A0A150, back to XP from W7

Hi
I have an A0A150 that orginally had Xp. I instlled W7 RC. This expires shortly (didn't run too good) so I want to revert back to XP

The hidden partition is there and I have enenble D2D in BIOS. Hit the Alt-F10 combo but get:

Edit Windows boot options for Windows 7

Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Hard Disk: 11a8ba38

/NOEXECUTE=OPTION

Not sure how to proceed

Anyone with a good guide or a runthrugh? Or is it easier just to borrow an externel CD drive and intall from that?

 

Well if you can borrow a CD that would be better because when you do a recovery, it installs lots of software (bloatware) which will slow down the performace. You can uninstall them, sure, but I would much rather do a clean install.

 

G'day, sounds like you're not actually getting to the restore program at all. What your seeing there is a Windows 7 BOOTMGR editor of some kind. If you recreate the situation you'll see that i's actually saying
"NOEXECUTE=OPTIN"
This is the part of the bootmgr that tells Windows what state DEP (Data Execution Prevention) is running in.

While I'm not familiar with the D2D recovery (I erased all partitions) I'd say you're waiting too long to load the recovery program. Try hitting the ALT+F10 combo earlier.

Worst case, installing Windows 7 has done something to the recovery process and you'll need an XP disk.

Most "special" buttons like F2 for the BIOS and ALT+F10 for recovery, need to be implemented as soon as you press the power button, during the Splash or POST screens. Not after. If you wait too long your OS will start to load and you'll get errors like you posted.

 

When I am about to go into BIOS, boot menu or recovery I start tapping the buttons the second after I hit the power button till whatever it is I want opens!

 

The problem is that probably by installing win 7 you have overwritten the bootloader that points to the recovery partition. A friend of mine had a similar problem, I thought it would be easy to force a boot from that partition but I've underestimated the problem. My solution than came from a lucky thing that I found out during my installation process of Ubuntu. The Ubuntu boot loader ("GRUB") is able to recognize the recovery partition and start from there. So my "not very good and easy" solution was:
1) install a dual boot ubuntun on another partition
2) then the bootloader recognizes and gives you the option to start the recovery of xp
3) after the recovery something was screwed up because it changes some start label of the windows partition so reinstall ubuntu
4) now the bootloader is fixed and winxp loads perfect (and you also have Ubuntu on you machine and it helps a lot!)

Last 2 things: I know that what I did sounds stupid, but it was the only way I knew to work with a bootloader. Second, I recommend to try any way to use the recovery and THEN uninstall the crappy software, in this way you are sure that all the optimal drivers are installed (motherboard, cpu scaling, etc.)

One more thing: the DOS command "fixmbr" could help, but in this case I didn't give a try.

By the way... how does Win 7 work on a A150 machine?? I was just wondering if give it a try...

 

Ok, thanks for all the tips.
Will give the Alt-f10 anther go. Have read that it's important to get the timing right. Lots of people with the same problem I gather.

W7 was ok, but a bit slow. Had major problems with the graphics drivers. I kept getting a small screen right from boot. 800x600 and with a repeat of the screen below.
Had to reinstall drivers. Shut down, power up and 9 time out of 10 it would start to boot with small screen! Hard shut down, restart and then it would boot with correct res. A real pain.

 

That's not a w7 problem. By now lots of people have installed w7 in AOA150, and without your graphics problem - otherwise we would have heard.