Friday, April 24, 2009

How to partition your harddisk ?

So, after finding out that I now have 1 single partition of 80GB.
I wanted to take the HDD out and bring it back to the distributor and ask them to partition it for me.

Or take it out, put it in an external HDD case and partition it using Computer/Disk Management in Windows (never done this before)

But hey... a lot of people are using Partition Magic, and I didn't have to take out my HDD, so I tried it.
There are infact other software, Acronis Disk Director, fdisk, Gparted, Ghost, etc etc.
I choose Partition Magic because it was the one that was available at that time.

So.... I installed Partition Magic 8
Reboot / Restart computer.

Then I go to Partition Magic.
Basically I just followed the instruction to partition my HDD.
Oh okay, I forgot what I did ;p
But since I didn't write down any note on it, it must've been pretty straight forward.

Here's a snap of the pic.
No need to read what's there, once it's running, you can't do anything anyway.


So.......... Partitioning done and one happy me :)

How to change the harddisk of your notebook ?

A few months ago (Feb 2009), my Acer Ferrari's harddisk drive crashed,
well... it made a cluck cluck sound everytime I turn the laptop on.
I can't go to windows and it says :
file missing/corrupted : (windows root) \systems32\hal.dll
then I went to BIOS, and harddisk is not detected.

So after 4 years of No problems with Acer Ferrari 3000,
I now have a dead hard disk. huhuhu :(
So... I called Acer Tech support again,
they said the hdd is definitely dead, bring it in to replace it.
US$ 65 for 80GB (IDE, 2.5" HDD)
and US$115 for 120 GB (IDE, 2.5" HDD)
They'll give you only 3 months warranty for the new hdd.
So I asked acer what brand of hdd they use ?
They wouldn't say. They actually refuse to tell you what brand they use.
So retarded right ?

But someone in a forum said it was easy to replace your own hdd.
My notebook's not under warranty anymore anyway, so I tried unscrewing the hdd cover on my notebook.
Kinda scared I might wreck it even more , honestly, but hey....
So, I unscrewed it but I didn't know how to pull out the tiny Hard disk out of its place.
I tried pulling the metal thingy, Don't !!!!!
There's a tape/transparent plastic thingy tucked in there, use that tape to pull out the HDD.

This is my first time ever looking at such a tiny 2.5" HDD.
(front and back view)

So 4 years of me is in that little thing ?

So Acer uses Hitachi HDD, big deal !
I don't know why the Tech support was so secretive about that.
It's a Hitachi Travelstar, IDE, 4200 rpm, 2.5" HDD, 60 GB, and it's not working anymore.

So... I bought myself another Hitachi Travelstar, IDE, 5400 rpm, 2,5" HDD, 80GB
It cost around US$52 from a Hitachi Distributor, with 1 year warranty.
So, I didn't only get a cheaper price (US$13 less), I also get a much longer warranty.
Okay...plus a lot of time to learn how to replace a HDD and replace it myself. I was curious anyway, so if time is money to you, well.... you can bring it to Acer, or any computer shop can do it for you.

I wanted to get a bigger HDD capacity, but I read somewhere that the BIOS might not support it. So... 80GB is good enough for me.

So... I replaced the HDD.
turn the notebook on, went to BIOS, new HDD detected.
So I intalled the Operating system (Windows XP) using Acer's Recovery CD.
Done !!!!!!!
Computer running again :)

Only 1 problem though....
I didn't partition the new HDD, there was no option during instalation like you'd get using a Windows XP CD.
So... I now have 1 single partition on 80 GB
woohoooooooooo....................

How to partition a HDD next.

Acer Ferrari Notebook / Laptop

So....
In 2004, yes dat was a long time ago :P
I bought a new laptop.
Acer Ferrari 3000Lmi
yeayy right....
It was one of the best buy ever, for 4 years at least.

I know people are saying that you should stay away from Acer.
I also heard people saying to get Acer's business line for better quality.
But I bought their top of the line laptop, at that time.
It had Ferrari's logo, so, a lot of responsibility there.

A pic of my Ferrari's notebook ?
ohh... it's sitting right next to me.
I can't be bothered to take a pic and upload it here :P
but it's the shiny red one.
Looks like brand new, coz I took such a good care of it ;p

I finally did take a pic of it :)

oh red color always looks blotchy on low resolution.

Anyhoo....
the laptop / notebook, worked fine for 4 years.
Yup, it ran a bit hot and was a bit loud.
But it never caused me any problems.
Everything is still working fine until now, except that it can't write to CD anymore, but it can still write to DVD.
It's gotten a bit slow over the years, due to a lot of programs there and of course, compared to the Core2Duo or the quad core, well.... it's quite slow. *wow I'm being so polite*

I got it with Norton antivirus preinstalled, and Windows XP.
I got a Virus once, yes Norton was running, I then installed Mcafee and problems solved.

I rarely use the battery, so I took it out on the second month and put it in my drawer.
then everytime I wanna use it, the battery seems to last less and less.
And it's totally dead now.
I don't even use the battery that much.
My sis got a 7 year old Asus notebook, battery always attached no matter what, and now the battery still gives for an hour or so.

Anyway, my Acer notebook was kinda slow about 2 years ago.
so I wanted to reformat it.
by reformat, I meant re-install XP using their Recovery Disc.
I don't know if it's the right terms, but you get the point.
So... I called Acer tech support, every guy that I asked on how to reformat my notebook myself was telling me to just bring the laptop in because it was too complicated to do it myself or saying how I might delete essential files, etc etc.
They refuse to advice me on how to reformat the laptop myself.
Anyhooooo..........
That's when I turn to the internet.
I emailed Acer's representative on like 5 different countries to get responses about how bad their tech support guy was.
and I went to forums to find out how to do it myself.

Finally I reformatted the laptop myself anyway.
It was so easy to do, it took I don't know 1 hour ? 2 hours ? I forgot.
But I reformatted it and re-installed all programs.

Anyway...
Acer responded via email and a supervisor of their tech support or whatever, emailed me back and apologized and offered to assist me in my problems.
D'oh... my problems solved anyway.... he should just tell the tech support people to actually "support" instead of advicing people to bring in their laptops to Acer service center.

There....

So... will I ever buy Acer notebook/laptop again ?
I dunno, I might , but only their top of the line products, though.

My Acer Ferrari 3000Lmi
Pros :
- No problems in 4 years.
It's still working now, my mum uses it to browse the internet, but mostly it's just sitting there.
- Pre-installed Antivirus wasn't really protecting me from viruses.
- Although a bit hot and loud, it's still tolerable.

Cons :
- Battery life is short.
- CD-DVD writer won't write to cd anymore.
- Tech support is so so.
- The letters on the keyboard are disappearing, they don't stick well.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

My How to Tech 5

other stuff

My How to Tech 4

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My How to Tech 3

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My How to Tech 2

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My How to Tech 1

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