Acer Aspire 5101 Windows install problems

[sk8terg1rl]

Hey everyone,

I've been having problems reinstalling Windows XP on an Acer Aspire
5101 laptop after repartitioning the hard disk.

When I insert my Windows CD during boot, it gives the usual:
"Press any key to boot from CD" and upon pressing a key, "Setup is
inspecting your hardware configuration"

The CD drive spins for a while but then stops. After that, it gives a
black screen indefinitely. The hard disk light is flashing all the
time. It doesn't seem to be frozen (Pause/Break button stops hard disk
access and Esc resumes it) but I've left it for an hour or so like
that with the blank screen and no change.

Any suggestions? Is it just taking a long time to load the drivers or
is something wrong?

skate xx

 

[CBFalconer]

I've been having problems reinstalling Windows XP on an Acer
Aspire 5101 laptop after repartitioning the hard disk.

When I insert my Windows CD during boot, it gives the usual:
"Press any key to boot from CD" and upon pressing a key, "Setup
is inspecting your hardware configuration"

The CD drive spins for a while but then stops. After that, it
gives a black screen indefinitely. The hard disk light is flashing
all the time. It doesn't seem to be frozen (Pause/Break button
stops hard disk access and Esc resumes it) but I've left it for an
hour or so like that with the blank screen and no change.

Any suggestions? Is it just taking a long time to load the drivers
or is something wrong?

I suspect you are just caught in some of the usual Windows nastys.
The easy solution - get an Ubuntu disk <http://shipit.ubuntu.com>
at their exorbitant price (free), install it, and forget Windblows.

 

[kony]

Hey everyone,

I've been having problems reinstalling Windows XP on an Acer Aspire
5101 laptop after repartitioning the hard disk.

When I insert my Windows CD during boot, it gives the usual:
"Press any key to boot from CD" and upon pressing a key, "Setup is
inspecting your hardware configuration"

The CD drive spins for a while but then stops. After that, it gives a
black screen indefinitely. The hard disk light is flashing all the
time. It doesn't seem to be frozen (Pause/Break button stops hard disk
access and Esc resumes it) but I've left it for an hour or so like
that with the blank screen and no change.

Any suggestions? Is it just taking a long time to load the drivers or
is something wrong?

skate xx

I'd wonder if the partitioning you did left behind something
unworkable that is making the setup hang. IIRC, at one
point the Acer default config was to partition the drive in
2 or 3 partitions, the first being a hidden system
partition, then a FAT32 partition for OS, and I don't
remember for certain but thought there might've been a 3rd
partition.

I don't recall exactly what is on that hidden system
partition, though there might also be a 2nd miniOS there if
your laptop supports a multimedia mode where it can boot to
that instead of windows and play CDs or DVDs, etc.

Perhaps I should back up a bit and ask how you partitioned
it, including which partitioning software? If you have
Partition Magic or a similar utility (instead of just
DOS/FDISK) you might see if that reveals anything about the
present partitioning.

 

[sk8terg1rl]

Hiya Kony, thanks for replying

I'd wonder if the partitioning you did left behind something
unworkable that is making the setup hang. IIRC, at one
point the Acer default config was to partition the drive in
2 or 3 partitions, the first being a hidden system
partition, then a FAT32 partition for OS, and I don't
remember for certain but thought there might've been a 3rd
partition.

Yes, Acer does have a hidden system partition, containing their
restore software. Before this mess, right after I got the laptop, I
formatted their partition and the Windows that came with it (it was
loaded with adware and all sorts of unnecessary bells & whistles). So
this is the second time I'm installing my own spare copy of Windows on
the laptop.

I don't recall exactly what is on that hidden system
partition, though there might also be a 2nd miniOS there if
your laptop supports a multimedia mode where it can boot to
that instead of windows and play CDs or DVDs, etc.

Why should any data on the hidden partition make a difference to the
install process now? I had it wiped about a year ago and things were
working fine since then. Also, why should an O/S install program be
assumed to need data on the hard drive when typically a step done
during install is to format the drive?

Perhaps I should back up a bit and ask how you partitioned
it, including which partitioning software? If you have
Partition Magic or a similar utility (instead of just
DOS/FDISK) you might see if that reveals anything about the
present partitioning.

I did use Partition Magic. The partitions were originally all primary:
15GB NTFS (boot + Windows system partition), 20GB NTFS (Windows data
partition), 5GB ReiserFS (Linux system partition), 25GB (Linux data
partition).

