Any easy way to create single partition?

Hi all, I've finally got my 2012WLMi, upgraded the ram to 1 Gb of Kingston (2x 512mb) and I like the machine so far.

I went a little bit overboard on the windows xp tweaking and ended up messing up some required dlls. I thought this was a good time to whip out the recovery cds and familiarise myself with how they work.

I was quite disappointed to find out that the included recovery cds really don't let you customise the setup much, all they do is copy an install image onto the hard drive. (3 partitions, one of which is 'invisible' and is only 8mb, then 2 data partitions, both of which are FAT32.... why not NTFS?!)

When I get back to the UK (I'm currently on vacation) I'll have access to my Academic Windows XP Pro cd, so along with the drivers from the Acer system cd, I should be able to do a customised fresh install. (The 2012WLMi came with XP Home)

My question is.... is there not some way to customise the configuration of the partitions using the restore cds ???

I'm now trying a very round-about method of downloading a partition manager and trying to merge the two data partitions and then use the command line to convert to NTFS.

I would appreciate if anyone could please shed some light on this for me.

Thanks in advance.

- Odie

 

if you have partition magic you can do it all in there, merge and convert to ntfs.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

Thanks for the info.

It's a real shame that Acer doesn't provide us with a standard XP install cd as well as the restore ones in case we want the flexibility. It's not as if they can't get specific XP install disks that will only install on an Acer machine.

- Odie

 

Yeah its a shame, but its the way most of the manufactuers seem to be.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

Quikster is right, manufacturers tend to force you to do it their way or the highway, they actually don't like users with half a clue and who decide they want to do things differently!

Here's the link to the Partition Magic software Quik speaks of:

http://www.symantec.com/partitionmagic/

Good stuff, but a little pricey if all you want to do is a one time merge of partitions. Maybe you can find an Academic version at a discount for this software too though [ ]

 

don't they have a fully functional demo version anymore?

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

I think I saw a demo of v8 on a few download sites, so I'll give it a go.

Thanks again for the help

- Odie

 

Actually, HP has started to ship XP only install CD along with an Application/Driver RestoreCD which has all the software & drivers that were on the system when you first turned it on.

Regarding Partitioning software, I've found a few links to some other software that may do the same & possibly free, just goto shware sites and get the demo version, which should be able to do the job.

http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?ID=447
http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=partition&tg=dl-20&search.x=6&search.y=9

-Vb-

 

Odie - quick ques for ya: are both RAM slots in the 2020 series easily accesible by users from the bottom of the machine, or is one of them located under the keyboard?
Thanks.

 

The 2012 has 1 slot under the keyboard.

 

Yes, that is correct, one is under the keyboard, to get at it a few screws on the bottom of the laptop must be removed, this allows a plastic strip (the one with the power and shortcut buttons) to be removed and the keyboard can then be lifted.

I didn't perform the ram upgrade myself, but I watched the process in case I need to remove the ram if it goes faulty. The slot under the keyboard looks a little bit tricky to get to, but it shouldn't be too much of a hassle really. The slot on the bottom of the laptop is very easy to get to, the cover is secured by a single screw.

- Odie

 

I just used Acronis Partition Expert 2003 (best thing)
More info:
allows you to resize, copy, and move partitions without losing data, optimize your hard disk drive work-space, and perform many other partitioning tasks. Acronis' exclusive file system support includes Windows FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, Linux Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, and Linux Swap. Acronis sets a new partitioning and design standards with Partition Expert. Now you don't have to be a computer expert to partition your hard disk drive our lightening-fast and reliable software allows you to perform Automatic partitioning through an easy-to-use Windows XP wizard interface. Power user can also take full control over partitioning in Manual mode. Acronis Partition Expert 2003 operating far faster than any other product partitioning product on the market today. Don't wait see for yourself how fast and easy partitioning can be!

For more information:
http://www.acronis.com/products/partitionexpert