Aspire S3 FAILURE - won't boot from USB

Oh dear!

I was so proud of my s3 having converted from 15yrs of mac addiction. The machine is only 3 months old Smiley Sad

Went to uninstall some software and I got the blue screen telling me:
the BCD is missing some required information
0xc000000d
You need to use the recovery tools on your media

Got an expert here who created a USB bootable drive with Linux on it in order to access my C drive, recover the data and rebuilt the BCD.

A first we experience issues with the USB drive but managed to recognise it through legacy bios instead of UEFI.

Problem now is that the USB drive doesn't recognise the windows drive!?

We can see the recovery partition but simply can't boot into it.

Windows recovery tool states the "windows drive is locked".

Is this something to do with the split hd?

I'm well within warranty but I've only just transferred all my data from my old machine (4 days ago) without backing up yet. If I send it back to acer it's coming back clean.

I'm aware that acer can provide the media?

Any help appreciated

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Mrcontroversial

Ok so I've firgured out that that I'm gonna need the recovery media from acer to get this machine back up and running.

I'm guessing the reason in getting the "windows is locked" when trying to boot Linux from USB is because the bios will only accept the acer recovery media?

My question now is... is there ANY way of saving my data?

Please help

IronFly

There is a fairly easy way to usually fix this, but you need a Windows 8.1 Recovery Disk, or Installation Disk to try it.

a. When your computer starts, wait for the manufacturer logo to check the option for boot menu, it will usually be F12.

b. The boot menu key might differ with each manufacturer. If you are unable to find the boot menu key, you may refer the user manual.

c. Restart the computer, when the manufacturer's logo is displayed, keep pressing the Boot menu option key to enter the boot menu and change the boot option to CD\DVD ROM.

d. After you boot your computer using Windows DVD or System Repair Disc, a black screen appears with gray text "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD". Press any key.

e. Select the correct time and Keyboard type.

f. Click “Repair your computer” in the lower left corner

g. Click on Troubleshooting, advanced option and then click "command prompt”.

h. Tthe following commands and press Enter after each command:

Bootrec /fixmbr

Bootrec /fixboot

Bootrec /rebuildbcd

i. Restart the computer.

Mrcontroversial

Thanks for the response.

Little more tricky than that it seems:
Alt f10 (acer erecovery) and f12 don't work on start up Smiley Sad

I get the acer logo and it goes straight to blue screen. This dies give me the option to access the UEFI settings though by pressing ESC.
The machine didn't come with a disc or media and doesn't have a cd/DVD drive.

My only option is a USB boot.

Mrcontroversial

I'm led to believe that I can't use any old win8 boot disc because only the OEM media will recognise the internal product key.

But will this enable me to recover the data??

IronFly

You can burn a windows 8.1 iso to an USB pen.

Mrcontroversial

Just tried this with Linux but I'm led to believe this machine won't accept anything bar the original manufacturers media. (Windows from Acer for this specific machine).

We've already done this and got the message "windows drive is locked" so I'm assuming that the product key isn't being read.

IronFly

Contact Acer support service

Mrcontroversial

Just been in contact with acer who want 24hrs to register the warranty, 14 days to send over the media and 7 days to repair the hardware! And if I want my data, they want me to use my free time money and fuel to seek out a hardware technician to try an recover. This is completely unacceptable.

IronFly

Have you tried with a software like Clonezilla, to boot from it's live image and try to clone your HDD to an external USB HDD?

http://clonezilla.org/

Mrcontroversial

We used a bootable Linux on a fat32 formatted 16gig USB stick but the "windows partition is locked". Something my MCSE friend couldn't understand!

Can anyone confirm if there is any way of doing this?

ANY way of accessing my C drive to recover data? ANY way of restoring back to factory settings?

IronFly

Sorry, i don't understand it....but have you tried with an USB windows 8.1 bootable installation?

leave UEFI on BIOS if you boot from USB windows 8.1 installation media.

Mrcontroversial

Ok that sounds positive! I assumed that the same error would occur but I'll give this a try.

The problem I experienced with booting in UEFI was that the USB wasn't being detected. Hence the switch to legacy.

I'm just downloading Tuxboot to try clonezilla out first.

Do you have a link for a bootable win8 at all?

IronFly

windows 8.1 will boot with UEFI.

follow the instruction i gave you some posts above and if, after the repair, you still receive an error about EFI, switch to Legacy again and try to boot.

check PM

Mrcontroversial

Thanks for your help IronFly.

I'll report back my findings ASAP.

Mrcontroversial

Ok, been searching for a while now and I can't find a USB bootable win8 or 8.1 media file.

Moreso, microsofts platform for this requires a product key from my copy of win 8.
The aspire s3 does not have a physically readable product code like most other machines. This is built into the architecture and read/verified as part of the boot process.

Any advise on where to look for this media?

Mrcontroversial

OK I'm back!!

Been waiting for the USB to SATA cable to arrive so I can recover my data from the drive.

I got a call from Acer who instructed me to remove the internal HD, wait until the data was backed up, replace the HD, reset to factory settings and then, because f12,f2,f8 or f10 isnt working, use the secret "restart 4 times at Acer gateway" trick.

This doesn't seem to be working either as i'm just getting the same blue screen and error code.

Someones kndly provided me with a link to a usb bootable 8.1 so this is my next (and last) arrow in the quiver.

Mrcontroversial

Picking this up again unfortuntely.

The 8.1 I have installed no longer recognises the key that came with it, so it looks like i've got to go back to Acer for the original media. At least I've had a chance to set up as required so I can now do a backup ready for when I install the original media.

Can anyone tell me how to get hold of this? I'm happy to pay for this!.... When Acer give me a reasonable explanation why I'm have these problems on a 4 month old machine of course.

IronFly

the BCD error can appear from various reasons, can be some bad sectors on HDD too.

it's not so easy to give an unique reason, it's why i told you to contact the Acer support and have a tech to check installation and hardware too.

about the 8.1 you installed and the key not working, that's strange since your key is in the EEPROM of your machine and can activate a clean 8.1 installation too.

Mrcontroversial

Thanks again IronFly, that's what I thought! the installation accepted for the key that I was supplied but after a short while, my machine prompted me to activate windows again, at tho point it told me that the key I was using was a generic key that count not be used. This pops up about every couple of hours and I simply f4 it.

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