How to load XP or 7 on a 7 netbook that seems just like a prior XP netbook?

M

micky

How to load XP or 7 on a 7 netbook that seems just like a prior XP
netbook?

I am short of money and won't use this machine much, but I have a
chance to buy an Acer Aspire One netbook very cheaply, because it is
missing the HDD. . I was looking for this very netbook, because my
friend has one he lets me use. (but we may both need it at the same
time this spring.) His runs XP but this one was sold with W7.
However the harddrive is missing, so when I reinstall an HDD, can I
just load XP?

I'm pretty sure the drivers will be available since the computers are
so very similar (makes sense?) but I'm concerned about licensing.
Will they refuse to let me install XP on a 7 computer?

Alternatively, I have a Dell brand brown Win7 Pro Reinstallation DVD.
Will that be able to install 7 on this computer. I don't have a
Product Number/Password, but since it came with 7, isn't it going to
accept 7 from most sources?


And finally, will I hate 7? I hear 8 is so very different from
everything before it, and I don't want to be using my fingers. (I
already learned keyboard shortcuts to avoid using the mouse.) Which is
why I can't buy most brand new netbooks since they have 8.

But maybe 7 is as much like XP as XP was like win98? That would be
acceptable. (Otherwise I could just look for older netbooks built
with XP but they have seemed very expensive for their age..)

Complicated questions, not entirely XP, so thanks a lot for any help.
 
P

Paul

micky said:
How to load XP or 7 on a 7 netbook that seems just like a prior XP
netbook?

I am short of money and won't use this machine much, but I have a
chance to buy an Acer Aspire One netbook very cheaply, because it is
missing the HDD. . I was looking for this very netbook, because my
friend has one he lets me use. (but we may both need it at the same
time this spring.) His runs XP but this one was sold with W7.
However the harddrive is missing, so when I reinstall an HDD, can I
just load XP?

I'm pretty sure the drivers will be available since the computers are
so very similar (makes sense?) but I'm concerned about licensing.
Will they refuse to let me install XP on a 7 computer?

Alternatively, I have a Dell brand brown Win7 Pro Reinstallation DVD.
Will that be able to install 7 on this computer. I don't have a
Product Number/Password, but since it came with 7, isn't it going to
accept 7 from most sources?


And finally, will I hate 7? I hear 8 is so very different from
everything before it, and I don't want to be using my fingers. (I
already learned keyboard shortcuts to avoid using the mouse.) Which is
why I can't buy most brand new netbooks since they have 8.

But maybe 7 is as much like XP as XP was like win98? That would be
acceptable. (Otherwise I could just look for older netbooks built
with XP but they have seemed very expensive for their age..)

Complicated questions, not entirely XP, so thanks a lot for any help.

If you can get the recovery media for the machine, you can restore
whatever OS that will load when it sees the SLIC information from
the netbook BIOS tables.

In other words, an "Acer WinXP for netbook" or "Acer Win7 for netbook"
recovery disc, should be able to put back a copy of the respective
OS. Since netbooks might not have an optical drive, you need a USB
optical drive of some sort, to do the install. Or if there are
instructions to do it, perhaps the restoration information can be
placed on a USB flash stick.

The image stored on a brand new Acer Aspire One, has a branded OEM
copy of Windows. The OS knows it is allowed to boot and automatically
activate, if it sees info from the BIOS verifying it's "Acer" and not
some other computer hardware. The SLIC table, is what provided proof
the BIOS is from an Acer computer.

I don't know how widely a SLIC table works. Would the SLIC table
activate a year 2002 WinXP restoration CD image ? Haven't a clue.

If you get the matching CD or DVD for the job, it should have
drivers for the netbook. That's what would make all the difference,
in terms of the re-imaging being easy. And on laptops and netbooks,
the video card driver is the sticky part. That would be the hardest
part to get right, if say, there was no video card driver available
on the Acer site for the Acer Aspire One and your OS of choice.

You would need to know some details about the Acer design, to know
whether the hardware was a consistent platform for all the OS
options. Does the Acer Aspire One released with one OS, have the
same hardware as an Acer Aspire One released with a later OS ?
If the drivers didn't work for some reason, that might explain
why. A person seeking to buy an Acer Aspire One, should be
looking for a web forum where owners of that particular machine
hang out, to get the details of hacking or maintaining it. (There
are sites like that for some of the Asus EEE netbooks, so there
should be info for the Acer Aspire One floating around out there.)

You can install some other OS copy you happen to have, but will
need a valid license key in that case. If you happened to have
a WinXP Retail disc and license key, and it's not currently
installed on any other machine, you could use that, run Windows
Update, and so on. A lot more work, and you'll be missing the
recovery partition Acer put on the machine doing it that way.
But you'll also be missing any cruft Acer puts in there
(like there games folder). And installing all the drivers,
will also be loads of fun. I wouldn't try that, unless I
had the right video driver in hand before starting, right
from the Acer web site.

