Aspire 3503 hard drive partition problem!

aidan_dunne

Hi folks, hope someone here can help me.

Bought an Acer Aspire 3503WLMi on Friday. Started into setting it up on Saturday only to find that the 80GB hard drive has already been partitioned by Acer into two 40 GB (approx.) partitions, with a hidden partition somewhere I believe also containing various system or recovery files. Not only that, both partitions are in FAT32 format! :mad:

Problem is, I would prefer to be able to partition it and define partition sizes myself. I also want to have them in NTFS format instead of FAT32. Only problem is, it doesn't come with a proper Windows XP disc that I can use to format, partition and define file system type as you normally would. It only comes with these crappy "recovery" discs (don't you just hate that? :mad: ) and each time I've tried to re-install Windows with them in the hope it might give me an option somewhere to define the partitions myself, it just resets it all back to the factory settings.

I can use XP's built-in CONVERT tool to convert them to NTFS alright but I'm still stuck with two 40 GB partitions. There's no way I can define partition sizes myself that I can see. Normally if I had an XP disc the first thing I would have done with this machine would have been to boot the Windows XP CD, wipe the existing partitions, define a 20GB C:\ partition for Windows and my programs and define the remainder as a \ partition for file storage and have both in NTFS format. But I seem to be stuck with Acer's factory settings (ba$tards! :mad: ).

Anyone else here have one of these laptops or another Acer model that they've had the same kind of problem with? If so, did you manage to find a way around this? Or is there some way I can burn a bootable XP CD from the files in the hidden partition on the hard drive so I can have full control of the XP installation? Acer have been no help at all so far, an e-mail via their support site hasn't had any result as yet and phoning their support line (you have the call the UK, to add insult to injury! :mad: ) just leads to a recorded message saying their too busy to take the call and to e-mail them! I'm getting really fed-up of this at this stage and I just want to be able to install Windows and configure the hard drive the way I want to (and get rid of that hidden partition as well, if possible, and free up that couple of Gigs it's wasting).

Please, PLEASE folks, help me out of a bind here! Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

aidan_dunne

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm sure someone will suggest using Partition Magic or something similar to resize and reformat the hard drive. Well, firstly I don't have a copy of Partition Magic and, secondly, I have no intention of buying one. So that rules that out straight away. I don't see why I should have to go out and buy extra software to do all this just because those penny-pinching gobshítes in Acer decided they could save a few cents by not including proper XP discs with their laptops! :mad:

Also, what are the chances of me actually getting an XP disc from Acer if I badger them enough about it? I know Dell have a similar policy now regarding their laptops but I've heard that if you annoy them enough and keep on insisting they send you out an XP disc, they eventually cave in and will do so. I'd prefer to have an XP disc that I can use to take proper control of my laptop with (well, after all, I've paid for the licence, I should expect a disk to go along with it, shouldn't I?) so do you think Acer would send me out one if I could finally get through to them and insisted on one? Has anyone else had any luck in that department?

Nukem

There are a few ways to achive what you want.
Your sure you cant reformat on drive in NTFS with Computer Managment (very odd) - you can download a trial Partion magic if needs be. Also you could ghost your hard drive into the other partition and format them NTFS one by one;not very safe. Would recommend doin that on a PC as well.

Surely Acer would be able to help? What did they say?

Nukem

aidan_dunne

Okay, I finally got through on the phone a while ago to Acer support (in the UK! 2 phone calls, each about 20 minutes waiting in a queue, only to be hung up on when I got through! :mad: Got through to a person on the 3rd call after another 15 minutes or so. Terrible system they have in place, I must say). I explained the situation to the guy I got through to and he said, "Well, you can try the CONVERT command through a DOS window to convert the drives from FAT32 to NTFS".

I told him that I had already done that and that was fine for converting but what I really wanted was the ability to define partition sizes and file system type myself when re-installing Windows, like you would if you had a bootable XP CD.

"Well, there's no way you can do that that I can think of. Not without an XP disc anyway and we don't give out OEM Windows discs, only recovery discs." :rolleyes:

Ummm, yes, I know that. That's exactly my problem. Is there any chance whatsoever that I could get an XP disc from you.

"No, it's not our policy to give out OEM discs. There's an image in the hidden partition used to restore your operating system, though."

Fair enough, is there any way I can burn a bootable copy of that that will do what I want?

"No, sorry, that's only used in conjunction with the recovery discs we provide."

So what you're saying is, I'm stuck with two factory-default 40GB approx. partitions (and a hidden partition with an XP image and other system files, as far as I can tell), and both will be FAT32 unless I use the CONVERT tool? And will be reset each time to FAT32 again everytime I do a system recovery?

"Well, yes. Like I said, I don't know how to change that or make it do what you want to do, unless you have a bootable XP disc........."

.......Which Acer don't provide.

"Exactly. We only provide you with a Windows licence, we're not obliged to provide discs so we don't."

But the likes of Fujitsu Siemens do with their machines.

"Well, that's their policy, not ours I'm afraid. You could try tracking down a second-hand copy of XP somewhere or see about buying an OEM disc yourself or something like that perhaps."

:rolleyes:

"Though, I just thought of something. You could use Partition Magic to resize your partitions. That might work!"

So, you're suggesting I go out and spend my own money on a piece of software to make this thing do what I want it to do....... all because it's Acer's "policy" not to provide customers with proper XP discs that would do it nicely for them in the first place?

"I know it's not an ideal situation but that's about the jist of it, yes."

Okay, fair enough. Thanks for your help anyway.

So, there you have it. That's about as far as Acer's support goes in the matter. Looks like I'll just have to convert the two partitions to NTFS and leave them at 40GB odd a piece and use it that way (short of getting my hands on Partition Magic). Fair enough, it'll work, but it's not ideal. Would like to have the option myself of setting it up from scratch but whatcha gonna do, eh?

Wandering Dazed

Maybe try using the XP boot disks (if you have a floppy) to run setup and partition how you want. They should just refer to the i386 directory on the recovery cd if it's not just an image that Acer have.

daywalker

Wandering Dazed wrote:

Maybe try using the XP boot disks (if you have a floppy) to run setup and partition how you want. They should just refer to the i386 directory on the recovery cd if it's not just an image that Acer have.

the problem with recovery cds is the fact that any and all options are hidden to prevent fcuk ups by non pc users and to ensure that all original programs are properly installed, also with hidden partitions the recovery cds generally only have half the information and its all put together during recovery. any recovery cds that ive seen use ghost files so accessing them thru dos is impossible without a copy of ghost.