Acer Swift SF314-41-R6YG. No luck with Alt F10. trying to do a system restore on my laptop.

Hello fellow Acer owners. I am trying to do a system restore on my laptop. I have stuck the pin in the back and have held Alt F10, turned it on and now it's stuck on a please wait scrolling circle.

The reason for decision for the system restore was my storage was getting more and more eaten by up by strange $Extend/$RM Metadata files that could not be explained by the Microsoft forum. I had tried all their suggestions to clean the files but to no avail. The rogue files who seemed to be like a voriaous PAC man had got to 80% of my 237GB and I suspect they have gobbled up more and now there is not enough storage to even power up. I was getting ready to do their last suggestion of a clean reinstall of windows and now my Acer will not even boot up.

Any thoughts on how I can get to at least a system restore window or some place where I can maybe get some of my files back.

Thank you

Hilary

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Accepted answers

billsey

Some of the larger Windows version updates overwrite the Acer recovery image, at which point the Alt-F10 procedure will no longer work. Can you no longer boot to Windows? Are you on Windows 10 or Windows 11? It looks like Acer hasn't issued support for W11 yet…

As for the direct next steps, you can boot using a Windows install flash drive (you need to first enable the boot menu in the BIOS and then use F12 to get that menu, allowing you to boot from the flash drive) and use the repair option to get to a command prompt. From there you can copy important files off the drive and once that's complete just do an OS reinstall from scratch.

billsey

Good to hear, it sounds like you got a nice model.

All comments

billsey

Some of the larger Windows version updates overwrite the Acer recovery image, at which point the Alt-F10 procedure will no longer work. Can you no longer boot to Windows? Are you on Windows 10 or Windows 11? It looks like Acer hasn't issued support for W11 yet…

As for the direct next steps, you can boot using a Windows install flash drive (you need to first enable the boot menu in the BIOS and then use F12 to get that menu, allowing you to boot from the flash drive) and use the repair option to get to a command prompt. From there you can copy important files off the drive and once that's complete just do an OS reinstall from scratch.

Hilary4664

Hello Billsey, thank you very much for taking the time to read my query and answer. You seem to know what you are talking about.

I am on Windows 11 and cannot boot to anything. I switch it on having done alt F10 and all I have is a endlessly scrolling-please wait- page with the Acer logo.

I will research more on my tiny phone your suggested next steps. I am very amateur at this tech fix stuff and am on a huge learning curve. My initial thinking is I would need to buy this Windows install flash drive and even then would it even install if all I have is the scrolling Acer page and can't get to the Bios location you are talking about? I've just tried to turn it on again holding F12 and now have an endlessly scrolling Preparing Automatic repair window.

Then I just tried turning it on as normal and I have the Acer logo and a scrolling circle.

All 3 turn ons create a very silent laptop, none of its usual whirring it used to do.

Variety of Acer scrolling pages at least!

Best wishes

Hilary

Hilary4664

Hi Billsey. Update. I have now worked out how to get to the Bios window by pressing F2 so I could possibly do your external usb idea mentioned. Just researching where to source such a usb.

Best wishes and thank you again.

Hilary

billsey

If you know anyone else with a computer, they can create a Windows install flash drive for the cost of the drive. No need to buy a new Windows license…

Hilary4664

Now there's a good idea. Thank you for your help.

billsey

Plus, you don't need a drive bigger than something like 16GB, so they are really cheap…

Hilary4664

Thank you, Billsey. You've been very helpful and generous with your time and knowledge. Best wishes Hilary

billsey

Let us know how it works out.

Hilary4664

I will, thanks again.

Hilary4664

Hi Billsey. I ended up buying a new laptop as I came into a bit of money! Lucky me and timely. Got another Acer Swift but a Go 14 this time with huge storage! So far so good and no rogue files so far. I did manage to reinstall Windows on my old laptop and the storage went down to 50gb from 186gb but it all ran so very slowly and I lost the will to run any more fix type scans. Thank you for your help and support. Have a good holiday season. Hilary

billsey

Good to hear, it sounds like you got a nice model.

Hilary4664

I hope so. I was a bit at my wit's end and just got the same sort of laptop but with more Ram and 4 x the storage. I've certainly learnt a lot while trying to save my old lap top. Kudos to people like you who understand the workings of these mysterious machines and help people like me out. Thank you again for sharing your wisdom.