Need assistance with Acer Aspire 5740-6378 - Options if restore partition is gone?

[MotionMan]

I am a little out of practice with Windows...

A colleague bought himself a new laptop and gave me his old Acer Aspire 5740-6378.

Apparently, some time last year, his former "computer guy" installed Windows 7 Professional on it (The sticker says it came with "Windows 7 Home Prem OA"). Now, the install is coming up as "not genuine".

I would like to restore the computer to factory settings. Following the instructions I have found at multiple places online (ALT-F10 at reboot) is not working. I fear the restore partition has been blasted.

Is there a way to, I dunno, "recover" the restore partition? What are my other options to get this back to factory settings with a legit copy of "Windows 7 Home Prem OA"?

Thanks.

MotionMan

 

[Iron Woode]

use a disk partition app to see if the restore partition is still there.

 

[MotionMan]

use a disk partition app to see if the restore partition is still there.

Like I said, I am a little out of practice with Windows.

Can you give more specific instructions?

Thanks.

MotionMan

 

[Iron Woode]

the partition maybe hidden.

use something like macrium reflect or even paragon partition manager 14 free edition.

this will show you what partitions are on the hdd.

if there is no restore partition then you are on your own.

 

[MotionMan]

the partition maybe hidden.

use something like macrium reflect or even paragon partition manager 14 free edition.

this will show you what partitions are on the hdd.

if there is no restore partition then you are on your own.

According to Paragon Partition Manager 14 Free, there is a 100mb partition labeled "System Restore" and a 223.4GB partition (which is clearly the main partition).

The 100mb partition iOS hidden in the computer view - How do I access the 100mb partition if Alt-F10 does not seem to work?

MotionMan

 

[Elixer]

Can you enter the BIOS at all? Is the Alt-F10 recovery option disabled in BIOS?

Usually, you can mount that partition, and assign it a letter in windows, and just run the setup program.
There are times when the partition is not mountable, and is custom. If that is the case here, then, unless you have the original recovery CD/DVD then, you need to borrow one from somebody, or, download the Acer eRecovery Management program and run that with the current version of windows it is running, and it should be able to restore the original OS on it.

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answer...puter-using-the-erecovery-management-program?

 

[MotionMan]

Can you enter the BIOS at all? Is the Alt-F10 recovery option disabled in BIOS?

Usually, you can mount that partition, and assign it a letter in windows, and just run the setup program.
There are times when the partition is not mountable, and is custom. If that is the case here, then, unless you have the original recovery CD/DVD then, you need to borrow one from somebody, or, download the Acer eRecovery Management program and run that with the current version of windows it is running, and it should be able to restore the original OS on it.

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answer...puter-using-the-erecovery-management-program?

There are no Acer programs on the computer. I assume the "computer guy" erased the HD when he installed Windows 7 Pro.

And Acer eRecovery Management program won't install.

Geez.

MotionMan

 

[MotionMan]

Can I install XP, download Windows 7 Home, and then use the product key on the computer to validate the Windows 7 install?

If so, where do I get Windows 7 Home online?

MotionMan

 

[Iron Woode]

Can I install XP, download Windows 7 Home, and then use the product key on the computer to validate the Windows 7 install?

If so, where do I get Windows 7 Home online?

MotionMan

no, there is no upgrade path to win 7 from xp. I would be careful downloading win 7 isos. I do have the iso for win7 Home Premium. You also need to know whether you require 32bit or 64bit windows.

I also had a similar problem getting to the restore function on my aspire 5742z.

I believe I did it using F8. check that and see if you can restore the laptop.

or try F10 or F12. one of those might work. I don't have my laptop here so I can't test it.

 

[Eug]

If you go to Disk Manager you would normally see three partitions IIRC. The 100 MB partition would be there, but that is obviously not the recovery partition. It should be double-digit GB. And then there is the main partition that you have Windows installed on. If that double-digit partition is not there, then likely the recovery partition is gone.

However, all is not lost.

If you still have the Win 7 OEM key (ie. on the sticker on the bottom of the machine), I would just recommend downloading the Win 10 ISO and doing a fresh install of Win 10 using the Win 7 key. However, that would have be done by this Friday!

In fact, I would do that anyway. The only problem is that Acer laptops often have custom applets that control custom buttons on their laptops (eg. Bluetooth on/off display, volume display on-screen, etc.). But it's moot though since you wouldn't get those with a generic Win 7 install either. It's in the apps-and-drivers section of the recovery files I believe. Luckily, sometimes you can find some of those online, and they should work in Win 10 too. Furthermore, those applets are not critical to have.

If you do end up deciding to install Win 10, now would also be a good time to install an SSD too, if it doesn't already have one.

 

[Iron Woode]

If you go to Disk Manager you would normally see three partitions IIRC. The 100 MB partition would be there, but that is obviously not the recovery partition. It should be double-digit GB. And then there is the main partition that you have Windows installed on. If that double-digit partition is not there, then likely the recovery partition is gone.

However, all is not lost.

If you still have the Win 7 OEM key (ie. on the sticker on the bottom of the machine), I would just recommend downloading the Win 10 ISO and doing a fresh install of Win 10 using the Win 7 key. However, that would have be done by this Friday!

In fact, I would do that anyway. The only problem is that Acer laptops often have custom applets that control custom buttons on their laptops (eg. Bluetooth on/off display, volume display on-screen, etc.). But it's moot though since you wouldn't get those with a generic Win 7 install either. It's in the apps-and-drivers section of the recovery files I believe. Luckily, sometimes you can find some of those online, and they should work in Win 10 too. Furthermore, those applets are not critical to have.

If you do end up deciding to install Win 10, now would also be a good time to install an SSD too, if it doesn't already have one.

can you still download the official win 7 iso from MS?

 

[Elixer]

can you still download the official win 7 iso from MS?

Yeah, it is possible, but not easy.
Don't think the info on how to do this is allowed on this forum.
Another way, if you got the key is do https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

 

[Eug]

can you still download the official win 7 iso from MS?

I was suggesting downloading the Win 10 ISO, which is easy and legal without a key, and you can activate it with a valid Win 7 key, even an OEM one.

 

[Ketchup]

I was suggesting downloading the Win 10 ISO, which is easy and legal without a key, and you can activate it with a valid Win 7 key, even an OEM one.

That is one of two ideas I had. My other idea is just to contact Acer and get the restore media from them. The last time I bought recovery media from Acer, the price was pretty reasonable.