Trying to reload Windows 7 with only Wind Error Recovery Screen

[billyg]

Let me first apologize if I am posting this in wrong place. I am new to this forum and wasn't quite sure. I am verrrrrrry much a novice and would appreciate anyones input. I browsed through other threads but didn't see situation that helped us.

My son has a Acer netbook that originally had Vista. Acer sent him a windows 7 upgrade disk which he installed and has worked fine for a year. The other night screen locked up, he tried to reboot. It went to Windows Error Recovery Screen. Will not "restart as usual" or begin to "repair". If you choose one of these options it just trys to load and starts over, returning to Windows Error Screen.

Contacted Acer, they tried a couple of things and said Windows 7 needs to be reinstalled, "that will be 169.99". Well we said we would try to figue it out our selves.
So here I am turning to you (not ourselves).

Like I said, I am truely a novice but will try to stumble along if someone can help us. I just can't get anything from this thing except that darn "windows error recovery" screen.

Our upgrade has: a green "Acer upgrade DVD" and a white "Windows 7 upgrade media" disk. Can't get results with either.

Thanks in advance for any assistance and have a wonderful evening.

billy

 

[Night Hawk]

Welcome to the Seven Forums! billyg

Besides backing everything up and performing a full recovery with Vista followed by another upgrade to Windows 7 you may want to review a guide for performing a clean install with only the 7 upgrade disk. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

Windows 7 installs much faster then seen with previous versions and a clean install of any newer version is always the best recommendation. The guide there will take you through each step of the way.

Often upgrade over installs tend to end up seeing numerous problems over time and why this would be the preferred option for you there.

 

[billyg]

Ok, I put in Windows 7 DVD, started computer. Nothing.....goes straight to "Windows Error Recovery Screen". No message like pictured to on link above. (oh and I think I did the right thing in the BIOS, I F2'ed went to Boot Options and made CD/DVD first on list.) Any other ideas? Thanks so much for your time.

billy

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Can you boot into safe mode?

Are you familiar with System Restore?

 

[Night Hawk]

Sounds like you are still booting straight to the main drive and not the 7 dvd to be seeing that. The better move would not be changing the boot order in the bios but bringing up the boot device menu if available.

That may be F4, F11, F12 assigned whcih brings up the options for hard drive, optical, usb hard drive, card reader, etc. Once that is up you select the dvd drive directly to boot from the 7 dvd. That still leaves the hard drive set as first/default in the bios setup but only boots one time from the dvd.

As for any existing restore points once you bring that up you can opt to running the system restore while booted live from the dvd to see if you have any points available as ignatzatsonic suggested. In long run however you will likely have to plan a clean install for seeing the best results.

 

[billyg]

Sonic: I am somewhat familar with restore from safe mode but can't get it to go into "safe mode."

I think I finally got it to read from DVD first. It gave me the "press any key to install for DVD" message. Did that, acted as if it was loading files, gives me the starting windows emblem, then stops and stays there. The boot order is still set at CD-Rom priority in what I think is the BIOS, I'm now a little confused. I accessed it through F2 (Insyde H20 Setup Utility), has tabs for: Information, Main, Security, Boot, Exit. Chose "Boot priority order" and made USB CRROM number 1.
Any ideas appreciated.

 

[Night Hawk]

The boot menu or boot device menu would be an option separate from your main bios setup key. If you press F2 to enter the bios setup for things like the first drive in order or to set time and date, enable features another F key if the option is available will simply bring up a list of drive types to choose from.

If you have a pair of hard drives and press the hard drive item you then see both drives listed and have to choose one of them to boot from that. Likewise you will typically see CD, DVD as well as usb hard drive, card reader, etc. Once you select the optical drive and boot from that and later restart the bios takes over seeing the hard drive or other drive set as default take over again. You get a one time session each time you use the boot device menu option.

The sight of seeing the 7 logo screen and files loading must have been a relief to some extent since you are making some progress. Hopefully the optical drive itself is in good working order where you can get as far as the Install Now screen following the language and location screens setup starts with. Once you arrive at the large Install Now button look below that for a "Repair Tools" link.

When clicked on that will first detect any 7 installations and list what it finds on the first screen. From there you click the next button for another screen of options after first being asked if you want to restore a backup or image or run the system restore. You want the System Restore option to see any good points are still found while booted live.

If you are still forced into a clean install however note that Windows 7 as far as the Home Premium, Professional editions now offer the option to create a full system image you can restore to the main drive if needed. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

That is stored on a second hard drive, removable media(several blank dvds for sure!), or a netwrok drive with Pro, Ultimate, Enterprisee editions. Vista first saw this only with the Ultimate not Business and HP editions there however.

 

[billyg]

I contacted Acer. They tell me there is no other way to access a boot device menu and none of my other F keys seem to do anything??? I did an online chat with them and they say they think my disk is corrupt and to order a new disk (set which they can no longer send me), I can only get Vista because that's what was originally installed on my computer.

You are so right seeing a little progress felt good but I never get to the language screen. What do you think???Think it could be that disks are bad too? No obvious stratches or defects. Been in the sleeve in closet.

 

[Night Hawk]

If the drive is trashed since many laptops tend to use lower quality or small drives to begin with depending on how you originally paid out you can simply go for a new one like a 7,200 to replace the likely 5,400rpm model it came with. From there you simply follow the guide posted before to see a clean install of 7 work out.

The part about the drive was just seen when helping someone else out only seeing a clean install of Vista instead since the specs were lacking for sure on it. That stinks not having a boot device menu option. Even the low end Toshiba I cleaned up saw that and allowed booting from usb flash drives as well.

Too often the main problem with laptops and trying to upgrade/update any is that they are simply turned over too fast for any real support to last. A model series soon becomes a "discontinued item" before you can actually get any real use out of them.

As far as the original disks found in perfect condition that would seem to rule them out as problematic. If you look at the model and look up the specifications at Acer that would show how larger the drive is the model came with to upgrade that and likely sees a 4gb maximum for memory depending on how old it is what about 3-4yrs. now.

For the OS Acer would only provide recovery disks for the laptop the way it was sold new.It was new with Vista and that is all they can offer as far as OS. If you were buying new now you would likely have the option for both if not simply seeing 7 preinsalled. For now however look over the guide posted earlier.

 

[billyg]

Thanks for all your help. I've spent several hours with not much progress so I think I will have our computer guy from my work place take a look. He sounds pretty reasonable and could use the work. I will tell him what you mentioned and go from there. It is only about 14 months old but I know what your saying about how fast stuff is out of date and discontinued.

Thanks so much for all you time and help. Even though I couldn't fix it, as a novice I learned quite a bit through trying. Have a great evening.

 

[Night Hawk]

You have to start somewhere! Good luck with your tech friend anyways and remember to review the guide I posted earlier since that can work.