INSTALL WINDOWS XP + OFFICE 2000 USING A USB FLASH DRIVE

HOW TO INSTALL WINDOWS XP & OFFICE 2000 ON YOUR ASPIRE ONE USING A USB FLASH DRIVE

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
• Your Windows XP CD, plus its product key
• Your Office 2000 CD and serial number
• A USB flash drive at least 2GB
• Depending on your Windows source, possibly a means of activating Windows
• An ISO image-making programme
• A ISO image reader
• A step-by-step guide to transferring Windows XP onto your Aspire One
• A computer with a proper CD drive running Windows

----Begin by installing an ISO image-making programme. I browsed around and chose Magic Iso Maker, which you can download at http://www.magiciso.com/download.htm
The free version proved adequate for my purposes.
1. Download and install Magic Iso Maker on your main PC.
2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD drive. Mine has SP2, and I suspect that SP3 works better.
3. Follow the instructions at http://www.magiciso.com/howto/howto.htm to make an ISO image of Windows (I made a bootable one and burnt it onto a CD in case I need it again). Store the image on your main PC.
4. Take out the Windows CD and repeat the procedure with your Office 2000 CD (I made a non-bootable image). Store that folder too on your main PC.

----Now, the complicated part: transfer Windows XP onto your Aspire One and get rid of the Linux OS in one go. I tried a lot of different guides, and the one I found worked fine for me was the video at
http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/instal ... aspire-one
I recommend that you first run through the whole video to get an idea of what you’ll be doing, then go through it step-by-step until the procedure is complete. I would allow an hour for the whole thing. In my case it really did work perfectly, and I didn’t even get the .dll error mentioned in the video. It just took a good while, that’s all.
Important: this step requires the product key for your Windows XP CD. The product key cannot be found on the CD itself! It's on the sticker on the CD sleeve and in your Windows licence. If it proves impossible to locate, it can be retrieved from a PC on which Windows is already installed from that particular CD using a hacker tool such as Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder, available at http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

----Hopefully, by this stage you’ll have Windows XP up and running. The next step is to add some essential drivers, which you can download from Acer’s website: ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/netbook/as ... 10/driver/
(thanks Ronime for the tip! See post viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11172&sid=d100b90e75fe427ee959aeda261bb83f#p72723)

----Download your essential drivers onto your main PC, extract them into folders and transfer the lot onto the Aspire One using your USB flash drive. Practically all are executable (locate and click setup.exe or similar). Restart your netbook and try out your LAN and Ethernet connections. They should all be working properly.

----At this stage, I suggest that you look for and install Windows updates from the Internet. I didn’t do this, but I suspect that upgrading to SP3 may help you get rid of some problems that I, in any case, encountered while trying to install Office 2000. If you don’t install SP3 and come across problems, your Windows XP ISO file should do the trick.

----Before getting on with downloads on your netbook, it’d be a good idea to install some antivirus programme. I’ve been a happy user of Avira for years and would recommend it: http://www.free-av.com/

----Next, download directly on the netbook an ISO file reader. This will create a virtual CD/DVD drive on the netbook that will allow you to access ISO files much in the same way that a regular CD/DVD drive does with files from actual media. Again, I chose Magic ISO’s free download, called Magic Disc: http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso- ... erview.htm

----Install Magic Disc, or whichever software you’ve chosen, on your Aspire One.

----Copy both your Windows XP ISO and your Office 2000 ISO files onto your USB and plug it into the netbook. Keep the Office serial number handy. Access Office 2000 ISO via Magic Disc and choose ‘Browse Disc’. This will display the virtual CD’s files and folders. Locate and click setup.exe. This should launch Office setup. You will be required to enter your serial number to proceed.

----Now, it may be that Office installation completes smoothly or you may get a message telling you it cannot go on without particular Windows components and ask you to insert your Windows disc. If you get that message, use Magic Disc to mount your virtual Windows XP CD, without unmounting Office. This should allow installation to continue. In my case, it worked! Having said that, the main difference from installing Office from an actual CD was that I did not get the option to choose which components to install, even though I picked ‘Customise’. I ended up with things I’ll never be using on my netbook, such as Access and PowerPoint, and was not able to uninstall them via my virtual CD. This, however, is not crucial, as I still have 4 or so GB left on the netbook, and that’s plenty for my purposes.

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Some users report that Windows makes netbooks groan: well, yes, things have slowed down now that my Aspire One’s running on XP, but as it isn’t my main PC, I can’t complain. I wouldn’t go on to add heavyweights such as Photoshop, but if anyone’s looking for a free, lighter image editor, I suggest that you download Gimp for Windows - it’s a great little application with lots of features: http://www.gimp.org/windows/

I hope that I haven’t missed out any crucial parts, if you spot an omission though, please post. Finally, thanks to everyone whose posts have helped me inch my way through changing OS and making my Aspire One a far more functional tool than it would have ever been with Linux.

 

Thanks for a great post, I have all the cds and serial numbers, etc, just a couple of questions, do you know if I will have problems installing XP English in place of XP Portuguese, in other words is there anything sinister built into windows to prevent this, unlike your XP replacing Linux? and can this be done using a USB external hard drive, (and I have loads of stuff on there), inedaed of a flash drive?

Hope you know

Nigels

 

Hi Nigel,

To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing to prevent you from switching languages - indeed, outside the UK (and, I suppose, other English-speaking countries), preloaded versions of Windows often offer the user the option of choosing an alternative language when completing setup.

An external USB drive sounds ideal to me, and if I possessed one, I'd certainly have tried that option first. The only potential glitch (which applies to either method of installing Windows, of course) is Windows activation - unless you have a version that doesn't require that.

Having said all that, if you go for the USB drive, you might want to browse online for relevant guides. I'm not sure whether Windows setup automatically overwrites Linux, so it's possible that you might have to format your netbook's hardrive first and install Windows afterwards.

All I can say is that ever since I've switched my netbook to Windows I haven't looked back.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for your effort, but, you should know that we have tons of these How-Tos already. We don't need that many for the same thing.

You still use Office 2000? At least switch to 2003, if not 2007. I mean, not that there's a big big big difference, it just looks cooler. =D

 

Thanks for a brilliant guide art, XP and office are running perfectly now and my one is well on the way to becoming a useful little tool for me. I bought the linux version because I thought it would be something fun to tinker with, but I just don't have the time to become a programmer and I'm too fidgety to be happy with the basic set of programs the linux version comes with. Now it's something I can use for work and I love it all the more. Got a bigger battery on order now and next on the list of things to do is add a touchscreen. Because I can.

Oh, and this was the first guide I found using the search function, but have since discovered the 'How to Guides' section lol. Excellent.