How did you deal with the glued down stuff on the laptop, did you cut it open with a Stanley knife or just bypass the problem by removing the whole back cover?

Your tutorial could be just perfectly what I need. I have a fairly old Acer laptop that still has it's factory Vista installation on it which is a bit of a dog even after I removed as much of Acer's modifications as I could. I've got Haiku and various Linuxes on there too—which run great—but it's a bit of a mess when they have to share space with Vista (and its recovery partition). In my heart of hearts I'd like to nuke Windows but I know there are a few things in it I'm going to want or need and I don't possess a proper Windows installation disk. Even being able to put a fresh, stock Windows on it would be an improvement but I resent spending money on buying it when I don't like it. So I'll bookmark your tutorial and try it at some point. Thanks for taking the time to explain the method. I think its going to be immensely helpful. Of course, the Windows I'll end up with will still be a slightly shitty Acer-muddied one and maybe even slower than currently…but being able to ignore Windows most of the time (and its boot loader) will be freeing.