Successful USB XP Pro to Acer AspireOne

[jerryw]

After 2 full days, 20 msfn.org browser windows open, new 4gb USB stick and umpteen copy to USB attempts, the Acer netbook is finally running a quite stable version of XP Pro.

As one user here described his "head nearly exploding" from all the information, likewise, I know how he feels.

The funny thing is I'm not sure now how I did it but it involved a slow understanding and coming together of BartPE, RyanVMIntegrator, DriverPacks, PEtoUSB and quite a few copying and installation takes. Finally one tweak to boot.ini for the right partition number and it ran all the way up and is rebooting.

Acer has a hidden partition harboring the XP Home edition source files which isn't unlike my IBM R52 or any other more modern portable it seems, but which kept wanting to dominate by always reverting to "recovery".

My background has mostly been spent in GUI Windows based Internet development environments and not so much technical HDD, boot sector, MBR, using the command line, etc., though upgrading my own hardware and software through the years enough has rubbed off to know how to plow through something like this.

I'm not sure I can be of a whole lot of help but if anyone is struggling with there AspireOne XP upgrade I can certainly try to convey what I know has worked here.

[jaclaz]

The funny thing is I'm not sure now how I did it but it involved a slow understanding and coming together of BartPE, RyanVMIntegrator, DriverPacks, PEtoUSB and quite a few copying and installation takes. Finally one tweak to boot.ini for the right partition number and it ran all the way up and is rebooting.

This quote describes IMHO very well the path one has to take:

“I am saying something about the ineffable. I am saying something about the ultimate mystery. You can understand it, yet you can never understand it totally. It is elusive, it escapes. It is within reach, but it is not within grasp. You are always coming closer and closer to it, but you never arrive. And the day you arrive, then you are no more there; the distinction between the seeker and the sought disappears. Then you are it. That art thou -- then you are it! ”

I'm not sure I can be of a whole lot of help but if anyone is struggling with there AspireOne XP upgrade I can certainly try to convey what I know has worked here.

That would be very nice of you.

Sometimes it is hard for "veterans" to explain to "newbies" the steps involved, as it is easy to overlook info unwantingly assumed as already known.

A report or guide written from a "new perspective" may help a lot.

jaclaz