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

billsey

That all looks normal to me. It's finding a GPT drive on your USB port, loading the NTFS filesystem, then booting from the bootx64.efi file. The next step after the efi file is loaded is to launch Windows itself from the USB drive. If it generates the same error message as you started with (with the unexpected error message) then that's still pointing at corrupted data on the USB drive. Either the drive is bad, the image on the drive is bad, or there's a hardware issue with the USB port itself.

amarever

@billsey
I have tried with 3 different flash drives (all burnt with Rufus). So the flash drive or the ISO image can't be bad all the time. USB port hardware issue??? 3 ports are available. Can all the 3 ports fail at a time? 

amarever

@egydiocoelho
Do I need to select FAT 32 as File System on RUFUS? (For creating bootable installation flash drive) 🤔

amarever

egydiocoelho said:

Try changing the usb stick filesystem to fat32 and also converting to gpt, from the command prompt as administrator:

diskpart

list disk

sel disk x

clean

convert gpt

create partition primary

format fs=fat32 quick

assign

Then extract the windows 10 iso to the root of the usb stick.

@egydiocoelho
Do I need to select FAT 32 as File System on RUFUS? (For creating bootable installation flash drive) 🤔

amarever

@billsey
Will changing the file system of flash drive to FAT 32 fix this issue, as @egydiocoelho advised me?

Commodore_1995#

I don't know if it will solve the problem. But you must format the usb stick in fat32. You can do this procedure using the power shell as administrator:

diskpart

list disk

sel disk x

clean

convert gpt

create partition primary

format fs=fat32 quick

assign

amarever

@egydiocoelho
I will give it a try!

amarever

egydiocoelho said:

I don't know if it will solve the problem. But you must format the usb stick in fat32. You can do this procedure using the power shell as administrator:

diskpart

list disk

sel disk x

clean

convert gpt

create partition primary

format fs=fat32 quick

assign

@egydiocoelho
I will try formatting the flash drive to FAT 32 first, as you instructed above. 
Please confirm about the following selections in RUFUS:
1. Partition Scheme - - - > GPT

2. File System - - - > FAT 32

billsey

The working Windows install flash drive I just plugged into my laptop is formatted NTFS, which is the norm for them. You do need the GPT scheme selected. Here are the settings I used:

That should work 100%. Where did you source your image?

amarever

@billsey
Good morning sir,
Thanks for your detailed reply! 😁 

Where did you source your image?

I visited the official Microsoft site where I downloaded the Media Creation Tool (.exe file) first and then, using this tool, downloaded the ISO image into PC, taking care to uncheck "Use the recommended options for this PC"-check box and selecting Language (English UK),  architecture (x64), etc. Then I proceeded to burn this image into flash drive using RUFUS in GPT - NTFS method. But I faced the same issue! 😔
As @egydiocoelho suggested, will GPT - FAT 32 combination work??? 

billsey

I wouldn't expect that FAT32 will help. My image is from Microsoft as well, though some of their developer venues. Why not try creating it with the Media Creation Tool? That will give some differences from what Rufus does so will take that out of the equation...

amarever

@billsey
I will try creating with Microsoft media creation tool in GPT-NTFS combination. 
Could you suggest any other effective software for this purpose (creating bootable flash drive)? 

amarever

@billsey
In Microsoft MCT, there is no option to select between GPT and MBR partition schemes. Then how do I ensure that it is done in GPT partition scheme? 

amarever

billsey said:

That all looks normal to me. It's finding a GPT drive on your USB port, loading the NTFS filesystem, then booting from the bootx64.efi file. The next step after the efi file is loaded is to launch Windows itself from the USB drive. If it generates the same error message as you started with (with the unexpected error message) then that's still pointing at corrupted data on the USB drive. Either the drive is bad, the image on the drive is bad, or there's a hardware issue with the USB port itself.

@billsey

there's a hardware issue with the USB port itself

1.Assuming this could be the issue, can I try plugging "Install flash drive" into Type-C USB port via an adapter? 🤔

Thank you for contacting Acer Technical Support.

Regret for the inconvenience caused to you for delay response.

As per shared serial number the system is out of warranty, Acer policy needs to take OS backup first when you install new SSD in your system, please visit nearby Acer authorised service center for appropriate help.

Best Regards  
Madxxxxxx Saxx

2. Why does Acer support team recommend to use only the  "OS backup" to repair / install windows over the usual "windows intall bootable flash drive" ? 

billsey

I believe in Media Creation Tool it will  always do a GPT configuration, since they don't have a version of MCT for Windows 7 or earlier. You should be able to plug the flash drive into any USB port, either directly or via a USB-C->USB-A adapter.

Acer is suggesting there that you do a backup of the existing system before installing a clean OS, so you can just restore the backup and keep all your data. Without a backup first your data will be lost during the install process.

amarever

@billsey
Good morning! 😊
As you suggested, I tried to create installation media with MCT.
PC used: Lenovo Ideacentre AIO Desktop PC.
(OS - Windows 10 installed in MBR partition)

First I formatted the flash drive in FAT 32 as suggested by @egydiocoelho with convert gpt
command in powershell.Then I created the windows media in flash drive, taking care to uncheck the Use recommended options for this PC and selecting the options as per my Acer laptop configuration. 
I checked for booting in Lenovo and it's working fine.
Unfortunately when I checked the volume info, it is MBR partition in flash drive!
Is this ok? I thought it would use GPT by default. What forced it to select MBR rather than GPT.? If the pc uses MBR partition, will the MCT assign the same partition scheme for the flash drive too.?
Please check these screenshots. I haven't checked boot on my PC. Because it will take sometime for the flash drive to reach me, as I outsourced this job to someone who is far away. .

amarever

@egydiocoelho and @billsey
Thanks for your support! 😊
I am waiting for your response on my last update. I will get the pen drive shipped by my friend once I get your reply. 

JackE

@egydiocoelho >>>>Download version 1511 of windows 10 and try to recover the efi partition: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000124331/how-to-repair-the-efi-bootloader-on-a-gpt-hdd-for-windows-7-8-8-1-and-10-on-your-dell-pc

>>>>

Try @egydiocoelho suggestion and use the v1511 iso. It's one of the last Win10 versions from which the EFI partition can be fixed/modified. All later versions seem to lock you out so far, courtesy Microsoft.

amarever

@JackE
Thank you for taking time to reply. 😊
I will give it a try. 

billsey

Your system drive is not setup for UEFI. It looks like the FREE_DOS installation wiped the correct partitions off, since that portion of the drive is normally reserved for the 100MB EFI partition. It's likely also why the drive is configured with MBR instead of GPT. Do you need FREE_DOS for some reason?