Acer Aspire 5251 will not start; when it tries to start is gives 2 options

MarketGarden

The two options are 1.) Launch Start up Repair (which results in the system locking up) or Start Windows normally (which also results in the system locking up).  How can I determine if the hard drive is toast, or exactly what is wrong?

mrdolby

Sounds like malware...i would download something like Hirens bootdisk or similar, it has a miniXP mode that gives you an XP interface, from there i would run a chkdsk on the drive and see if it throws any errors up.

 

To access the drive though you need to go into BIOS and set the drive type to IDE mode, otherwise the drive wont show up in miniXP.

 

If the drive checks fine then it may be malware, you can use the free tools on the Hirens disk to look for likely offenders and delete them.

 

If its really serious, remove the drive from the machine, connect it to another PC and copy your data off it, and then put it back in the laptop and run a full system restore, this will get rid of the nasties for good.

 

i do this forum in my spare time so i may not always be around to answer questions

MarketGarden

I was able to down load Hitachi boot check disk program and looks like the hard drive took an "excessive" shock...I have ordered a bigger and faster hard disk to replace it...I do have a back up on a WD external hard drive...can I restore from it, even if the drives do not match?