Dear All,

Am new to this forum and became a member as I bought new acer aspire laptop 4315 with linpus - Linux and I do not know how to activate harddrive and install Windows? I have tried several options and while booting windows it gives message, that , system is unable to find storage resource - which I probably think its referring to HDD. So help me please if you know anything about Linpus and how to install windows on this laptop.

Thank you

Was this laptop designed for windows vista (by default)? Wasnt this question supposed to be posted in another forum, like windows?

It probably needs some special driver for the hard drive controller, if you are installing XP, then it is expecting you to have the driver on a floppy.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <GENERAL> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Trying to install Windows is not a Linux-question....

You probably just need some unused space on the disk - open a terminal and enter the following command, and post the results here (that's a lower case L)
If that doesn't produce anything, try it as "sudo fdisk -l".

Linux users will love this - XP does not recognize SATA drives. You have to enter BIOS and change the SATA setting to IDE. (Used to be routine for linux installs, but notice that your linpus is running on full SATA?) It is possible to integrate the SATA drivers into the install CD - you need the drivers, and the .net framework, and a spare computer. If you are put off by bash, don't even look.

Now you can install... but wait: after installing, many people find they need to install drivers for (wait for it) audio, video, and wifi. (Download from Acer.) But you can play mp3s (you just can't hear them)...

I'd be interested to know if the modem and ethernet work out of the box or if you need to download drivers for these too.

Next you have to install the updates - but wait: XP is legacy now. I believe SP3 is the "best" you'll do.

And then, you have to install all the software which will make it functional. Browser (I mean one that works), PIM (I mean one that is not vendor-locked), an Office suite, firewall, antivirus, etc etc etc.

As an experiment, I decided to see if I could bring an XP box to the functionality of a default Ubuntu install... couldn't be done with all free software, so I settled for freeware too. I finally managed most of it - and the boot now takes a bit over two minutes. The ubuntu boot was 30 seconds - on a slow day.

By comparison - the default Hardy Heron (and similarly recent distro) install enables everything except suspend to ram, and the modem. Post install does the madwifi drivers, and acer-acpi (for the buttons). And you get full compiz-fusion goodness.

So - why anyone wants to install XP...