I want to upgrade the HDD.

To install windows on a hard drive you have to boot from a CD with windows XP on, after which it will ask you to press a button.
After which you can follow the setup instructions in windows XP.

Glad to HELP YOU!

When you will go search for a new BIGGER HARD DRIVE for your machine check to have THE SAME PARAMETERS as the previous one:
* to be a SLIM HDD
* to be a SATA HDD

Once you got it you have to open your machine (the back cover) and to replace the hard drive. To replace the hard drive means to UNPLUG two connectors from the old HDD and to replug them (the same position) into the new one.

And you will be good to go!
GOOD LUCK!

According to page 6 of the manual, your 3610 came with system memory 256/512 MB of DDR2 400 memory, and is upgradeable to 2 GB using two soDIMM modules.

You can see a list of sources for your memory here. Additionally, you could go to Crucial's site and perform a scan of your computer for suggestions of memory upgrades.

I hope this helped & good luck!

Installed RAM 512 MB RAM Technology DDR2 SDRAM Max Supported RAM 2 GB RAM Speed 400 MHz

Service manual is here:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:933jXmOZ8pYJ:support.acer.com/acerpanam/manuals/acer/0000/servicemanuals/S.G_AS3610_BOOK.pdf+aspire+3610+manual&hl=en&gl=us
System will accept 2 - 1 GB Memory modules

You need to download and install drivers for your laptop.

Click here to open the download page.

try the jumpers set its th masterand slave thing

I found a upgrade:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-160GB-Acer-Aspire-3690-5002LMi-5002WLMi-Hard-Drive_W0QQitemZ350136862308QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20081207?IMSfp=TL081207152005r10864

$73.78 USD

Not bad...Drivers, Install Manual, 160GB Hard Drive, and New

The easiest way is to remove the casing under your laptop and see what make your drive is, but any make of laptop hardrive sould be ok. Sometimes the hard drive may be held in a cradle so you will have to remove it if this is the case and use it with the new hard drive. A problem comes when you probably have the Acer backup/restore folder on another partition(which sometimes includes Windows, as you don't always get a hard windows cd rom),on your current hard drive, so make sure you have a Copy of Windows otherwise You'll have to purchase another Windows installation disc, or clone your drive with something like Norton Ghost.