Acer Aspire 1705SMi - Won't accept new hdd

[Paolo10]

Hi. I'm trying to install a 300GB hdd into the laptop. The BIOS recognises the hdd correctly. If I try with the Acer Recovery CDs, it shows a Norton Ghost error and won't install. If I try with an XP Home disc, it keeps flashing a blue screen, but it's too quick to read and reboots. My last option was to install XP Home onto the new hdd using my desktop, and then put the hdd in my laptop, but again, it just flashes the blue screen and reboots. I'm guessing a boot.ini problem or maybe something within the msconfig, but evidently, I don't know enough about it!

I have asked Acer about this and they have assured me that there is no problem with installing new software, nor is there any BIOS issue with new hardware either. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[jlshelton]

Wow, didn't know you could stick large disks into laptops. What happens when you stick the Windows XP Home installation disc into the laptop? Does it do *anything* before the flashing blue screen? Does it appear to read the CD and start interrogating you about the installation? Or just crash immediately? If so, there's something wrong with the install disc.

Can you configure both your old and new disks, temporarily?

 

[davidmcolaco]

Are you sure you're installing a 300 gb hard disk on your laptop. Because if it's true, I want an equal hard disk for me too.

 

[Paolo10]

jlshelton! Thanks for the reply. Since my first post on the 09/Aug, I've installed an 80GB drive into the laptop to see what happened, and funny old thing, it installed XP Home no propblems. I'm now convinced (and as of this morning, so are Acer Tech Support and their field engineers) that the problem is definitely the 137GB limit. This is why the Acer Aspire 1705SMi comes with a 120GB drive and no bigger! In saying that, I took my laptop to Acer's service depot, and they told me that they've already done quite a few upgrades of hdds as big as 250GB but haven't, as yet, had any problems. They're still scratching their heads over this. I thought I'd flash the BIOS last night. It worked fine, but still the problem goes on.

 

[Paolo10]

davidmcolaco! It certainly is a 300GB drive. And it's much-required storage space I can tell you. Not to be patronising, but just incase you're not aware, Acer's Aspire range of laptops take desktop components. If it was traditional size drives for laptops, it would be very expensive to get one of this size (if they're made that size at all). But there's not much point in you getting one, as I still can't get passed this dreaded 137GB limit. My advice to you is to have a look through some forums or speak to your laptop tech support, just to see if yours can be taken beyond this limit. It might just require a BIOS flash. let me know.