gregrocker said:
His OD failed and is being replaced under warranty, Si, so he has no way to reset Recov partition inactive if it won't start Recov. Unless Acer has placed the "Repair My Computer" console at F8 during bootup. Check to be sure first.

Is there another way he can get Win7 back without DVD/CD if marking Recov active doesn't run Recovery?
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It might be easier to borrow or buy an external USB DVD drive and use recovery disks.