[C H]

Hi. Everyone, Just like to say hello and to ask for some advice. The problem I am having is as follows- I have been given an acer aspire m3600 to do my video editing on because my laptop hasn't got the required firewire port to connect my camcorder to. I want to take the hard drive which came with the pc out and replace it with a 320gb drive with windows xp on it. I have done this on my previous pc without any problems using a floppy set up disk to format the c:/drive and then windows 98 cd set up followed by my windows xp upgrade disk. As I said, I haa ve followed this routine on my previous pc and it always worked.

What is happening with the acer is that when I put the hard disk in and boot up the windows xp logo comes up and then switches to the acer post op screen.I put the floppy disk in and then another screen comes on with hardware installed. The hard disk is recognized, but it informs me A:/drive fail [40].

Can anyone please tell me what I need to do to solve this problem?

Any advice will be very much appreciated.

Thank you

Colin.

 

[pip22]

Floppy disk fail (40) or (80) error.

You should be able to format & install Windows XP by booting from the XP CD anyway surely? You don't need to install Win98 first. Just start installing from the XP upgrade CD and then swap that over temporarily when prompted for the Win98 CD so XP Setup can check it, then put the XP CD in again to continue setup.

That's how I used to do it when I got a WinXP upgrade disc, because I knew it was always best to install Windows XP on to an empty partition. Avoid installing it on top of an existing Windows version where possible because that can cause instability and system errors are more likely.

 

[C H]

Thank you PIP22 for responding to my query. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, but the hard drive I am trying to install is one that I had in my previous pc with xp already on it. I always followed the procedure I described on my other pc's and had no problem.It just seems to be something with Acer pc's, because I also have problems trying to install software from the dvd drive. I thought about buying another new hard drive and starting from scratch, but already have 3 with windows xp on and I am unsure as to whether a new one will work. I tried getting advice from Acer support but didn't get any joy. I hope I haven't wasted your time, but really appreciate you trying to help me.

Thank you.

C H

 

[sobeit]

did you reinstall your operating system? you cannot transfer oem operating system to a different computer. different computers, different motherboard, different drivers and a microsoft license violation. You will have to install the os that came with the aspire or purchase another copy.

 

[C H]

Hi. Sobeit.
Thank you for your reply. The disk I am trying to install is loaded with xp upgrade which I bought and contains the official application certificate. It was checked by microsoft and accepted as being genuine. I have installed and used this hard drive in another pc which had windows 98 on the hd. I used my floppy disk to format c, then windows 98 set-up cd, and installed my xp upgrade over that. Didn't have any trouble with doing it. It just seems to be the way my Acer pc is set up, because I have trouble trying to install certain software from the dvd drive.

Cheers Colin