Problem with Acer Aspire Vista OS

[pythasdelema]

hi all,
I have had my acer aspire 5100 with vista home premium running on it for about 3yrs now , just few months ago it started playing up like not recognizing usb's , not coming up on screen(black screen) except attached to tv and also running very slow. so i try to reinstalling the OS, which i did by reformatting HDD installing a fresh vista but could not find my activation key for the vista so i left it like that with pop ups reminder from microsoft asking me to activate. Anyway it went on like that for about 3months so i decided to run vista home basic which i have on my other broken laptop .
The prolem now is i cant even connect with usb,and its not even coming up at all.
Please could anybody tell me what to do as to how to install a fresh system on it or what cld be the possible problem.
or how can I install an os on the hard driver externally?
your helps will be greatly appreciated
thanks

 

[kristain]

Hi,

Check that the size of the external hard drive meets the system requirements of the Windows operating system. Windows XP requires 1.5 gigabytes of free hard drive space. Windows Vista requires 20 gigabytes (for the Home Basic edition) or 50 gigabytes (for all other editions). The system requirements for older, outdated versions of the Windows operating system, such as Windows Me and Windows 98, can be found on the official Microsoft Windows Web site .


Connect the external hard drive to the computer with which you plan to use the hard drive. Use the hard drive's original cables included by the drive's manufacturer. It does not matter what connectivity standard you use. Windows will automatically detect the external hard drive.


Click the Start menu in the lower left-hand corner of the PC screen and select My Computer.


Right-click the icon for the external hard drive. Click Format from the pop-up menu. Format the external hard drive in the NTSF format.


Insert the original Windows installation disk into your computer's CD-ROM drive. Close the Installation Wizard when it appears on the screen.


Return to the My Computer window from Step 3. Write down the drive letters assigned to the CD-ROM drive and the drive of your external hard drive. For the sake of this article, we will use the example of D:\\\\ being the external hard drive and E:\\\\ being the CD-ROM drive. These are typically the letters assigned to CD-ROM and external drives in the Windows operating system.

Click the Start menu button and select Run.


Type \"E:\\I386\\winnt32.exe /syspart: /tempdrive: /makelocalsource /noreboot\" (without quotation marks) and click OK. This launches the Windows installer file on the Windows installation disk in drive E:\\\\ and commands it to install on the D:\\\\ drive (your external hard drive). The Windows Installer Wizard screen will appear.


Select the Full Install option in the Windows Installer Wizard. You will then be guided through the Windows installation disk. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation. Depending on the speed of your computer's processor, this may take several hours. Be prepared to enter important information, such as your Windows registration key to register your copy of the Windows operating system. Do not close the installation window until the installation process is complete.


Shut down the computer and disconnect the external hard drive. You can now use the external hard drive to boot up another computer using the installed copy of the Windows operating system.

 

[pythasdelema]

'Problem with Acer Aspire Vista OS'

Thanks Kristain,
for your response but i didnt could get the whole gist. I just want to know if i can reformat the hard drive from the vista home premieum and install the vista home basic on it?

 

[mike1959]

If you intend to install Vista, you will need the original DVD and the Product key (code).
If the two laptops you have came with the Windows Vista operating system already on, you won't be able to swap over the hard drives between pc's.
But if the USB sockets were not recognising anything plugged into them and you had no image on screen, only via an external monitor, it's possible the motherboard has some other faults.
The Acer site gives the 'C' drive as being 40GB or higher, so Vista should JUST go on and run. The product key you must have is printed on a sticker under the PC, but you may not be able to read it after some years of wear, and it is not unknown for the number to be the wrong one, they print off hundreds of stickers with the same number to save money and time. ( I know this for a fact, it's happened to me with an Advent laptop with Vista pre-installed.) The only way to know the real product key, is to run a program such as 'Speccy' or 'Produkey'.
If your Laptop was built with XP on, and you upgraded it to Vista, with an upgrade disc, you will have been given the product key on a new sticker in with the DVD pack or box.