How do you wipe a hard drive clean...

Your not going to believe it but after completion I got anxious and booted up. I got the blue screen wanting to setup windows again. Can I hit F3 and quit setup without screwing anything up? Thank you. Frank
 
Okay, I did what you said and when it rebooted after F3, I got a black screen saying disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. So I just sit hear until you reply. Thank you.
 
Did you finish the Windows installation? If not, start over.
 
Last edited:
Yes, it finished and then I shut it down and started it back up and this is when I got the black screen. It said if you want to start from the cd hit any key and stupid me I hit the key, now I am stuck on that black screen asking me to insert a disk(i took it out as instructed).
 
fmonte said:
Yes, it finished and then I shut it down and started it back up and this is when I got the black screen. It said if you want to start from the cd hit any key and stupid me I hit the key, now I am stuck on that black screen asking me to insert a disk(i took it out as instructed).
Click to expand...

Enter the BIOS and make sure you have the correct hard drive set to boot first. This is not the screen you entered before.

It should look similar to this:

DSC02794.jpg
 
After you go through the blue screens copying data and what not from the windows disk it will reboot and do more stuff before windows has finished installing. Be sure that your hard drive is in the boot order after the CD ROM drive.
 
Cromewell said:
After you go through the blue screens copying data and what not from the windows disk it will reboot and do more stuff before windows has finished installing.
Click to expand...

Exactly. If all else fails, you may need to install again. If you do, DO NOT "press any key" after you begin the installation. During the installation, Windows will restart. Again, do not "press any key" after the restart.
 
Thanks, that did the trick. I guess I am up and running, just have to find some missing drivers. Can I ask an unrelated question. Why is it that I have 1 gb of ram but when I looked at the system properties general page it says 768 mb. Also when I look at my c drive properties it says that I have 298 gig hd yet the box says 320? Thanks once again and have a good night.
 
fmonte said:
Thanks, that did the trick. I guess I am up and running, just have to find some missing drivers. Can I ask an unrelated question. Why is it that I have 1 gb of ram but when I looked at the system properties general page it says 768 mb. Also when I look at my c drive properties it says that I have 298 gig hd yet the box says 320? Thanks once again and have a good night.
Click to expand...

Not sure about the ram and this is just a guess for the hd but it can be that's how much free space you have and the rest is taken up by the os.
 
You probably have only 768MB of RAM. Download and run CPU-Z. Click on the memory tab. That will tell you how much RAM is installed in the PC.

You never get the advertised amount of storage space on a hard drive. 298GB sounds about right, IMO.
 
To: RNS, I wish I had known. Let me ask you if you think I need to do the wipe at this stage:

1. I got the computer yesterday from an ebay dealer who sells Acers with no operating system installed.
2. Yesterday I installed xp with my own installation disk but because this machine has a bunch of media readers it made my c drive an h drive.
3. I did not want the h drive so today I just did the same thing again but I made sure it said c drive on the partition. I am all finished and it seems to be working okay but if you think I should, i will do it a third time. I certainly would like to give my machine the best possible chance of good performance.

Thank you.
Frank
 
No. You do not need to wipe the drive. His post was kinda irrelevant to the topic. I'm guessing the HD never had any data; therefore, an advanced wipe would be unnecessary.

Get those XP drivers! :D
 
Last edited:
Thanks MEP, I wasn't looking forward to doing it a 3rd time. If I have trouble finding the xp drivers because this was manufactured as a Vista machine, do you think the forum can help me?
 
fmonte said:
Thanks MEP, I wasn't looking forward to doing it a 3rd time. If I have trouble finding the xp drivers because this was manufactured as a Vista machine, do you think the forum can help me?
Click to expand...

No it wasn't manifactured as a vista system.

Vista is just the OS, it's simple you take out vista,r eformat and install xp.

Youve got xp and you should have all the drivers, and click windows update and update your pc.

