Acer Swift 3 (Model no. SF315-41-R9S1) boot failure and unable to repair or reinstall fresh OS.

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Answers

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE

    >>>. (1) Do either of the Win10 flash drives boot without any internal HDDs or SSDs connected?  >>>
    No.... shows up blue screen as before. 
    >>>. (2) Does the Linux flash drive boot without any internal HDDs or SSDs connected?  >>>
    Yes. It boots up and presents the LIVE environment too! 
  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    I created a bootable Win 10 flash drive using Ventoy in my laptop (Linux) and tried to boot today. But facing same issue. 😌
    Earlier flash drives were created using RUFUS from windows computer. 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,912 Trailblazer
    >>>. (1) Do either of the Win10 flash drives boot without any internal HDDs or SSDs connected?  >>>
    No.... shows up blue screen as before. 
    >>>. (2) Does the Linux flash drive boot without any internal HDDs or SSDs connected?  >>>
    Yes. It boots up and presents the LIVE environment too! 



    This strongly suggests something is wrong with both Windows flash drives.  Accordingly, you should use Microsoft's USB media creation tool to make the Windows installation flash drive from a Windows computer --- preferrably a UEFI Windows computer.



    Jack E/NJ

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    Ok sir, 
    Does this also suggest that something is wrong with the BIOS. Is it possible to update BIOS from Linux OS?
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,912 Trailblazer
    The BIOS seems OK since it's recognizing at least one bootable flash drive just fine. What brands and capacities are the flash drives that you're using for the Windows installation and the Mint installation?

    Jack E/NJ

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE

    For LinuxMint : HP (16 GB) 
    For Win 10 (v1511) : HP (8 GB) 
    For Win 10 (Latest ver.) : SanDisk (8 GB) 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,912 Trailblazer
    8GB is sort of the bare minimum recommended by Micosoft for Windows even for 1511. Can you possibly  borrow a 16GB flash drive? Don't touch that HP 16GB Mint flash drive as it's the only one that's bootable right now.

    Jack E/NJ

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    Yes.....Sure sir! ....will update you later
  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    Glad to ping you again 😊
    I am going to create a bootable Windows Flash drive with the help of my friend"s computer. As we suspect that something is going wrong with method of creating flash drives , I am listing the things here. Please check and revert to me, if any corrections are needed.
    1. Flash drive capacity: 16 GB. 
    2. Make: HP 
    3. PC for creating flash drive:
    a) Make: HP (Desktop)
    b) Firmware Interface: UEFI
    c) HDD Partition Style : GPT
        (Please see the screenshot). 
    6. ISO image: The latest one available on MS site for download, after entering the target machine's Configurations.
    7. Software for burning: Windows native software (i.e.  Media Creation Tool).

    Now how should I prepare my flash drive before extracting the ISO image into the flash drive? 
    While formatting with power shell, should I go for FAT32 or NTFS file system?... and is convert GPT command required? Otherwise shall I let the Media Creation Tool decide everything? 
    Thanks! 


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,912 Trailblazer
    edited September 2021
    >>>shall I let the Media Creation Tool decide everything? >>>

    Yes. This is preferred method. Be very careful that the Windows USB doesn't try to overwrite Linux. Because it might see the Linux EXT4 partition as unallocated.

    Jack E/NJ

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    Thank you... will be back later! 😊
  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    Happy to ping you again.
    I assigned the job of creating the installation flash drive to someone who is away from me.
    After creating the bootable USB drive with MCT, he checked and informed me that it is in MBR partition with FAT32 File System.
    Will this flash drive boot on UEFI firmware PC?
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,912 Trailblazer
    >>>After creating the bootable USB drive with MCT, he checked and informed me that it is in MBR partition with FAT32 File System.>>>

    No. Not if your Linux installation was done in UEFI mode on a GPT partition HDD.  He must have used an older BIOS machine with MBR partitio n HDD to make the USB.

    Jack E/NJ

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    I will check once again and revert to you. 
    1) I installed Linux on my SSD... Not on HDD.
    2) He used a HP desktop AIO PC with UEFI based firmware and GPT-Hard drive.
    Will update the exact details later. 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,912 Trailblazer
    Check your BIOS Boot tab to see if you installed Linux in UEFI GPT mode or BIOS legacy MBR mode.

    Jack E/NJ

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    Sir,
    In boot tab, I couldn't figure out the mode (UEFI / LEGACY).
    Please see the pictures. 


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,912 Trailblazer
    It's fine in UEFI GPT mode. Don't change it. The USB installation pendrive must be GPT partition scheme Fat32 format. UEFI won't boot an MBR partition scheme FAT32 pendrive.   

    Jack E/NJ

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    @JackE
    Yes. But it's surprising to see the MBR partition made by MCT.
    Anyways I will try to figure out what went wrong and re do it correctly.
    I will update here once done. 
    Thanks. 😊 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,912 Trailblazer
    Maybe he used Rufus and the iso.

    Jack E/NJ

  • amarever
    amarever Member Posts: 166 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    edited October 2021
    @JackE
    Happy to ping you again. 
    The flash drive is being created in MBR + FAT32 style by MCT, INSPITE OF choosing correct options and using a latest UEFI firmware machine with GPT - partition Hard Drive.
    I created another flash drive in GPT + NTFS with Rufus.
    Both flash drives failed to boot my laptop. The same error shoots up! 
    Please see the pictures for partition info of both flash drives.
    1) 16 GB Flash Drive:

    2) 8 GB Flash Drive
    Partition 1:

    Partition 2: