Restoring Windows

I am not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but here goes anyways. I just got my AAO today, I got the version with the 120 GB hard disk drive and windows XP home edition on it. I would like to install Ubuntu 8.10 on it.
Is there any way to back up the windows XP home to a USB hard drive in case I need to reinstall XP? I only want to keep XP around in case I decide to sell it later or if my wife takes this netbook over..

Any help is appreciated.

John

 

well you should be able to keep the restore partition when u install ubuntu so that should allow you to revert back to win xp later if need be, There is a folder i386 in the root dir it has all the windows install files you might want write that to a usb flash drive incase you need it

 

You could use Ghost or DriveImage to take an image of your C:\ drive an use that to restore XP at a later date.

 

I just got my AAO yesterday as well and I am thinking along the same lines. I plan on experimenting with several OS's and after I decide on one (or two or three...) I want to slick the drive completely and do a fresh install. BUT if I ever sell it I want to be able restore it to the factory condition. I thought there was a hidden partition for the restore files, is that not true? Is everything I need in the i386 folder?

 

Yes there is a hidden partition on your hard drive which contains the factory created installation image. The restore option can be accessed by using the ALT F10 key combination. See the user guide or do a search on here for more information.

Please note installing other OS's (grammer check please) will or may overwrite the ACER MBR which will then have to be recreated before you can access the ALT F10 recovery mode. Vista does this I know. Not sure about Linux distros as I dont use them.

 

Well... I should have posted sooner.. but I waited all of 10 minutes after my post before I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and completely erased the whole hard disk drive. I have been using Ubuntu for the last couple of days now and it is awesome so far. The only problem I have had was with Boxee... I was watching an episode of the Daily Show and the AAO completely locked up. Other than that it has been awesome!

~John

 

there's a link on this site for the full AAO xp recovery disk. I d/l it and backed up mine just in case I mess up and also lose the back up partition. So if you ever want to go back all is not lost.

James

 

James,
Where is the link? I have looked everywhere on this site and could not find it... can you post a url link to it please? <--- Ignore this... I finally found it.. It took a lot of searching and I found it in the drivers forum... go figure!

Thanks,

John

 

Pardon the bump.

I got a Win XP Aspire One and am intending to dual boot Linux on it. Would I be able to maintain the ability to restore to factory settings?

 

I have problems with my comp. I go Alt+F10 and it reinstalls windows xp home.