There are people who make addons for an OS, to make them
seem more familiar. On my Windows 7 laptop, I didn't find it
necessary to do that. Windows 7 is still a bit visually
annoying for me - my eyesight isn't that good, and WinXP
works a bit better for me. With Windows 8, this is a pretty
good option for lending some sanity to the situation. I
tested this on the last preview, and it seemed to work OK.
I think there is one other package for $5 or so, that
does some of the same things as this one for Windows 8.
But Windows 7, I could probably survive without messing
with it. Depending on available storage space on the disk,
you may want to adjust a few things in Windows 7, to suit
the lack of space.

http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/features.html

If you don't have an external USB optical drive, then
that would be an additional purchase.

Paul
 
M

micky

If you can get the recovery media for the machine, you can restore
whatever OS that will load when it sees the SLIC information from
the netbook BIOS tables.

In other words, an "Acer WinXP for netbook" or "Acer Win7 for netbook"
recovery disc, should be able to put back a copy of the respective
OS. Since netbooks might not have an optical drive, you need a USB
optical drive of some sort, to do the install. Or if there are
instructions to do it, perhaps the restoration information can be
placed on a USB flash stick.

The image stored on a brand new Acer Aspire One, has a branded OEM
copy of Windows. The OS knows it is allowed to boot and automatically
activate, if it sees info from the BIOS verifying it's "Acer" and not
some other computer hardware. The SLIC table, is what provided proof
the BIOS is from an Acer computer.

I don't know how widely a SLIC table works. Would the SLIC table
activate a year 2002 WinXP restoration CD image ? Haven't a clue.

Thanks Paul. A third option would be to copy the the harddrive on my
friend's Aspire XP to the spare 2.5" HDD which will go into this
new-to-me Aspire. If this new one were built for XP, that would work,
right? But since the new one came with 7, I need to ask in an Acer
forum, which I will look for.

I didn't know the term SLIC and googling for ACER SLIC has turned up
some interesting pages, although bios-mods.com isn't really what I
want.

I'll pursue this some more but I think it might be a bad idea, and I
should buy one in better condition for more money. (A lot of the
laptops at this auction site don't have harddrives, but maybe they are
better bought by someone or a shop with plenty of the right CDs
around. )

BTW, the older ACER has BIOS options for booting from the USB port
(FD, HDD, and CD, 3 separate options).

And I have a Rosewill RCW618, a SATA/IDE to Detachable USB 2.0
Adapter, which is worth its weight in gold. It has it's own power
supply/wallwart and connects to any computer USB port and lets one
read CDs and harddrives, 2.5, 3.5, and 5.25, it connects to everything
I know of but floppy drives (and zip drives and wierd stuff like
that). And of course if you can boot from the USB port, you can boot
with this. I've already used it with someone else's netbook and it's
great. I think it was only 20 dollars. There is another brand also
that's very similar.

Thanks again,

Micky
 
P

Paul

micky said:
Thanks Paul. A third option would be to copy the the harddrive on my
friend's Aspire XP to the spare 2.5" HDD which will go into this
new-to-me Aspire. If this new one were built for XP, that would work,
right? But since the new one came with 7, I need to ask in an Acer
forum, which I will look for.

I didn't know the term SLIC and googling for ACER SLIC has turned up
some interesting pages, although bios-mods.com isn't really what I
want.

I'll pursue this some more but I think it might be a bad idea, and I
should buy one in better condition for more money. (A lot of the
laptops at this auction site don't have harddrives, but maybe they are
better bought by someone or a shop with plenty of the right CDs
around. )

BTW, the older ACER has BIOS options for booting from the USB port
(FD, HDD, and CD, 3 separate options).

And I have a Rosewill RCW618, a SATA/IDE to Detachable USB 2.0
Adapter, which is worth its weight in gold. It has it's own power
supply/wallwart and connects to any computer USB port and lets one
read CDs and harddrives, 2.5, 3.5, and 5.25, it connects to everything
I know of but floppy drives (and zip drives and wierd stuff like
that). And of course if you can boot from the USB port, you can boot
with this. I've already used it with someone else's netbook and it's
great. I think it was only 20 dollars. There is another brand also
that's very similar.

Thanks again,

Micky

Copying the drive of another Aspire One would probably work.

If buying used, I'd be a little concerned if the hard drive
was removed, and the COA sticker was removed as well. It makes
you wonder what exactly they're doing with the license for the
thing.

I took a quick look here, and there are a bunch of "sub-models"
of Aspire One. So that raises just a few questions about driver
differences and the like. I'd be mentally prepared for "a fight" :)

http://www.laptop-forums.com/acer-aspire-one-f126.html

Paul
 
M

micky

Copying the drive of another Aspire One would probably work.

