Notebooks & Netbooks

[Galad]

My son's ACER E1-571 has crashed, presumably due to downloading something nasty and now Windows 8 refuses to boot up. I can get in via Safe Mode but can't run a full McAfee scan. It also won't let me reset/refresh or use system restore. Before I take it in for repair I was going to try and use a back-up file from a USB (waiting for a 32GB USB to be delivered). I have an ACER V3-571 model and I'm planning to take the back up from my computer - will this work on my son's pc? I've downloaded instructions on how to boot from a USB. (Both laptops are ony 18 months old)

I'm also assuming that I can use ACER Back-up Manager 'Image My Drive' function to create the Windows 8 back up file?

Cheers.

[Vince53]

Galad, I have good news. In a worst-case scenario, it won't cost much to get it fixed. PROBABLY, a repair shop is going to have to use their edition of WIndows 8 to get the laptop started. They PROBABLY can then fix the problem, and your son's rig will start-up normally. This cost me $18 on a desktop one time.

My E1 came with MacAfee installed, but they wanted me to pay to keep it installed; meanwhile, Windows Defender is already installed and it works fine. If you did not pay for MacAfee, it is possible that the laptop is running Windows Defender.

I am going to be very surprised if the backup form a different model computer will work.

[Galad]

Thanks Vince it looks like the repair shop then. If it's a virus that's done the damage I can't understand why someone would go out of their miserable way to design something that renders a computer virtually useless.

[Leho]

Galad

I concur fully with your opinion on the jerks that create a virus. 

Leho

[Galad · Accepted solution]

Update for anyone who can benefit from my experience.

I purchased a 32gb USB (£13) and took a back up from another working ACER computer (V3 571) and successfully reset the faulty pc (Aspier 1) following the guidance provided elsewhere on this site. Everything came back, including the drivers, but (hopefully) not the virus if that's what it was. 58 Windows update files had to be downloaded - for anyone who has to do this I was able to download them in one go but you need to be patient as it took 30 minutes to download and another 25 to install. Drung the download the meter indicated 0% for the first 20 minutes before suddenly springing to life so don't be tempted to cancel until it completes.

Happy days and lessons learnt by errant son about downloading dodgy files.