Vista 32bit to Win 7 64 bit issue

[paganegyptian]

I have an Acer 4520 with the Turion 64 X2 2.2 Ghz processor and 3Gb Ram. I have attempted to instal both Win7 64 bit and XP and neither will be accepted.
The error shows a incompatible floater stating cannot run 64 bit and has quit the process. There is nothing in BIOS that allows me to boot from CD or Flash drive.


in the XP case, the Install Windows XP screen is greyed out.

To give more info, During update install of Vista ( the laptop is brand new) it had a crash, and it seems I lost all of my accounts, except for the one I made during initial setup, which says administrator, but the computer does not recognize it as one.

It appears something could have been botched during update or initial setup. Acer did not include the Restore disk, and it appears I have no permissions. It even has C: restricited as no access. I also gets lots of invalid processes, Event viewer will not even load showing an error.


Any Ideas to how I can wipe this hard drive? I have found absolutely no options or permissions to do it. I hope I dont have to remove the HDD and put it on a Certifier to force format it as I am thinking its dead out of the water, and only having about 1 hour actual operating time. *Sad
Thanks in advance.
-Tim

 

[whs]

Given the mess you have, I would reformat the disk to NTFS (e.g. with a live Linux CD) and install whatever system you like.

 

[paganegyptian]

I am running Scandisk, it says it repaired quite a few indexes and missing files. If that doesnt work, I will burn a Linux Live Disc and maybe load a copy of Win 7 64 I have with bulk perms. I will update soon. Thanks bunches.

 

[bobkn]

The details in the 4520 manual are lacking, but there's supposed to be a BIOS setting for boot sequence. (It's off the main menu, under "boot".) What choices are you offered?

If you wish to install Win7 X64, you have to boot from the DVD (or a USB flash drive). The installer won't run under a 32 bit OS.

I expect that the Linux option will be of use only if you can boot from the CD.

 

[paganegyptian]

I am given no option to boot from DVD or flash, in any means possible, including F8, ALT+F10, F2 or anything inside the OS. I am getting a bad feeling about this for sure. I cant even load Windows XP if that tells you anything.
It must have sensed I have used Apple machines for the last 4 years and is delivering its revenge.

 

[paganegyptian]

I fixed the system, I was able to find out the correct System restore function... on the Aspire 4520, it is Alt+F10. why it worked this time.. I have no idea. I just say its Microflop Vista and leave it at that.But I am thinking Acer had some involvement with this OS.. kind of like Dell does. Locking out regular basic user functions and what not....

After the E-recovery failed.. twice, the boot manager was missing... So I threw in the Win7 64 bit disc, and after a reboot with ctl+alt+del, I hit control F10 and got the REAL CMOS menu.. I set it up for performace, taking the quiet boot off the HDD, and setting the Video memory from 64Mb to 256Mb which is the NVidia Spec on this model, changed the bootup sequence to use CD rom first, F10 saved and restarted, hit Del while rebooting and got my Win7 64 bit running.
YAY!

I attempted to initiate the Startup Repair Function for Vista 32 bit, and got Win7 64 bit instead
I guess if you screw it up enough, it will actually work.
now lets see if the luck continues ....