But that's only if the other Aspire has win7 too, right? In this
case my friend's Aspire One has XP.
If buying used, I'd be a little concerned if the hard drive
was removed, and the COA sticker was removed as well. It makes
you wonder what exactly they're doing with the license for the
thing.

I took a quick look here, and there are a bunch of "sub-models"
of Aspire One. So that raises just a few questions about driver
differences and the like. I'd be mentally prepared for "a fight" :)

http://www.laptop-forums.com/acer-aspire-one-f126.html

Thanks. I'm checking this out.
 
G

GS

My experiences with most laptops is that they are built for a target OS
with appropriate hardware supported by that OS. Any of the Acer Aspire
One machines I've set up were built for Win7 and so does have hardware
that XP will not work with. Any attempt to load XP on any machine
*built* for Win7 will present you with so many driver obstacles to
overcome you'll want to smash it against a wall!

Why not just run Win7 in XP mode, *OR* set Win7 machines to run
'Classic' Windows. I do the latter because it approximates the
look/feel of XP without compromise to the underlying OS, regardless if
it's Home Premium or Pro. (I haven't used any other versions)

My Acer Win7 Pro machine (TravelMate TimelineX) even has a function to
turn off the Synaptics mouse pad, which I do since I usually use a
mouse as I do a lot of CAD. The Acer Aspire One never came with Win7
Pro (AFAIK) and so this option isn't there. I've worked with both the
10" and 11" versions of the Acer netbooks, the latter being the best so
far as I've seen available.

HTH

--
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup!
comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion
 
K

Ken Springer

If buying used, I'd be a little concerned if the hard drive
was removed, and the COA sticker was removed as well. It makes
you wonder what exactly they're doing with the license for the
thing.

I take the stickers off old computers I end up with when I recycle them.

Then, when I have a computer that is still viable hardware wise, but for
what ever reason no legal copy of an OS, I rebuild it, use the license
to create a usable system, adding monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer,
whatever else I may have laying around. Then I donate the system to a
local social agency, and they give it to people that need a computer but
can't afford one, or fix the one they have. Single parent families,
seniors on very low fixed incomes, etc.

I don't know if it's technically legal by whatever version of EULA, but
in this case, I'm not concerned. In these cases, MS isn't out any sales
at any point, nor are the hardware manufacturers, because everything was
headed for trash or recycling anyway. Plus, everything was sold once
already.

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 17.0.1
Thunderbird 17.0.1
LibreOffice 3.6.3.2
 
J

John Smith

J. P. Gilliver (John) said:
Thanks Paul. A third option would be to copy the the harddrive on my
friend's Aspire XP to the spare 2.5" HDD which will go into this
new-to-me Aspire. If this new one were built for XP, that would work,
right? But since the new one came with 7, I need to ask in an Acer
forum, which I will look for.
[]
That's what I was going to suggest too. If you're _sure_ you've got the same hardware.

You'd need to copy the harddrive from your friend's identical machine using something capable of copying everything, including the
hidden recovery partition. And, obviously, not running from the drive being copied (from or two).[/QUOTE]

<
http://community.acer.com/t5/Acer-N...-from-my-netbook/m-p/2867/highlight/true#M810 >
 
G

GS

Now hold on there...

Windows Starter is *not* Win7 Pro. The available editions are...

Starter
Home Basic
Home Premium
Professional
Enterprise
Ultimate

...where all are distinctly different from each other in terms of
features. If the one you have is "brand-new-out-of-the-box" then it
should have the setup/system restore discs with it -OR- be able to
create/write discs via a USB CD/DVD read/write device. You can also
request these from Acer specific for the Service Tag of your machine.

--
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup!
comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion
 
M

micky

I didn't know you could do that. Thanks. I didn't buy this one but
there will be others in the future.
I have a New Out of the Box::
Acer
Aspire One
""Windows 7 Starter""
It is a Win7 Pro machine
He need to call Acer
and get a Windows 7 Starter setup USB Disk for it
it was free 2 year ago......

Thanks. Yes, win 7 Sttarter was all this one came with. I haven't
read yet what is missing from Starter but I figured it would be enough
for me.

However the auction price went from $10 when I started looking to $63
plus $12 shipping, plus I'd have to get a HDD, and I didn't read your
post on time, so I gave up.

Thanks everyone.
 
J

John Smith

micky said:
I didn't know you could do that. Thanks. I didn't buy this one but
there will be others in the future.


Thanks. Yes, win 7 Sttarter was all this one came with. I haven't
read yet what is missing from Starter but I figured it would be enough
for me.

However the auction price went from $10 when I started looking to $63
plus $12 shipping, plus I'd have to get a HDD, and I didn't read your
post on time, so I gave up.

Thanks everyone.

HDD it will be $80 to a $120.....

At Office Depot I pay $240.00 for it New in the box..
 

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