SATA drivers

I've seen a question on here but it didn't seem to answer my question. I
bought an Acer 5510z laptop last month with Vista business, and it doesn't
appear to be compatible with the software I need to run on it. I have
downgraded to XP by just using an XP pro disc and installing it on the C
drive as advised by the Acer guy. However, as you've all figured, the machine
now has hardly any of the necessary device drivers. XP loads up, but in
hardware profiles, the big yello question marks are everywhere, most
importantly next to network drivers which means I can't plug in a network
cable/internet.
The Acer support were useless, as they now say that the laptop needs generic
sata drivers which it doe not come with as it was made for vista, but being a
'nice guy' he reccomended that I d/load Generic drivers and this will get me
up and running.
Help ! Where do i get these generic drivers from if Acer don't do them?
Obviously the machine didn't come with any recovery/install discs.
Is here a site where I can d/load things either to a USB stick or even an
external floppy (usb) if I need to?
Appreciate any help... in basic steps pls !!

Unfortunately when you wish to downgrade an o/s the first thing you should
do is to check as to whether the manu, Acer, supprts the changed o/s

A laptop, such as Acer a large OEM, rarely have 'generic' drivers Large OEM
manu, eg Acer/Dell/HP, tweak their hw and drivers specifically for their
configaration.

I couldnt actually locate a 'Acer 5510Z' on their european web site.

Acer is obliged by their agreement with MS to supply some means of
recovering your PC to factory settings, this may be by way of a hidden
restore partition or recovery cd's

It maybe that whatever software you wish to use has been updated to run on
Vista

It's an Acer Extensa 5510z, and it's a real pig to find ..managed to find it
under d/load driver, and under XP.
I think they use a partition, but the guy asked me to burn XP onto the C
drive, which I did, but that seems to stop the OS from allowing me to access
the D partition.
I have pretty much accepted that to recover i'll need to borrow a Vista
disc, and use my product key I was supplied with, but that still doesn't help
me as the software doesn't work on Vista!. It seems to suggest on the other
Q's that I may need to create some sort of a floppy with the drivers on it,
and install during a fresh XP installation..but didn't really know where to
get the relevant drivers from.
Any help with directing me to a site these can be found from would be great.

The D drive is probably a hidden drive containing the recovery, how you
access this depends on PC maker, its often a key combination when booting.
The info you received from Acer should tell you how to access it.

If you can locate the laptop on acer site and view support pages, there will
be downloads for winXP *if* its supported

I viewed Acer downloads and I have to say it isnt descriptive at all with
regard downloads, they simply show file names.
If you can view all downloads for your specific Laptop with winxp, perhaps
make a note of all file names then google for info.
Or take a chance and download & install all of them.

Attempting to install an incorrect driver, from some other site could really
screw your PC even more.

BTW what is this software that wont run under Vista?

The first suggestion would be that you set this system back to Vista, to its
original state, and return it for a system that does run XP and for which XP
drivers are available.

If the manufacturer provides no XP drivers at all for some of the key
components, you may have a large problem.

The next would be to set it back to Vista, then remove the hard disk and set
it aside, put another one in, and install XP to that. Load a system audit
program to identify the core hardware, and identify the hardware needing
drivers that way. An example is Belarc Advisor.

I am recovering a friends Pc and wanted to put xp on it, I just backed up data formatted the disk deleting all partitions ( I relse this was stupid before checking out the drivers) I installed xp.

I now have the same problem with the network driver, both wireless and cable.

has there been a fix for this, I have seen on some forum for another version of acer laptop built for Vista an older laptop driver worked. but ave no idea where to start checking out that.

Has anyone had any luck finding solution for this problem?? I have no problem using 'test disk' or similar program to recover formatted partitions.

reason for "downgrading", for me xp is an upgrade from vista I hate it. laptop runs so slow with vista installed.

ya I checked the acer website but it is built for vista sot hey just ave the original drivers supplied whihc of course will not all work on xp because of compatibily issues.

so what I was really looking for was a solution womeone may have found by contacting the manufacter of te part or trying a model of laptop made by acer using this part with xp.

has anyone tried either of the above?

right ok, I will ceck out some older model laptops for drivers so.

and I am not screwed, isn't a backup of partition tables kept even if you format a simple tool like test disk can recover it i am sure. in minutes I am really not worried about this.

if I am wrong ere correct me

also I can just do a fresh install of vista anyways this shouldn't be a problem.
does anyone know of a application or conversion kit for vista to make it more like xp? I do not want all the visual effect of vista etc.

I'm sure i can just turn all that stuff manually but if tere is a good app out there I will use it.

ok I was blind before I dono how i missed a drop down menu for xp but ya its areally bad design of a web page,

anyways excuses aside that didn't help in anyway the driver still doesn't install and to check if I had currupted something, I re-installed xp.

still hasn't worked everything else installs I toggled the wifi on and off but ehternet controller or network controller still are question marked in device manager.

has any1 any suggestions?/

is this because I have removed teh hidden partition?/

if so should I try recover it?//

i have removed the hard drive from the pc and run test disk on it I have found the partitions shown in the picture attached,

can you advise me to which one is the hidden one i have deleted>??

thanks in advance

Hi guys I have been able to use test disk to recover the delted partitions.

for first try i have put the acer (vista partition) as primary boot and the acer service partions as primary.

I have not been able to boot it tho, says can't find "ntloadr" (or something very similar) this file is on the recovered partition. can somebody advise how i should set the partitions so I can get the laptop booting vista again?

I found by accident that when i set the acer service partition to priamry boot it was the recovery app which i do not have the disks for right now, I can get them tho i just fear the same thing will happen as the partition is obviously not set right yet.

please somebody tel me how to fix this ? :)

I tried xp again. and no luck with drivers either.

I went to the link but this doesn't really help me I know where the ntldr is.
its in the service partition. which i deleted and ahve recovered but when i recovered I did not recover it to the way i was before. so I need to know what type of partition should I make the serivce partition. if I put it as primary boot it boots and goes into recovery mode and asks me for the two discs of my system which I do not have its not my laptop and the girl who owns it only has the vista cd. when i recover it the vista partition to primary boot and the service as primary gives the n ntldr warning.

or do you mean that bothpartitions should ave this file and that the vista is just currupted? I have the cd well I will have tonight should I just run tat and install it.

How well is it gonna run if there are no XP drivers for it on the Acer
site, hmm? That's where you look, BTW.

The drivers MUST come from Acer. You need to put Vista back on the
machine, but since you've deleted everything including the recovery
partition, you're screwed.

XP and Vista are 2 different systems .

Turn them off manually. It's only a couple of mouse clicks.

Roxio software installed or uninstalled by any chance

You couldn't do that if your life depended on it unless you made a
full system backup before trying to install XP.

I hope your friend doesn't mind that you screwed up the computer you
offered to fix.

That is not "ntloadr", but "ntldr". (NT Operating System Loader)

"If an active partition does not exist or if boot sector information is
missing or corrupt, this message might appear: BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR."

There are a number of options you can try at this link:

Troubleshooting the Startup Process
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb457123.aspx

Hi again, it sounds like the boot sector is messed up. NTLDR needs to be in
the root folder of the partition you are trying to boot up. Your description
of what you have done and are done is losing me. What do you mean by
"service partition"? Is that the computer maker's hidden recovery partition
that is accessed from the BIOS before the boot begins? Could the drive's
partition table be messed up? Here's that link again:

Troubleshooting the Startup Process
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb457123.aspx