Acer 1640Z crashed XP help to restore.

Spare laptop as above running Windows XP. Three days ago I entered Acer e settings, and inadvertently pressed a wrong button. It started to wipe everything. I switched off after 6-7 seconds, and on restarting the laptop would not boot. 1st message : NTLDR missing; then 2nd message : file missing or corrupt <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll and to reinstall that file.

I have downloaded Lazesoft Recovery Suite (recommended by a UK computer magazine) hoping to recover lost files, etc.

I have also been informed that I can restore the Acer laptop to its factory setting by using Alt + F10. I have not tried this as yet. Should I use Lazesoft Recovery first, hoping to recover missing files, and then load them onto a CD/DVD, or USB stick ? THEN restore to factory settings, and hopefully load contents from CD/DVD, etc back onto the laptop ?

With the Lazesoft Recovery on a DVD I am able to boot up, but at the moment I am still studying its menus before attempting to recover files.

I am a relative novice with laptops - self taught on a Windows Vista for 5 yrs, and my age ? -70+

Accepted answers

cp928

laurent_14, Thanks very much for your assistance. Yesterday, I still could not get out of the 'loop' and did factory restore 7 times. In then end I booted from a DVD on which I had made a backup using Macrium Reflect. I had made that backup sometime last year. From the Macrium backup I have got things working again, and everything looks fine.

I did try the Macrium disk last week, but had no success with it, so that was possibly due to my inexperience.

Anyway, Thanks very much, once again, and I will certainly bear in mind Acer Community for any future problems.

Regards,

Fred.

All comments

laurent_14

Hello,

I advise you to watch this video: Acer eRecovery Management - Restore Windows from the Recovery Partition.

You could also read this documentation: Acer eRecovery Management documentation page 9 and 10(Windows XP).

cp928

laurent_14, Thank you very much for your reply. It looks promising, and I will have a look at your links and suggestion tomorrow when I have more time.

Thanks, and I will post to let you know if I have been successful.

cp928

laurent_14, Thanks for your links. Partial success after 2 hours. I managed to get into Acer e-recovery buy using a rescue disk I created last year. I have done a 'factory reset', and also a reset from a backup I had made using Acer several months ago.

However, when I now boot up I get the Windows XP screen for 1-2 seconds, and then it reverts to Acer e-Recovery management. It is a continuing 'loop', and as I say I have used the recovery management, and I did let the program take its time, sometimes almost 1 hour.

Is there any way I can escape that e-Recovery management 'loop' ??

laurent_14

Hello,

Have you changed settings in the bios setup utility?

cp928

laurent_14, "Have you changed settings in the bios setup utility ?" Please explain,bearing in mind I am a novice !!

But after the initial success, I entered F2, and > boot options> F12, and entered so that I could boot from hard disk, rather than the CD/DVD option. But still without success. (The Acer XP laptop does not boot from USB sticks)

I will keep a lookout for any suggestion from you. It looks like I am halfway there to mending the XP laptop, so I will not give up.

laurent_14

Hello,

As I don't know the exact content of your disks, I prefer that you restore your system from the hidden partition [Alt]+[F10] showed in the video:

"The hidden partition main page offers three options to restore the system: restore to factory

default settings, restore from user's backup, or restore from backup CD/DVD."

The default password is normally six zeros (000000).

cp928

laurent_14, Thanks very much for your assistance. Yesterday, I still could not get out of the 'loop' and did factory restore 7 times. In then end I booted from a DVD on which I had made a backup using Macrium Reflect. I had made that backup sometime last year. From the Macrium backup I have got things working again, and everything looks fine.

I did try the Macrium disk last week, but had no success with it, so that was possibly due to my inexperience.

Anyway, Thanks very much, once again, and I will certainly bear in mind Acer Community for any future problems.

Regards,

Fred.

laurent_14

Hello Fred,

You're welcome

cp928

Everything now back to what it was. Today, I have installed 135 Microsoft updates. One of which was Internet Explorer 8 and things are running smoothly, a bit faster, and the Internet Explorer screen is what I was used to.