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    Help!! Acer Recovery Disc Issues :(

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by zealouz, Aug 12, 2011.

  1. zealouz

    zealouz Notebook Enthusiast

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    I was trying to help out a friend and get his Acer Aspire One (AOD250) running again. The original problem was WINDOWS COULD NOT FIND START BECAUSE THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPT WINDOWS ROOT>\SYSTEM32\hal.dll I had him order the Acer Recovery Discs. I ordered an external optical drive to install the discs.

    I entered the Bios and changed the boot order to USB CDROM. I tried the system disc and it could not be read. I tried the external optical drive with two other laptops and it worked (music CD). So, I'm thinking it is good. In the past I have recovered the operating system of a Acer 8920G by way of D2D recovery and using recovery disc. I have also done a clean install of recovery discs on a Crucial SSD (Acer 8943G). With that said, I did not hit F12 to choose the CDROM as the boot device. I ended up formatting the HDD...stupid because come to find out the CDROM was not being recognized as a boot device by the Aspire One.

    Next day, I borrowed another CDROM and it ran the system disc just fine...I'm thinking...Yes!! Then, I insert disc 1 of 2 as per prompt on screen....after about a minute, the CDROM spits it out and prompts me again to install disc one. This is as far as I have gotten...step 5 of 6 :(

    So now, I'm here hoping that someone could point me in the right direction...I have read on various forums that formatting the HDD was not a good idea because the mbr is erased. Is that accurate? From what I understand, the Acer recovery discs need the hard drive to be partitioned (like factory) in order for the discs to install. I read somewhere that Acer engineers use a disc (NAAP) to reconstruct the aforementioned partitions. Since I have successfully installed Win 7 HP on a new SSD using Acer recovery discs, I didn't think I would have a problem with this recovery. Also, How can one make a bootable usb drive with the Acer recovery discs...all the instructions I have found online apply to having the actual Win XP disc.

    What are the chances I have bad discs? What are the chances the USB CDROM is the problem?

    Thanks for taking the time to read my post...someone please set me on the right path!
     
    zealouz, Aug 12, 2011
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  2. V_Chip

    V_Chip Be about it.

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    What I would suggest doing is ripping an ISO file from the recovery discs and creating a bootable USB flashdrive using that ISO.

    Using an external optical drive for booting is a screwy way to fix your screwed up system. It often never works as planned.

    I believe IMGburn and Nero offer ISO ripping solutions. Then all you have to do is make a bootable flash drive using that extracted ISO.

    Here to help.
     
    V_Chip, Aug 13, 2011
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