Only thing that might need drivers are your videocard and sound card maybe the mobo but you can just type in the name of your hardware into google and you can find drievrs for it.
 
hpi said:
No it wasn't manifactured as a vista system.

Vista is just the OS, it's simple you take out vista,r eformat and install xp.
Click to expand...

It's not always that simple. You need specific driver versions for each operating system. The computer hardware is, in fact, designed for Vista.

Click here to find the list of drivers available for your computer. The only drivers listed are those for Vista.
 
So does that mean I am sol. I am not sure what to do next. I went to the device manager and here is where the yellow question marks are:

?Ethernet controller
?PCI Device
?PCI Modem
?SM Bus Controller
?Video Comtroller(vga compatible)

Does this mean that these are the only five things I need to fix?

Thank you.
 
fmonte said:
So does that mean I am sol. I am not sure what to do next. I went to the device manager and here is where the yellow question marks are:

?Ethernet controller
?PCI Device
?PCI Modem
?SM Bus Controller
?Video Comtroller(vga compatible)

Does this mean that these are the only five things I need to fix?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

In the other thread you started, I provided a link to your computer's support page. You should contact Acer and see if they can provide you w/ XP drivers for the devices above.
 
Thanks MEP, I called them before I asked on the forum and they told me they will not support me if I am doing anything with xp. In addition, installing xp voids any remaining warranty. That's okay, I really want xp. I know it's outside of this thread at this point but I was hoping that you could help me still. I don't know what the 5 items are exactly that have the ?(see above) but if that is all that I have to fix, could you please tell me what driver goes with what. Being a noob, I am having trouble making them match. Here is the list I pulled off of Acer for my model: Acer Aspire T180:

Aspire T180
Acer eDataSecurity Management
Windows Vista
Acer eDataSecurity Management.zip
Acer eMode Management
Windows Vista
Acer eMode Management.zip
Acer Empowering Technology for Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Acer Empowering Technology.zip
Acer ePerformance Management for Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Acer ePerformance Management.zip
Aspire E380/T180 ATI Video Driver
Windows XP
Aspire_E380_T180_UD_ATI.zip
Aspire E380/T180 Audio Driver
Windows XP
Aspire_E380_T180_AUDIO.zip
Aspire E380/T180 Chipset Driver
Windows XP
Aspire_E380_T180_CHIPSET.zip
Aspire E380/T180 CPU Driver
Windows XP
Aspire_E380_T180_CPU.zip
Aspire E380/T180 LAN Driver
Windows XP
Aspire_E380_T180_LAN.zip
Aspire E380/T180 Modem Driver
Windows XP
Aspire_E380_T180_MODEM.zip
ATI VGA driver for Desktop
Windows Vista
ATI VGA driver for Desktop.zip
BIOS Update vR01-B1
Windows XP
AST180-R1B1.zip
eNet Management v2.6.3005
Windows Vista
eNet v2.06.3005_pvl.zip
Lifeview LR306 SW Encoder 1.4.3353
Windows Vista
Lifeview LR306 SW Encoder 1.4.3353.zip
Lifeview LR306 TV Tuner Card 13.35.02.000
Windows Vista
Lifeview LR306 TV Tuner Card 13.35.02.000.zip
NTI CD-DVD Upgrade Patch for Windows Vista
Windows Vista
NTI CD-DVD Upgrade Patch.zip
nVidia VGA driver for Desktop for Windows Vista
Windows Vista
nVidia VGA driver for Desktop.zip
Power DVD Upgrade Patch for Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Power DVD Upgrade Patch.zip
Pronet Modem Driver v6.12.04
Windows Vista
Pronet Modem Driver 6.12.04.zip
Realtek Audio v6.0.1.5322
Windows Vista
TM5620_Audio_6_0_1_5322.zip
RealTek HD Audio Driver Ver. 5.10.0.5413
Windows XP
VTx661_x461_HDMIAudio_Realtek_v5.10.0.5413.zip
Realtek High Definition Audio Driver for Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Realtek High Definition Audio Driver.zip
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top