Category: Geeks r Us
To make a long story short, this morning, I spilled coffee in my Acer Aspire One D255, and it is no longer working. Lee has my D257 that I was going to sell, since it has the Atom N450, the same processor as the D255. I thought it was the N550. At any rate, that one is loaded with Windows 7. But can he install the XP drive from the D255 into it? If so, does he need to do anything special? I vaguely remember something about having to change a setting when installing XP on a 7 machine, but I'm not sure if that's in the machine itself or if it would only be if I wanted to actually install XP on a drive that previously had 7 on it. All of my important things are saved, but I have a few files that I would like to get off the D255 drive if possible, and since it's 2.5 inches, I don't think his standard hard drive enclosure would work with it. If nothing else, I'll just get another D255 with no hard drive, as I found a few very cheap ones, but I would like to avoid that. Thanks.
Are you talking about downgrading from your current OS?
No. I want to remove the current hard drive in the D257 and replace it with the one from the D255. I don't mind 7 Starter, as it's 32-bit, which I like, but I want to get a few files off of my other drive, and I prefer XP in general anyway. The only real advantages for me with 7 are the feature that lets me listen to the microphone, and the fact that I can use a single account with it instead of needing to take the precaution of having an administrator and a subaccount. It's not a big deal if I can't get them off, since I am always backing up my work to my thumb drive, but it would be nice.
If you're wanting to do a straight forward swap without installing the operating system then the short answer is no, that won't work. Assuming both machines take 2.5 SATA drives and you don't mind whiping the drive and reinstalling the OS I don't see there being a problem.
If you want your data, the cheapest way forward would be to buy a caddy that converts a 2.5 drive into an external USB one and do it like that. They cost around £5 in the UK so shouldn't break the bank.
Thank you so much! I will buy the caddy, now that I know they're so cheap and exist! *smile* But now I am honestly curious. Why can I not simply switch one drive out for the other? Certainly, I could not do this on the D270, as that is purely a 7 machine, with an N2600 processor. But the D57 can take XP and the processor in this particular one is the same as in my D255.
This doesn't relate to my current situation, but since you mentioned wiping, if I have a netbook with a recovery partition and the regular one with the operating system, can I use CCleaner to just wipe C and then reinstall from D, or would that not be possible?
Technically speaking, assuming both machines are identical, it might work. Realistically though there will most likely be differences in drivers and buy the time you've uninstalled the old ones, installed the new ones and fixed any issues that that may have caused, it's just quicker to do a fresh install.
That certainly makes sense. *smile* But I couldn't do that without an actual XP disk, since the recovery wpartition would be for the D255 and contain all of the old drivers. But as I said, I was just curious. I'll just go the cheap and easy root here.
Ah, but one thing you are over looking.
You spilled coffee in the machine.
You can't be totally sure it is only the drive that is damaged, or that the drive is not damaged at all.
Sometimes coffee, especially, and enough of it, and your computers toast.
I did a wireless keyboard once. Dried it out, and the hold thing.
Day by day, it failed bit by bit. Lol
The lesson I learned, is never argue with someone while drinking coffee next to your computer, or if you are going to drink period, you need a spill proff mug. Smile.
It was not my usual circumstance of having coffee on the table next to me. I actually picked up the cup and the computer because I was going in the house. It had a lid on it, but was not closed. I have a nice usb keyboard here, so if it dries well enough for me to use that and just save the files, it won't matter. I could have Lee take the drive out and then sell the computer itself for parts. I was considering doing that, though I was going to wipe it and get more money for it as a working unit. That, or I was just going to install 2gb of ram in it and continue using it.
liquid and technology are not friends ...
Ah, how true that statement is Reyani. Lol
You put coffee or whatever on them, you can toss it in the trash most times depending on how much.
I still drink and use my computer, but I have learned to use a better cup, or my wireless keyboard.
That way, if I do spill, only the keyboard is lost.
I have a usb keyboard that I use with my Thinkpad out of necessity. But even after I have the built-in keyboard fixed this week, I probably will use the external any time I'm near liquids. Usually, though, I have it up on a table next to me, and when I do go out with anything like that, it's in a spill-proof container.
But back to this caddy. How does it work? Would Lee put into his regular hard drive enclosure or is this an actual enclosure, only for netbook-sized drives? I'm assuming the former.
My post 7 was in response to post 5, not post 6. Regarding post 6, no, that wouldn't be possible. I don't like recovery partitions personally; much better to just start fresh IMO.
To use the caddy, you would take the drive out of the broken computer, connect it to the caddy then connect the caddy to a USB port on a working computer to access your data. This of course assumes that the drive is working although it's definitely worth a shot.
In the future, if you've spilt something on an electronic device, don't turn it on and take it to someone who can take it apart and check it over for you. I've had some success in reviving water damaged motherboards when buying a replacement didn't make financial sense / wasn't possible, but the more you try and turn it on the less likely a repair is.
Good advice for water. Coffee seems to be a different beast.
The stuff has acid,or something that seems to eat electrical stuff, and gets sticky especially if you have sugar added. Smile.
Yes, worth a try. You can't go wrong trying to save data.
The quickest way for me is to just ship it off to Lee in New Orleans. I know that sounds crazy, as I'm in New Jersey, but I'm more likely to get someone to drop it off at the post office for me than to take me to a computer guy, wait for it to be fixed, etc. Plus, I'm sure they'll charge a lot more than it takes to ship the machine. I sincerely hope that this type of thing never happens again.
A clean install is always best, as it ensures no bloatware, but it also requires gathering the drivers for the machine and then either buying a copy of Windows with a key, or in the case of a netbook, hacking into any copy of 7 to open up Starter and just using the key on the back of the machine to install it. Of course, if I already have a copy of Windows, and the laptop has that version, I could use the key anyway, no matter the form factor. But Starter is not sold on its own. In any case, if I were to have a factory restore done, it would usually be to sell a machine.
As for the caddy, this is wonderful! I thought I had to put it in one and then into the regular enclosure. *smile*
Why don't you just get a 2.5" to USB 3.0 adaptor?
SABRENT USB 3.0 TO SATA/IDE 2.5/3.5/5.25-INCH Hard Drive Converter With Power Supply & LED Activity Lights [4TB Support] (USB-DSC9)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DQJME7Y/?tag=hotoge-20