eRecovery Management - Need Some Help

I am helping a friend with his Acer Aspire One (Model AO722). We are trying to restore the original OS and software using eRecovery Management. We launched eRM and all went well until we reached step 22/38 called "Installing Office 2010". This step has been running for over 4 hours at this point. All I can see happening is the series of 1-2-3 dots. No error messages. Screen says "Your software is being installed. Please connect the power cable and do not turn off your computer."

I have two questions:

1. Is this normal or is the process hung?

2. Can I restart the process using Alt-F10 by restarting the notebook?

Thanks very much for your help!

Dave

Accepted answers

All comments

JackE

Normal? No. Can you restart, sure. But first, Is there an option on the install screen to simply skip or cancel the office installation? It's not a full version anyway.

Jack E/NJ

PS: Sent from my AO722 8^)

PilotDave

Thanks for the encouraging words!

The reinstall has now been hung at the Office 2010 step for about 14 hours.

There are no options offered on the screen. I'd love to skip over it but don't see any way to do that.

Dave

finlux

Hi Dave

Press Windows Key & R to bring up the Run box, then type:

MSCONFIG

Now select the Startup tab on the Window. Look for an entry called AlaunchX. Untick/Uncheck the entry then click Apply/OK. Restart your computer. It will now startup normally without trying to install Office Starter.

There may also be a possibility that other drivers or applications will not have installed. You can check out Device Manager to ensure all drivers are OK, if not they can be obtained via the Acer support site or your AppDrv disk (if you made one!).

Hope this helps

PilotDave

Finlux, thanks very much for your suggestions.

Pressing Windows key & R very briefly brings up the Run box. But it vanishes before I can type anything! Then the Reinstall process reappears, stalled at the same spot.

I tried Cntl-Alt-Del and that allowed me to start Task Manager - but it also vanishes before I can use it to shut down the Reinstall process....which immediately reappears on the screen, stalled at the same spot.

I should mention that this computer is running Windows 7, Home Premium edition. Don't know if that matters. Also, I have no disk drive available!

Any other ideas? Thanks again.

Dave

finlux

That's a new one!

OK, type in MSCONFIG in the start menu search box and click on the result. Then try what I suggested in my previous post.

You can also access Drivers & Applications by going to Start>All Programs>Acer>Acer eRecovery Management. Click on "Restore" left hand pane, then click the "Reinstall Drivers or Applications" option.

PilotDave

finlux - thanks again.

I can't get the Start box to stay open long enough to do anything - it comes up momentarily when I press the Windows key, then vanishes instantly and is replaced by the Reinstall process screen. Apparently the Reinstall process has total control!

Is there some way I can stop the Reinstall so I can work with the machine?

Thanks

Dave

finlux

OK - Startup in safe mode - Restart then as soon as you see the Acer logo press & tap F8, and select the safe mode option. This will boot up using selected drivers/programs and should allow you to use MSCONFIG to disable AlaunchX....

PilotDave

finlux, I have tried this. I get an error message that tells me "Windows cannot complete installation in Safe Mode. To continue installing Windows, restart the computer." My only option was to press Enter - and the computer restarted and brought me right back to that Reinstall process.

Now what?

And thanks!

finlux

This is a tricky one!

The install may have gone wrong somewhere along the way. I think the best thing is to repeat the re-installation (ALT & F10 on startup) to see if a second try fixes the issue.

Cory-Acer

I would agree with finlux, that restarting the restore process at this point would be the best option at this point.

I did a bit of research to see if we had any other reported cases on the AO722 getting stuck like this and I haven't found anything. Occasionally we see the restore processes get stuck, but usually Alt-Ctrl-Del or a restart can move you forward. This is definitely an odd situation.

PilotDave

Thanks, both of you. I'm at a meeting until early afternoon. Will try this when I am finished.
Dave

PilotDave

Okay - I have restarted the Restore.

IF this runs normally, can you suggest how long should the entire process take?

Thanks much.

Dave

PilotDave

I restarted the Restore process. It's hung up at the same point, Installing Office 2010 (step 22/38). Am having the same issues with trying to stop the process to access MSCONFIG, etc.

Is there some way that I can eliminate Office 2010 from the Restore before it starts running?

Would it work to do the Alt+F10 and to select Restore Applications and Drivers? Would that give me the option to pick which applications I want to restore - and would Windows be fully loaded by the Restore I'm running now?

Thanks,

Dave

Cory-Acer

Dave,

No, it's just installing an image and going from there. You wouldn't be able to pick and choose.

A couple options are:

Was a back created at somepoint prior to running into this issue? I would suggest running that to rule out bad sectors on the HDD.
http://shop.acer.com is where recovery media can be purchased.

These options could require an external DVD drive. It's hard to say if there is a potential issue with the HDD or the load or both at this point.

PilotDave

No backup media are available. I don't think there's a DVD drive available from the owner, but I will check.

PilotDave

Did the Model AO722 come with a plug-in DVD drive? I don't see any listed in the Acer store. Or is there a generic drive that I could buy at a computer shop?

Thanks.

Dave

JackE

If your Acer erecovery is not acting as it should, you can get the machine up and running with a fresh generic copy of Win7 though not a fresh Acer copy of Win7.

You should have a Win7 product key on the underside of the AO722. If so, you can make a bootable USB Win7 setup stick by first downloading the appropriate Win7 version (32 or 64 bit) iso image from this site. It's free.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/i-do-not-have-windows-7-media-but-i-do-have-my/5ce13741-ac25-4969-ae82-2494726aac1c

Then you can run the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool on this iso image from this site to create the bootable USB (should be at least 8gb)

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool#installation

Go into your bios to set the USB stick as your primary boot disk.

This process should at least get you into Win7 setup without losing the data and Acer OEM drivers that're already on the machine. It will not, however, return the machine to Acer factory defaults. Those will have to be done manually from the using the OEM directory.

The machine should start and operate Win7 normally for about a week or so. Then a Microsoft message will pop up directing you to call an automated 800 number to complete the activation process using the key on the underside of the machine.

A bit of a hassle, I know. But you'll at least get the machine working again.

Jack E/NJ

PilotDave

Jack - thanks for venturing into this quaqmire!

I followed most of the steps you describe. However, I'm a little lost with this part - my technical level isn't very high:

"This process should at least get you into Win7 setup without losing the data and Acer OEM drivers that're already on the machine. It will not, however, return the machine to Acer factory defaulta. Those will have to be done manually from the using the OEM directory."

Will this Win7 setup install the ACER OEM drivers? Or do I have to do this separately - is this what you are referring to when you say "Those will have to be done manually..."? And how would I do this manual restore?

Thanks a lot.

Dave

JackE

The generic Win7 setup should recognize, setup and allow you to operate most of the components on the machine, such as sound, graphics, display, ports, keyboard, etc. However, they might not operate optimally. For that, the Acer OEM drivers need to be installed and should still be within a subdirectory called OEM on the C-drive. They can usually be installed by just double-clicking one or more installation files. A bit involved, but nothing you can't handle. But we're not ready to fine-tune yet. First, you gotta get the machine to boot into Win7, either by Acer-specific Win7 erecovery or by generic Win7 setup. I wouldn't give up yet on Acer erecovery till you hear again from Finlux and/or Acer-Cory.