled version is SP3. If I use the older disc will it just search for the updates to SP3 once loaded?

Donnie

TelfordTrev wrote: »

Thanks, I tried this but when I hit F12 I only get 2 boot options

1) IDE 0: P-SD1800
2) Network Boot: Legacy PCI device

If I hit 1 it just boots up as normal, if I hit 2 it looks for a network connection

I have also tried going into setup F2 and changing the boot sequence but that has no effect either

What should I try next?

Thanks

Is the CD drive actually connected to the AAO110?

Try this.

If this doesn't work, I can point you towards the correct disc, but you will still need to be able to boot from a external source in order to be able to do so.

TelfordTrev

The Alt F10 doesn't seem to work, I've tried it a number of times and it just goes straight into loading windows.

As far as I can tell the drive is connected - all leads checked, and I can read what's on the discs once windows has loaded.
Drive is shown in "My Computer" as "DVD-RAM Drive (E:)"

2 discs came with the pc

1) labelled "System CD" and has a part number SD.N500B.015
2) labelled "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3" and has a part number RV.N500B.093

Donnie

reboot
enter the BIOS settings by pressing <F2>
Main Menu
D2D Recovery → Enabled
reboot

Of course RV.N500B.093 needs to be the disc in the drive.

womble12345

TRy looking on here:
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/

TelfordTrev

I've finally got the external drive showing in the boot list

(D2D was already enabled, but I had a brainwave and realised that I should try a restart on it rather a shutdown and start!)

However, it still continues to boot up as normal?

Donnie

TelfordTrev wrote: »

I've finally got the external drive showing in the boot list

(D2D was already enabled, but I had a brainwave and realised that I should try a restart on it rather a shutdown and start!)

However, it still continues to boot up as normal?

Did you have to do something special to get this to happen?

D2D enabled/Windows Disc in drive/Set the external drive as 1st in the Boot priority list. Restart and look out for any Boot from External messages or similar.