Aspire TC-220 stalls at setup screen

Hello,

This PC was purchased with Win 8.1 and upgraded to Win 10 when it was initially offered for free.

I was attempting to reset to factory specs. I have done this before with other pc's and all was going well until about 30 minutes into the procedure when I lost power. I waited a few minutes and turned the pc back on. It started going through the motions of installing, etc. and I lost power again. FYI, it was a bright sunny day and no known reason for the power failures otherwise I would not have been playing around in such a manner. Anyway,

when it rebooted again I got a message that repairs were necessary so I clicked OK. When the repair was seemingly completed the PC rebooted and the Acer Logo screen popped up and then changed to a black screen showing the message in the bottom left corner that it was entering Setup. And that is it!!! I cannot get past the 'entering setup' screen no matter what I try. I initially made all types of recoverable media for instances such as this but nothing will get me past the 'entering setup' message.

I really need the information on the harddrive so my first thought is to remove the harddrive to retrieve the info; and, then what?? Is it possible to format/partition the drive externally and put it back in the pc and then try to reload Windows? Any suggestions?

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IronFly

hoping that your personal data is still intact...you could connect your HDD to another PC and try to retrieve your data.

then i suggest you to wipe completly your HDD and don't create any partition but let windows 10 installation do it.

just remember that your USB windows 10 installation media must be UEFI compatible or you will not be able to boot from it.

Ozzy13

Hi Ironfly

I appreciate your taking the time to assist.

Actually in retrospect I suppose it is not realistic to believe my files are intact as I fear that the factory reset may have chugged along far enough to mess up everything but I have a couple hard drive enclosures so I at least have the means to try if I can figure out how to remove it from the case. My last backup was a couple weeks ago so I’m not going to lose too much as I do keep most of my very important files in Dropbox and Google OneDrive.

I have 2 laptops so the loss of the PC is not a hardship (other than the $$ I paid for it) and if I can figure out how to get it up and running it will be a bonus as this is so far outside my realm of my expertise. My major concern is that I do not have any installation disks. I know I made a boot disk. I made recovery disks when I first fired up the computer (prior to upgrade to Win 10) and I have a couple disks made over time of who know's what. It’s going to be a good learning experience.

Thanks again.

IronFly

at this point, it's worth to re-install windows 10 from scratch, wiping the HDD.

http://community.acer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/Windows-10-Installation-Recovery-Media-Creation-and-Use/ta-p/394236

download the Media creation tool and choose to download the iso file, once done, download Rufus:

https://rufus.akeo.ie/?locale=en_US

plug an USB flash drive, run Rufus and set it as on its webpage, let it create the USB media, once done, plug the USB flash drive on your TC-220, power on and press F12, choose the USB flash drive and then do a custom install wiping all the partitions.

Ozzy13

Hi Ironfly,

Thank you so very much for the info. I had no idea I could re-install Win 10 as I only had Win 7 installed when I bought the PC. You have definitely given me a good kick in the right direction. This is something I must put on the backburner until after Xmas but I shall give it a go in the New Year.

Silver Stars to you for the assistance.

Regards

IronFly

oh, i forgot...when you will be asked about product key, during installation, just skip the steps, your installation will be authenticated the first you will connect to the web.

Ozzy13

Many thanks

Is what you say meant to mean that I physically remove HD & 'hopefully' retrieve info externally and then return HD to the PC and then proceed as you set out; or, just do what you suggest with my PC stuck in it's current state of not booting up past the setup screen.

And, ref your last message regarding Windows product key. I do have a Win 10 ID #. Use it or Forget it?

IronFly

Honestly i would try to connect your HDD externally anche check if any data is still here.

About win 10 ID, if you mean the username and password to log in, use it.

Ozzy13

Hi IronFly,

The Win 10 Product ID I referred to is a combination of numbers and letters, similar to 00223-81058-AAOEM. I assume I recorded this number when I upgraded to Win 10 when it was first made available.