Drivers for 5742-6720 after installed new HD and Operating system

I installed a new hard drive in my Aspire 5742-6720. I was never able to successfully create recovery discs (I tried dozens on times when I got the computer and when I new the hard drive was failing, but it always failed after 2 DVD's were burned and the system wouldn't let me save to a flash drive or external hard drive) so I installed a new copy of Wndows 7 64 bit that I had won at a Windows 8 launch event. When I booted up and tried to access the internet, a message popped up saying no network connection was available. I tried to find a driver for the network adaptor online that I could save to a flash drive, but nothing on the Acer sight says it is a network adapator driver, and when I tried to save a LAN driver for wireless to see if that would work, I couldn't save it to a flash drive. Thought I had, but then after 3 attempts still nothing was able to be saved.

So, how can I find the correct driver to access the internet when they aren't listed on the website and all the drivers on Acer's site seem to be available to download onto the problem computer, not an external drive and then loaded?

Thanks!

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Vince53

Welcome aboard, Moj. Your budget laptop gets good reviews in everything except playing high-end games, so I consider it worth fixing. My own Acer laptop (different model than yours) only allows me to install a recovery system on a thumb drive, which may or may not be your problem.

But once you installed a new OS, you deleted all the Acer drivers that came with your rig. If you can refresh to your original system, I advise you to do so. It is possible to install a new OS on a laptop, but it is a difficult procedure that often leaves a laptop unusable.

However, you can try this site: http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers If that doesn't work, you can try this non-Acer site http://drp.su/drivers/notebooks/?v=Acer&m=Aspire%205742&id=8461&l=en but please remember that ACER IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR PROBLEMS CAUSED BY INSTALLING SOFTWARE FROM A NON-ACER SITE.

If all else fails, a repair shop might be able to retrieve your recovery partition and get you going again. SInce laptop prices are very low right now, it might be cheaper to simply buy a new one.

mojemimi

Thanks for your reply.

I have a couple of questions though. Weren't all Acer drivers on the previous hard drive anyway? If so, they were gone when the previous hard drive failed and wouldn't reboot, regardless of my installing a new OS (which was the same as the original OS). Am I wrong about this? Anyone?

What about factory or after market recovery discs?

How does one get drivers for a computer when they build it themselves? Seems like it would be the same process as I need to go through here.

I only had my computer for a few months before the hard drive crashed, and it does have an i3 processor and added memory (not to mention the new hard drive I bought), so I would hope to not just brick it.

Thanks!

Vince53

Moj, when you install a new OS or a new hard drive, you lose all your drivers. You might be able to get them from the manufacturer's website for non-Acer installations (such as your new hard drive).

mojemimi

Thanks. I thought that was the case. Regardless, I was able to download the network driver from Acer.com and now am up and running. Still need to figure out which driver I am missing for the camera though. Any suggestions appreciated.