March 29, 2008

Booting XP image on Acer T-136

Problems:  Error1: "No bootable drives found" and 
Error2: "missing or corrupt hal file"

Causes:

Error1:  Bios automatically makes first partition on HD 0 invisible to Windows
Error2:  5-User XP image originally created on different PC hardware

Solution:  

If necessary, save customers important files onto the technician's HD first

Use Bootit to Make Customer's Original HD all free space 

Restore Dummy 1 GB data partition on customers original HD

Restore 5-user XP image onto the free space below the dummy data partition.

Check that this partition is bootable:

In Bootit >view MBR >set active >apply 

Restore 5-user Data image onto the free space below the windows partition

Resize the 5-user Data partition to max capacity

Boot into Windows normally


The dummy partition became drive letter "D" and this could NOT be changed.
Therefore, for each of the 5 users I had to do the following:

Move my documents to drive E:\. 

Delete existing my documents shortcut on Windows taskbar 
and create new shortcut to my documents on windows taskbar. 

Delete the old favorites folder from my documents. 

Set the download folder of U-Torrent, Ares, and LimeWire to 
My Shared folder in my documents on drive E:\.

Save the test file of Essential PIM to Address + Calendar folder in 
MY Documents on Drive E:\

If outlook is being used then I move personal folders to E:\
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If you ignore error1 and the use of a dummy partition then 
this basic procedure can be employed to get the XP image to boot on 
any PC or laptop capable of running Windows XP 
(800+ MHZ, 20+ GB HD and 512+ MB RAM).

A laptop HD may be attached to the IDE of a PC by employing an adapter.  
A SATA laptop HD needs NO adapter if the desktop PC has SATA on the motherboard.

Also, this basic procedure may be used to deploy an image of Windows Vista 
onto different PC hardware.

May the force be with you, my disciples!