Unable to Boot Acer Aspire M5-5881T after new hard drive install

Question

My hard drive was failing, so I purchased a new hard drive and installed it.  I used the Recovery USB drive I had created and windows indicated that it had successfully reset my machine (I chose to re-partition the drive since it was new).

However, althought the BIOS recognizes the new drive, when I go to boot the laptop indicates there is no bootable drive.  I've tried adjusting various settings in the BIOS (legacy BIOS, changing boot order, etc), but I cannot get it to recognize the new hard drive (except in the BIOS or when reseting windows).

Is there something else that must be done to the drive to make it bootable for Windows 8?

PS--the only other weird thing is that in the BIOS indicates it sees a SSD, but there is not one in my laptop.

dsartain7 · Answer

In the 10 days since I originally posted, I've tried a number of things.  If I put the drive in an external case, all the windows files, etc. appear to be there, but it is not recognized by either the legacy or UEFI bios.  I've also tried restoring the boot files by various means I researched in helpful forums, but nothing has worked.

FYI, the USB recovery will only boot when the bios is set to legacy, but the hard drive appears to need UEFI.  It appears that nothing is wrong with the laptop or the hard drive, but with Acer's recovery system.  I was able to get a Linux distribution to load and boot fine from the drive.

Even though it is Acer's fault, I might be willing to order recovery media on DVD if I KNEW it would re-install everything correctly and I'd get Windows back.  However, since no one can truly diagnose the problem, I hate to throw more money at that solution if it might not fix my boot problem.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Blayn-Acer · Answer

Try resetting your BIOS defaults and trying to load the OS without making any changes.

You could also try formatting the drive and make sure it has an active partition that is large enough to hold the OS.

If that does not work, and you are still unable to recover with your Acer recovery media, I suggest you contact technical support in your region, to inquire about service.

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