Is there another option I am missing?

Strange, I posted my original comment in the sticky that applied to installing from upgrade but it got moved to its own thread I guess.

Not sure if your questions have been answered, but.....

You can download an ISO of Windows 7 Home Premium x 64 from mydigitallife.info and burn it to a disc. Then boot from the disc and install Windows 7. Then activate it using your existing product key. You don't have to buy anything.

The result would be different than running any "recovery" option and possible preferable, depending on your point of view.

ignatzatsonic said:

Not sure if your questions have been answered, but.....

You can download an ISO of Windows 7 Home Premium x 64 from mydigitallife.info and burn it to a disc. Then boot from the disc and install Windows 7. Then activate it using your existing product key. You don't have to buy anything.

The result would be different than running any "recovery" option and possible preferable, depending on your point of view.

The goal is to get a clean copy of Windows installed without any Acer bloatware whatsoever. Just basic barebones Windows 7. The way it was meant to be.

Does the link in my "EDIT:" on my OP walk me through your recommendation?

Also, thank you very much for your reply.

Yeah, the link looks like what I was talking about.

It will be a clean install with no bloatware, just as if you used a store-bought disc. No bloatware.

fseal said:

Before you make any decision to reformat and install clean. Make sure you can go to the Acer website and at least download ALL the device drivers as separate installers. I did this with my sony and a clean install was awesome but there were atleast 2o seperate driver and motherboard installers in addition to the bloatware. Had I not gotten those drivers, who knows how much hardware would have worked poorly or not at all after the clean windows install.

If you can't get the full driver set, then do not reinstall, manually clean the crap out instead. There is still a possible danger in that messing something up but much /less/ danger than starting from scratch without the myriad drivers for all the hardware.

Thanks for your response fseal. In this situation, wouldn't a reinstall of the eRecovery discs I create before the clean install fix that problem? Kind of a fallback in case something doesn't work?

Also, I have seen numerous threads on this board about backing up drivers. I will probably also do that before the clean install.

Everything you need is here: Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7