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    Aspire 9500 Locked Out

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by Mike K, Jul 2, 2006.

  1. Mike K

    Mike K Newbie

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    My new aspire 9500 had a system crash which trashed the partition table(s)!
    Tried to reinstall from the recovery disks - no joy - all I got was "Invalid Partition Table" error. Borrowed a copy of Win XP, did clean install, loaded device drivers, system wouldn't restart - yep "Invalid Partition Table" again. A bit of delving suggested that Acer have used a hidden partition on the hard drive for their system restore (Thanks, Drio). So, Partition Magic came out and as I was prepping up on another computer, the 9500 went dead - dummy here had forgotten to plug in the AC power adaptor. Attempting to restart the 9500 now doesn't allow CD reboot - the boot options simply aren't there - pressing F2/F12 doesn't work, and I've no accessible O.S. on the 9500. All I'm getting is a flashing cursor on a black screen. Any ideas - anyone? Thanks in anticipation, Mike K.
     
    Mike K, Jul 2, 2006
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  2. gethin

    gethin Notebook Evangelist

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    well, firstly i'd call acer technical support, If that doesnt work i would send it back to acer and get them to fix it, since they have the special cd that allows you to reformat and reinstall without the recovery partition being present.

    Gethin
     
    gethin, Jul 2, 2006
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  3. Mike K

    Mike K Newbie

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    I've been in contact with acer support - they want to charge me if the problem is software related! 'Course it is- theirs! What I'm looking for is a 'back door' into the BIOS so I can boot from a CD with Partition Magic installed on it & hopefully restore the hidden partition
     
    Mike K, Jul 2, 2006
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  4. iamapato01

    iamapato01 Notebook Consultant

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    If you are willing to take apart your computer (If it's like my desktop), there will be a little flat battery which stores BIOS settings and the time I'm pretty sure. If you take it out and unplug all power sources and wait a minute then put it back in, it will reset all the BIOS settings and you might be able to make it so you can get back in.

    Otherwise if you know what brand of hard drive you have, you can get a reformat CD from that company and it will clear it all.

    Finally, keep trying acer. I'm sure all new computers they have come with a 1 year warranty. Try to talk them into fixing it.


    (Or if you're rich you can just buy a new HD and plug it in)
     
    iamapato01, Jul 2, 2006
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