I have the disc set from Acer to restore my TRAVELMATE 7750G-6494 to factory condition. The discs say Acer, but the enclosed printed instructions have Acer, Gateway, and emachines logos. The instructions are for a variety of their models. There are three restore options:
The first restore option says: "Restore Operating System to Factory Defaults. All data on C: drive will be deleted."
The second says: "Restore only the Operating System to the factory defaults. Files from your user accounts will be transferred to C:\Backup. This option will not remove persistent viruses or malware."
The third restore option says: "Restore your computer to factory default status. All data in the hidden partition and on the system partition will be restored. Before restoring, please delete any data on the hard disk.'
I selected the first restore option. It said the label of the C: drive would be Acer, and the partition size would be 450.7 GB. TRAVELMATE 7750G-6494 laptops shipped with a 500 GB HD. I don't recall how much of that I allocated to the XP Virtual Machine.
Per the instructions, the first disc used was the System disc. When it finished, the disc drawer opened and I was prompted to insert Recovery Disc 1 of 3. After Recovery Disc 1 finished, I was prompted to insert Recovery Disc 2 of 3. After Recovery Disc 3 of 3 finished, I got a dialog labeled Notice. The message was:
Restore failed - Error code = 0x241 WIMApplyImage cannot apply image: Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be [top of next line visible but unreadable since there is no scroll bar]. The Notice dialog was OK-Only, so I clicked OK. Then I got Please wait.... followed by a screen titled Windows Boot Manager with the following message:
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
- Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
- Choose your language settings and then click "Next."
- Click "Repair your computer.
If you do not have the disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.
The "recent hardware or software change" was: running the 3 Recovery Discs. After selecting English, there is no "Repair your computer" option, only the 3 options above (not counting Exit). I want to run the third restore option, but that's the one that says, "Before restoring, please delete any data on the hard disk." I was able to get into Safe Mode prior to running the Recovery Discs, but having done so, no matter what I do, I get that Windows Boot Manager message, and can't get passed it. If I select the third restore option and click Next, it says, "Please remove all files from your hard disk before starting. This function will not work if there are any files on the hard disk." Therefore, I need an external disc that can delete all files from a hard disc on a computer that can only display that Windows Boot Manager message. Does anyone have such a disc or know where I can get one?
[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]
