Solved Tried to Restore to Factory Defaults, But Hardware Won't Allow It

[Skrulz]

Hello again SevenForums. A few weeks ago I came to you guys with what was apparently a BSOD issue concerning a laptop I own. Well, shortly after my last post in that thread (linked below) I handed the laptop to a friend who said he would be able to fix it in a snap.

He apparently tried to restore everything to factory defaults, which would've been okay with me, except that when it booted up again, it said something to the tune of the hardware being incompatible. Now, when it's booted up, it simply says that the installation cannot be completed, and to restart the process. Sadly, my friend had no idea how to do this, and neither do I.

Rebooting has caused no change, and while it is still possible to get to the boot menu, all of the options (safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, start windows normally) lead to the setup screen, where I'm presented with the prompt to restart the installation process.


( http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/125297-since-wake-sleep-mode-comp-cant-do-anything.html ) Here's the link to the prior thread. I don't know enough to say if it's at all relevant, but on the off-chance, there it is.

 

[gregrocker]

Sounds like he ran Factory Recovery from boot, and it failed.

Did you make your Recovery Disks, as they are used for these situations as well as HD failure?

If not you can order them from your Tech Support, or find a Win7 retail installer to reinstall with the Product Key on COA sticker using these steps: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/125874-re-install-windows-7-a.html#post1086729

 

[Lemur]

Question: he tried to set Win 7 to default, or the notebook bios? I'm guessing Windows. Is that correct? How did he do this (did he use his own system disk)? Do you have your own media for the operating system?

Acer drivers for your system can be obtained at:

Acer Support - Drivers & Download

 

[Skrulz]

I do not have any recovery disks, unfortunately. I'd had the laptop for roughly a week before this started happening, and didn't really expect to need to do this so soon (lesson well-learned).

As far as I know, he attempted the Factory Recovery from within safe mode, and that's when this particular issue started happening.

 

[Golden]

Do you have your laptop manual? Usually it gives specific instructions about resetting to factory defaults. For example, on some laptops (not neccessarily yours) you hit ALT+F10 to do a factory reset.

 

[Lemur]

I think Acer expect you to use Acer Recovery Management to create your own backups to restore.

Since your computer is so new, I would contact Acer and request system disks.

 

[gregrocker]

On Acer notebooks, press F10 key repeatedly at boot screen to start Factory Recovery. It might still run.

If not, call Acer Tech Support. It is included with your purchase for a full year, along with a full replacement and parts warranty.

Within the first 90 days, Acer ships Recovery Disks for free.

You can still consider a clean reinstall if you don't want all the Acer bloatware: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/125874-re-install-windows-7-a.html#post1086729

 

[Skrulz]

No manual, but I'm sure I could find the appropriate one somewhere online. I'll get back on that.

 

[Lemur]

Yes, in the download section, see documentation.

 

[Skrulz]

That did the trick, sorta. Trying to restore the OS but keep a back-up of windows profiles and documents was a no-go. I tried twice. In the end I did a full restore, with no back-ups, and it worked A-OK. I'd say this one's solved

 

[gregrocker]

Once you get it set up like you want and running best, save externally a Win7 backup image to use in place of Factory Recovery in the future: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

The backup utiility will offer to make you a Repair CD which you need anyway in case Win7 fails to boot: run Startup Repair, System Restore, or Restore using the Image.