Rummy Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 So I was casually perusing the prices of HDs on play.com as I do from time to time, and saw these two hard drives, and I was considering them cos they're a decent enough price I guess(12.5p/GB and 12p/GB). Anyway, I always thought, if I got a new HD I'd put on XP, but I'm not sure about how easy it is to get XP to work properly if I install it off a disc if I have an actual windows xp key(which I don't have to hand right now, but I swear there's one somewhere). I'm thinking though, if I don't have one and decide to go by less...legitimate means, I'll end up with problems, so I was thinking I could just install vista. Only...could I?? My laptop came with Vista preinstalled(Acer Aspire 5100 Series) and I *can* make Vista Recovery CD things, but I think they might need to be used withing the Recovery Utility that's part of the Recovery Partition(alt+f10 or something on boot) and obviously that'd be a partition on this hard drive, so I wouldn't be able to access that if/when the new hard drive was in, so I was just wondering...what are my options for installing Vista, if any? It's a preliminary thought at the moment, I kinda want an internal drive over an equally big external drive... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konfucius Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 You could look into mirroring your harddrive but I don't know how it will handle hidden partitions. Or if you get hold of an OEM DVD of Vista you should also be able to install it with the Vista Key you've got. Installing XP off a disc is not really difficult actually. Finding all the required drivers on the acer homepage can be a bit more of a hassle though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted November 3, 2009 Author Share Posted November 3, 2009 Ok thanks, I was a bit more worried with XP about it just having problems if I don't end up with a legit key, I hate Vista enough I contemplate taking that risk. How exactly do you mean to 'mirror' my hard drive? Essentiallly to make an exact copy of it to the new one, or what? I don't normally do stuff like this, so I'm a bit noob with it all. I wondered if there was something out there that could essentially copy my entire hard drive over, but then I also thought that this hard drive has 3 partitions(alot of Acers these days seem to have two partitions in Windows) plus the hidden recovery partition, and I don't know how that'd translate to a hard drive that's much bigger? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konfucius Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Actually I never mirrored a HDD myself so your best off googling on how to do it but as far as I know mirroring is the best way to copy all your data to another drive because it will copy all the sectors with partitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 If you can make Vista recovery disks, they shouldn't require the partition. It should be one or the other. If you're getting a new Hard Drive I wouldn't reccomend mirroring your old one, then you're going to keep any problems you had before, but it is certainly possible to clone the drive, clonezilla will do it. A new HDD is a good reason to format and start afresh. I'm guessing you have considered, but decided against, getting Windows 7? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McPhee Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 (edited) Can't say I can recommend these drives, I own one and find it really, really slow. There's a noticeable lag when loading programs, especially right after boot. Compared to the Samsung drive it replaced it's really, really bad. Maybe I'm being unfair on it though, it did replace a 3.5" 7200RPM drive so I should have expected it to be slower. Who knows? I know mine is getting reduced to storage duty soon though, picking myself up an SSD in the next week or two to replace it, really can't be doing with the long boot times and lag any more. Edited November 5, 2009 by McPhee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 If you can make Vista recovery disks, they shouldn't require the partition. It should be one or the other. If you're getting a new Hard Drive I wouldn't reccomend mirroring your old one, then you're going to keep any problems you had before, but it is certainly possible to clone the drive, clonezilla will do it. A new HDD is a good reason to format and start afresh. I'm guessing you have considered, but decided against, getting Windows 7? I considered Windows 7, but it's firstly more money I don't have, and also I'm wary after Vista of ending up with another heap of shit. I keep hearing it's better and it's not that bad etcetc, but as I said with the extra cost, I'd rather stick with XP which I know and love, or Vista for the fact I already have it. My only problem with that is of course getting it over if I put a new drive in, I've not actually tried the recovery discs, but when I boot into the recovery partition thing(alt+f10) it comes up with the Acer recovery console and gives me the option of the original partition backup, or using the discs, and I wonder if recovery discs would essentially just boot that up off the recovery partition, or their own version. I might look into it, though I'd have to have a think how. I guess I would like to start afresh on a new drive really, but I just wouldn't know how to get Vista across if the recovery disc option doesn't work(I only have Acer's software to make the discs with, as far as I can tell). Can't say I can recommend these drives, I own one and find it really, really slow. There's a noticeable lag when loading programs, especially right after boot. Compared to the Samsung drive it replaced it's really, really bad. Maybe I'm being unfair on it though, it did replace a 3.5" 7200RPM drive so I should have expected it to be slower. Who knows? I know mine is getting reduced to storage duty soon though, picking myself up an SSD in the next week or two to replace it, really can't be doing with the long boot times and lag any more. Hmm, I realise they're pretty lowend, being the cheapest, but then I was thinking I wouldn't notice things being too bad, really. Having having a look through device manager it seems I have a Toshiba MK1234GSX drive inside already, and I can't notice much difference in the specs between them from what I've googled, so other than brand performance I'm thinking I won't notice alot of difference anyhow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cube Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Don't you have the Vista serial number on the laptop? If so, couldn't you download the correct version and use that with the serial number you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten10 Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 I don't know the license key with a laptop would be a system builder OEM one which is preinstalled by the manufacturer. The version that he grabs would have to be a specific one to accept his key. Maybe not so much with vista but I was reading an article all about it with windows 7, with vista being the catalyst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 Hmm, I wasn't sure about downloading Vista and that, bit wary of downloading a whole OS from a non-official source, and I wasn't aware that downloading from the latter was possible. A little flip as I read and the label says; Windows Vista Home Premium OEMAct Acer Incorporated Shed any light on what sort I'd need to procure? Surely there must be somewhere to get official OS discs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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