New
#11
Finally an answer!
Well finally some good news regarding what started this post. I was finding it impossible to boot to cd no matter what types of recovery discs I used... refer to the 1st post and I list them. I spoke with 4 different techs where I bought the computer, none of them could figure out why I couldn't boot to disc.
Hours of troubleshooting later here is how it was finally resolved. I am now able to boot to any type of recovery cd providing I do the following.
1) unplug all my USB devices except keyboard and mouse
2) go into bios and ENABLE legacy USB, save and exit
3) insert recovery disc... reboot and press any key at the prompt
4) wala.... finally a boot to CD occurs properly
5) in the case of linux recovery discs for acronis... once it actually boots to their start page (within the recovery cd environment, I am able to then plug in my external drive, I can than continue on and then see the image on the external drive.
*whether it can be successfully recovered remains to be seen, but at least I can now access it.
6) After escaping out and removing the recovery disc, I can reboot... go back into bios and DISABLE the legacy USB setting.
7) Rehook up all my extraneous USB devices and carry on
The shame of all this is someone at this forum did recommend the enable USB legacy, and I did try it, but I got a catostrophic crash, and couldn't even enter into the bios to fix it. That is why I had ruled out using that advice. HOWEVER, when that all occurred, all my USB devices were connected to the computer, I made the change in the bios... and then it was instant black screen upon save and reboot.
So I guess I'll mark this solved, but I still have no clue as to why I can't boot to CD if USB legacy is disabled, and I have NO idea why it would be required to have it enabled in order to do something as important as being able to boot to an emergency recovery CD or even the Windows 7 install disc.
So thanks to everyone who tried to help! - Carl