The problem was that whilst installing a dual-boot Linux setup, I
mistakenly messed up the boot loader installation and installed
Linux's boot loader to the master boot record. Linux's boot loader is
fine but I prefer to use Windows' bootpart/bootcfg as I change my
Linux distros more frequently. Don't try to talk me out of
reinstalling Windows, it had a lot of trial software on it and was
slowing things down so it was slated for a reinstall anyway

skate xx

 

[sk8terg1rl]

Hi, thanks for replying

I suspect you are just caught in some of the usual Windows nastys.
The easy solution - get an Ubuntu disk <http://shipit.ubuntu.com>
at their exorbitant price (free), install it, and forget Windblows.

Actually, I'm trying to set up a dual boot setup. The most aggravating
thing is that a Windows XP - SuSE 10.2 dual boot *previously* worked
on this machine, but after I decided to encrypt the /home partition I
formatted and reinstalled SuSE (at that time I didn't know that I
could just login as root and do it). So I'm reusing all the same CDs
for installation but for some reason, now it is not working :-(

So the Linux root (/hda3) and /home (/hda4) partitions have since seen
me try installations of:
SuSE 10.0 (black screen, not even a boot menu)
SuSE 10.2 (install works, files successfully copied on, freezes at 55%
on the bootloader install part - c.f. my recent post in
comp.os.linux.misc for details)
SuSE 10.3 beta (works, but too buggy)
Mandriva Poweruser 2007 i586 (tested because a friend had the 6 CDs
handy, everything works but it isn't the right kernel for my AMD64
Turion CPU)
Mandriva Free x86_64 2007 KDE CD (also worked, but I was missing some
extra apps like ssh server, so I decided to try the free DVD instead)
Mandriva Free x86_64 2007 DVD (I forgot to tell it not to touch the
Master boot record)

So as you can see, the past week or two has seen me try lots of O/Ses
on this laptop :-(

skate xx

 

[kony]

Why should any data on the hidden partition make a difference to the
install process now? I had it wiped about a year ago and things were
working fine since then. Also, why should an O/S install program be
assumed to need data on the hard drive when typically a step done
during install is to format the drive?

I agree it shouldn't matter, but since software isn't
necessarily perfect, I wonder if it gets confused by the
existing partitioning and crashes. Either that or the
machine is generaly instable but you made no report of
anything like that besides the halting on setup.

 

[sk8terg1rl]

I agree it shouldn't matter, but since software isn't
necessarily perfect, I wonder if it gets confused by the
existing partitioning and crashes. Either that or the
machine is generaly instable but you made no report of
anything like that besides the halting on setup.

Hi Kony,

No problems with machine stability once the O/Ses are installed. Which
can be a non-trivial exercise if you see my post to CBFalconer
regarding me trying out different Linux distros.

That said, if you think the Windows install is getting confused by the
disk partitioning, I can try to merge all 4 primary partitions into
one, but if the problem persists, I will be left with a non-bootable
laptop :-(

skate xx

 

[sk8terg1rl]

I agree it shouldn't matter, but since software isn't
necessarily perfect, I wonder if it gets confused by the
existing partitioning and crashes. Either that or the
machine is generaly instable but you made no report of
anything like that besides the halting on setup.

Hi Kony, you're a genius! I took a leap of faith and wiped my 3/4
primary partitions and resized the final partition to the full HD's
size.

After doing so, when I tried to reboot, I got the familiar Linux GRUB
Error 22 message. No matter - I had intended to reinstall everything
anyway and copied all my stuff out already.

Holding my breath, I rebooted again and hit a key to boot from the
CD...and it worked! I have no idea why the Windows install doesn't
work with 4/4 primary partitions used instead of 1 though.

Hope you find this piece of information useful in the future

Thanks for your help!
skate xx

 

[kony]

Hi Kony,

No problems with machine stability once the O/Ses are installed. Which
can be a non-trivial exercise if you see my post to CBFalconer
regarding me trying out different Linux distros.

That said, if you think the Windows install is getting confused by the
disk partitioning, I can try to merge all 4 primary partitions into
one, but if the problem persists, I will be left with a non-bootable
laptop :-(

skate xx

You could always pick up one of those desktop-laptop
adapters and use a desktop system to reconfig the drive if
all else fails? They usually cost about $6, maybe cheaper
on ebay except for the shipping cost.

 

[kony]

Hi Kony, you're a genius! I took a leap of faith and wiped my 3/4
primary partitions and resized the final partition to the full HD's
size.

After doing so, when I tried to reboot, I got the familiar Linux GRUB
Error 22 message. No matter - I had intended to reinstall everything
anyway and copied all my stuff out already.

Holding my breath, I rebooted again and hit a key to boot from the
CD...and it worked! I have no idea why the Windows install doesn't
work with 4/4 primary partitions used instead of 1 though.

Hope you find this piece of information useful in the future

Thanks for your help!
skate xx

Glad to see you have it working. Thanks for posting the
result of your work so others can benefit from it in the
future.