freeflowcasi Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 I have a Acer Aspire 4530 with Windows Vista, and I created the 3 Factory Restore disks. Now, if I format the harddrive completely, and put Windows XP on it. . . Will those disks still be able to completely revert the computer, and actually put it back at the factory status if I F this up? Thanks in advance. PS: I have a 9100M, 2.0 AMD x2 64, and 3GBs. I'm looking for a little more performance out of XP. I was thinking of just putting in Home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hb_Kai Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 When looking at My Computer, how many hard drives/partitions does it say you have?If there are two of them; besides the one you are actually using, is the other named something like "Restore_Image" or "Manufacturer_Name_and_some_other_stuff"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeflowcasi Posted July 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 There was two partitions, but I closed it, and extended the main one (C:). It had like absolutely nothing on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hb_Kai Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Do you know what it was called? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeflowcasi Posted July 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 just d: i think it it was totally empty. why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeflowcasi Posted July 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 so what do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hb_Kai Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 I always thought Manufacturer's use another partition to be used alongside their recovery disc, which is why I was asking.Anyway. I think there are complications in dual-booting XP and Vista. I'll post back soon, after I look on Google but usually it's just installing the OS on the second partition, only confusion is with the many boot loaders... :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hb_Kai Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 I couldn't find much about its complications other than people saying "there are some complications", though there was something about XP and Vista's shadow copies becoming corrupted and one or the other deletes them to save becoming corrupted but I managed to find quite a few tutorials which I've read through and seem understandable.Google Search Page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeflowcasi Posted July 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 wait, you want me to have both installed? I was just going to wipe the entire computer and put XP raw. . . ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbrideau Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Well, dual booting is possible, as long as you install the older OS installed first.About that recovery partition thing, sometimes they're hidden. Take my Asus laptop for example: I have a hidden recovery partition which is not visible in computer and then the C and D drives, which are the visible partitions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeflowcasi Posted July 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Actually. . . Dual booting sounds awesome. . . I think im going to try this. Any tips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hb_Kai Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Sorry about that. I got confused with another thread on here. When reformatting, you should also remember that you are probably going to have to find all your drivers, all over again.Anyway. As long as you don't delete your backup partition, you'll be all good if ever you want to recover your Vista partition.Tips, yeah, like Sbrideau said, install the older first but the tutorials which I gave guide you on how to install XP if you already have Vista installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 If you install the older OS (XP) first, then Vista, it will automatically activate the Vista boot manager.If you install it the other way around, you must manually activate the boot manager. These are probably the "complications" Hb is talking about. (The complications being that the XP and Vista boot managers are different.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seshomaru Samma Posted July 16, 2009 Report Share Posted July 16, 2009 Quick answer - the factory restore CDs should restore your computer to the original state. If you have only one partition ("c") this would mean that you will lose all your data. If however you have 2 partitions ("c" and "d") or more , you will only lose the data on the first partition. My advice- back up all your important data to an external device (USB, DVD, CD) and install XP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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