The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    5672 and XP Pro Setup?

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by Muttley, Apr 3, 2006.

  1. Muttley

    Muttley Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I'm looking at purchasing the 5672 with XP Pro, but I would like to know whether the following is possible:

    1. Burn the backup DVD when the machine is first turned on;
    2. Reformat the HD to a single NTFS partition;
    3. Restore XP Pro from the backup DVD;
    4. Uninstall (most of) the Acer junk.

    Does this work?
    If it does, is the resulting setup stable, or do parts of the Acer software refuse to uninstall cleanly?

    Many thanks in advance for any help.
     
    Muttley, Apr 3, 2006
    #1
  2. foxyshadis

    foxyshadis Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Acronis makes a tool called Disk Director that lets you do this, without the hassle of backing up and reloading (which wouldn't quite work, because you have to add a boot sector to the partition after formatting it, but that's easy to fix).

    What I did was convert to ntfs, run disk director to repartition (cleans up some of the ugliness convert leaves behind), configure and uninstall oem apps. Quick and fairly painless.
     
    foxyshadis, Apr 6, 2006
    #2
  3. speedfrk

    speedfrk Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    90
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    So if I use the Acronis tool, I can eliminate the hidden partition and create 1 large NTFS partition without any problems with the boot sector?
     
    speedfrk, Apr 7, 2006
    #3
  4. Intensecure

    Intensecure Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    6
    Messages:
    120
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    That's what I did (except 2 partitions for me). Acronis did a fine job of clearing everything up, and is indispensable for partition maintenance IMHO. I had nothing but trouble with PartitionMagic, but I use Disc Director for partitioning, and Acronis True Image for imaging. Back up partition images, make the relevant boot discs for both programs and you have a better recovery solution for your computer.
     
    Intensecure, Apr 7, 2006
    #4