Fear holding me back from Win 7....

I'm running Windows 7 in a dual boot mode on my new iMac and love the program (7) so far.

I would like to put it on my Acer Aspire (751H) even if it resulted is a minor performance verse my present XP setup.

However, I'm a bit afraid os what might happen if my Win 7 fails to install and in the process, my XP setup disappears in the mist as well. Since I don't have the Aspire "restore to factory" disks, I would think I would be out of luck.

 

You should hve the option to burn your own XP factory disk. Check you manul for more info.

 

I'm running windows 7 on my A0751h without issue. I had to run windows update and download the recommended driver for the GMA500 chipset, but once that was done my system rocks. I have the 2GB of ram version that came with vista. I would recommend you make sure you have 2GB of ram in your system before upgrading, but once that is done I would recommend it! As far as the restore is concerned, on my system at least, there is a 5GB hidden partition on your system that you can access by pressing a certain key combo when the system boots up, so if you want to go back it should be pretty easy.

 

Do as I did. I bought an affordable sata hdd and swapped it out and installed 7 on a new disk. 160gig-320gig HDD are a little over $50 US so its cheap insurance.

 

Running Windows 7 since yesterday and it was a great discission! At least Windows 7 is not slower than Windows XP. I upgraded the 1GB memory to 2GB memory.
No Windows XP for me anymore!!!

 

I assume you're talking about doing a "mirror" of the XP drive. I haven't a clue about how to do that. Sure, I can copy the files, but it's been my experience that "hidden" files do not get copied.

Someone else wrote about a 5GB partition that contains the data to put the Acer back to factory condition. That would be fine with me as I don't care about any programs I have installed. However, if this partition exists, I'm wondering if Win7 will leave it alone when Win7 installs?

 

I think he means that you can swap the standard hard drive with a new hard drive, just keep the standard hard drive as is and then install W7 on the new hard drive. This way you can always go back to the standard drive with XP.

Go for WD Scorpio Blue, great hard drive, quite, fast and reliable (use this in my ThinkPad).

 

If you replaced your RAM module, you are also capable of replacing your HDD.
Just loosen the 2 screws that hold the HDD cover. Inside the HDD is held in place by just 1 screw. Be careful not to loose that one though.
Then you can easily slide it out of the connector and lift it out.
Transfer then metal bracket over to your new HDD (a couple of more screws) and slide it back in.
As simple as it can get.
There is no tricky/fragile connector like on the 1410/1810's.

 

Any chance of pointing me to a link that sells a WD Scorpio Blue OR are all of these drives in a form factor that will slip into an Acer? I assume I would be looking for a SATA device. Can the 751H run a 7200 RPM version or is it restricted to 5400 RPM? If it can run either, does the higher speed eat the battery faster? I can't think of a reason to go to 320GB verses 160GB as 95% of my computing on my Acer is internet surfing.

I've installed many standard HD's in desktops, but never ventured into a laptop except for memory upgrades. I think I will go this way, but I just want to make sure the drive I order will fit the Acer.

Thanks...

 

Just use any 2.5" laptop sata hard drive. Speed is not an issue for netbooks. Just get one large enough for your needs.

I grabbed one of these seagate momentus 320gb drives. Cheap and does the job.

Here is a link to a 160gb scorpio blue.

 

Thanks for the hard drive info. I'm going to get one ASAP.

 

Not a problem. Even though I know I'll never go back to XP I keep the original HDD intact for when/if I sell her.

I can remove the 320gb seagate and throw that into the next netbook with a huge partition of music, videos and applications...

 

Any chance that you can be more specific about the screws involved in removing the hard drive. Since I forgot to "number" them in the graph, the top left wiill be #1, the one under it #2 and the one on the right 3#.

Thanks

Chuck

 

Just remove the screw on the right side (#3). Then slide the HDD to the left. It is now out of the connector and can be lifted out.

Holding the HDD in your hand you will see 4 screws holding the HDD to the metal frame. These 4 screws can not be seen in the pic but you will understand as soon as you lift the HDD out.

You can't get it wrong

 

Thanks!!!

Chuck

 

Putting Windows 7 on my Aspire One 751H was the best decision that I ever made, concerning a netbook computer. \it breathed new life into my machine. I now get about 35% more battery life. The computer is faster, and so mauch more enjoyable to use. I also didn't have the factory restore disk and basically I just wiped my disk after doing a data backup and wow what a difference. Easy install. Aside from the video and card reader drivers... everything just kind of worked.

 

I take it you came from Vista?