Swift 3 Recovery when windows installation is unbootable

Hi,

I just bought a new Acer Swift 3 laptop. In general I am quite happy with it, but I am curious if there is a way to recover if windows installation get unbootable. I created an USB recovery drive, but how do I get the laptop to boot from this drive? In the BIOS I see only one boot choice (it does not have a name, just number "2" for some reasons), which I guess means boot from internal SSD. I thought maybe I need to have USB drive inserted before starting the laptop? I tried it, but it turns out that with an USB drive inserted, I cannot get into the bios at all - laptop just hung displaying "Acer". If I start laptop with USB drive inserted but do not try to go into BIOS, it boots from SSD. So I am now stumped - is there a way to boot the laptop from USB ?

P.S. I updated my BIOS to the latest (1.10). Still the same behavior.

Thread was edited to add model name to the title

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William_mk2

vladn

There are different ways to do recovery on your computer. Inside your computer, there is a place called recovery partition. You can use the recovery partition to reload windows instead of using the flash drive. Using the flash drive to do recovery will always be the last step.

You can always do a refresh and reset. These are the steps to do the refresh and reset .. If you are able to load the windows and if you are able to see the desktop and regular icons then follow these steps..

click on start - settings - update and security - recovery - reset this pc - get started

or

on start - type here to search - type reset this pc - click on reset this pc on the top - click on get started

It will show you keep my files and remove everything

chose keep my files
chose the account - type the password - click on local reinstall - click on reset
It will be in progress..
login to computer and start using the computer.

If it is still not working

click on start - settings - update and security - recovery - reset this pc - get started
chose remove everything
click on local reinstall - just remove my files - click on reset - It will be in progress

If you do refresh ( keep my files ) - all your personal files like pictures, music , documents , videos will still be intact. Only the applications will be lost

If you do reset ( remove everything ) - you are doing a factory default. It will become like a day one computer. It will wipe out everything and take your computer to day one like a new computer.

Step 2

My goal is to help you to get into repair mode. It will show you - chose an option, continue, troubleshoot, use a device.

Different ways of getting into repair mode:

When you start the computer, once it goes to automatic repair, diagnosing your pc , it will show you something like restart, advanced options. If you click on advanced option, it will go to repair mode where it will show you chose an option, continue, troubleshoot, use a device. If you are not able to get into repair mode, we might have to do a hard reset to get into repair mode. Turn on the computer. Once it goes beyond the acer logo, turn off the computer immediately by holding the power button. Do this for 6 to 7 times. Turn on the computer. It will go to repair mode.

If it is still not working you have to follow these steps. There are two alt keys on the keyboard. If you look at the bottom row of keyboard you can see the one on the left side of space bar and the other on the right side of space bar. The alt key on the right side will be looking like alt, alt gr or alt car. Turn off the computer. Hold the alt key on the left and tap f10 continuously. It will go to repair mode. If it is not going to repair mode, turn off the computer. Turn on the computer. Hold the right alt key ( alt gr or alt car or alt ) and then tap f10 continuously. It will go to repair mode.

You can click on troubleshoot - reset this pc - It will show you keep my files and remove everything.

Again in remove everything there will be two options - Just remove my files and fully clean the drive.

You can try Just remove my files. If it is still not working then you can try "Fully clean the drive"

Step 3.

Turn off the computer. Tap f2 - go to to bios - Go to main menu - F12 boot menu - it will be disabled - Press enter - enable it. Go to boot menu - Boot mode - change it to uefi - Secure boot enabled - f10 saved the changes.

Connect the flash drive - tap f12 - It will show you the boot menu with usb hdd flash drive as option 2 now - chose it and start to install

If you not able to go to bios by tapping f2 - go to repair mode which was mentioned on Step 2 - Go to troubleshoot - advanced option - Go to UEFI option - click on restart - It will go to Bios.

vladn

Thank you for detailed instructions. Steps 1 and 2 depend on windows installation at least partially working. I am interested what to do if it is not so, and I need "step 3".

Boot mode in the bios is already UEFI, and there are no other modes available. Secure mode is enabled, and there seem to be no way to disable it. In fact there is nothing in boot menu that I am able to change at all.

When USB drive is connected, it does not allow me to go into bios - if I start laptop with USB connected and press F2, it hangs displaying "ACER". Not sure if it means that my laptop is defective, or it is expected behavior ?

billsey

When the recovery partition is not bootable you can boot to a Windows install flash drive then use the Repair option to start a recovery from your recovery media.

vladn

Maybe I was not clear enough with my original question? Let me repeat it again: I cannot find a way to boot my laptop from USB, and this is the reason why I started this thread.

I want to understand which of the following statements is true:

1) By design, it is impossible to boot Acer Swift 3 laptop from USB flash drive;

2) There is a way to boot my laptop from USB flash drive, I just did not find it yet;

3) My laptop is defective, and if I replace it, and then I should be able to boot from USB without problems.

I would appreciate a response that would help me with this.

Thanks!

StevenGen

vladn said:

Hi,

I just bought a new Acer Swift 3 laptop. In general I am quite happy with it, but I am curious if there is a way to recover if windows installation get unbootable. I created an USB recovery drive, but how do I get the laptop to boot from this drive? In the BIOS I see only one boot choice (it does not have a name, just number "2" for some reasons), which I guess means boot from internal SSD. I thought maybe I need to have USB drive inserted before starting the laptop? I tried it, but it turns out that with an USB drive inserted, I cannot get into the bios at all - laptop just hung displaying "Acer". If I start laptop with USB drive inserted but do not try to go into BIOS, it boots from SSD. So I am now stumped - is there a way to boot the laptop from USB ?

P.S. I updated my BIOS to the latest (1.10). Still the same behavior.

My advice is this, as I’ve used and recovered many systems with this software for many many years, get Macrium Reflect either its FREE version or its bought version and install its excellent “Boot Menu option for system Image recovery” which is the best feature of this software on the market for a complete backup. If you buy this software then you can also do individual folder backups and utilise its many other features.

JordanB

vladn said:

Maybe I was not clear enough with my original question? Let me repeat it again: I cannot find a way to boot my laptop from USB, and this is the reason why I started this thread.

I want to understand which of the following statements is true:
1) By design, it is impossible to boot Acer Swift 3 laptop from USB flash drive;
2) There is a way to boot my laptop from USB flash drive, I just did not find it yet;
3) My laptop is defective, and if I replace it, and then I should be able to boot from USB without problems.

I would appreciate a response that would help me with this.

Thanks!

1) It's very easy to boot from a USB flash drive on your Swift 3.
2) You must go in to the BIOS settings and enable the F12 boot menu and then save/exit. Insert the bootable USB recovery drive. Turn off the laptop. Turn on the laptop and immediately start tapping the F12 key and your USB flash drive should boot. If it doesn't boot, then go back and create a new USB recovery drive with Acer Care Center app.
3) Highly unlikely that your laptop is defective. You can also try a different USB flash drive or try the Media Creation Tool to create your vanilla Windows 10 USB media...although I prefer to use Acer Care Center to create the factory USB recovery drive.

https://community.acer.com/en/kb/articles/73-create-a-usb-recovery-drive-using-acer-care-center

vladn

You are right, I was able to boot from USB using F12. I am still curious why my laptop hangs when I try to go into bios using F2 if an USB drive is inserted, but I guess it is not a big deal as long as an alternative way to boot from USB exists.

cankutayeser

if your os is not booting, possible bootloader corruption, you may first repair os bootloader with a windows installation usb then use windows recovery. there is a built-in recovery option in bios but I'm not sure if it works in that particular situation.

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