"No bootable device - please restart system" after getting rid of Ubuntu

Hello all,

Until recently I've been using Ubuntu on my Acer Aspire S3-391 with zero issues. However, I need to return the system back to the Windows 8 that came pre-installed.

I had made a recovery disk before I installed Ubuntu, thinking it would be a trivial job of booting off the USB and letting it do it's thing... Nope - for some reason the USB drive I used, although detected in the BIOS cannot be detected when I boot with it, giving the error in the subject line. It doesn't seem to be picked up in Windows Explorer on my Windows 7 desktop either.

Dash, nevermind, I'll grab a Windows 8 ISO, rattle in the product key on the base of the laptop and source the drivers myself... Nope. No product key on the bottom, and it seems mighty difficult to find a legitimate ISO.

Without having to resort to actually buying another copy of Windows (which I can't find on Microsoft's website either - it only offers to upgrade the PC I'm on), is there anything else anyone can suggest? I'm pretty well versed in computers generally but having been using various Linux distros for many years now I'm really struggling with this Smiley Sad

Cheers,

Thomas

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HalfBit

I never tried myself, but to recover your Windows key, try opening a support ticket to see if Acer keeps track of that.

It's pretty odd your laptop doesn't have that sticker.

The "No bootable device" message appeared to me when I replaced the original HD with a SSD that didn't have any OS installed.

Even though you created a recover disk/USB stick, seem like it's corrupt or was never actually done.

Are you sure you have your USB stick ready for boot? Or do you have a .ISO file inside it?

Well, at least you can try opening a support ticket and ask if Acer can provide you a donwload link for recovery disk.

ThomasBisset

It is quite weird, but in my research it seems that a part of the new security features of Windows 8 is that they put the code in the BIOS - that way, it's great because you don't need to type the code in to activate it, you just need to install it as normal and it picks it up automatically. Problem is I need the code to download the ISO from MS directly...

What you say makes sense. I tried putting the stick into my desktop and it doesn't recognise it at all - doesn't appear in My Computer wen it's plugged in. That makes me think it's tried to do something but it corrupted somehow.