S3 won't boot from USB drive and it also won't boot to Windows

Hi everybody,

i have Acer Aspire S3 with windows 8 preinstalled, successfully updated to win8.1. Then I wanted to have dual boot with Ubuntu, I figured how to turn on and off the secure boot, switch between UEFI and Legacy, but the only way I could boot my Ubuntu USB was in Legacy mode, so I installed it, but GRUB failed to install and Boot-Repair couldn't help it either. So I tried to use EasyBCD to create an entry for Ubuntu in Windows bootloader and I accidently deleted the original Windows 8 entry. I created a new one for Windows 8, then I turned off the computer and my Windows can't boot ever since. No matter UEFI or Secure Boot, I only get to see the Acer logo and then the screen turns black and the computer reboots. Over and over. So I downloaded the EasyRE, a recovery tool from makers of EasyBCD, created a bootable USB using Rufus but as I wrote earlier no USB could boot while in UEFI and as it had to be made specially for EFI systems, it didn't boot in Legacy by default. I even tried to add .efi file from the EFI partition of Windows to "trusted files" but that didn't work either, since I didn't know the key.

Has anybody experienced anything simillar, or can anybody please help me? I don't have Windows Recovery USB nor external CD/DVD drive to try to use instead of USB (and I doubt it would work). Should I restore secure boot to factory default? Does it delete the key I already had, but lost? And what does the restart of battery do? And I don't want to delete the Windows due to warranty.

Thanks a lot in advance and sorry for my bad English! (:

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finlux

Hi Dominik

If you wish to restore to factory default, the best thing to do is to press ALT & F10 as soon as you turn on your laptop. This will start up the eRecovery program where you can reinstall Windows. Just remember you will loose any programs or files that you haven't backed up.

Dominik

Hi, thank you for your advice, i run the eRecovery software, but I couldn't refresh, restore nor reset the computer.

Restoring Acer(C Smiley Happy (System) volume got me this message "The disk Acer (C has errors. Windows has detected file system corruption on Acer (C. You must check the disk for errors before it can be restored" then there is "Check the disk for errors" option where it says "You don't need to scan this drive We haven't found any errors on this drive. You can still scan the drive for errors if you want." So I click "Scan drive". It starts scanning and immidiately I get dialog "Error Checking (Recovery (C Smiley Happy )" which says "Repair this drive Windows found errors on this drive that need to be repaired. Close this dialog box, and then repair the drive." Clicking on "Show Details" does nothing, the only button is Close, which gets me to the dialog box with "Check the disk for errors" option. So I cancel the restoration and run the Troubleshoot/Advanced options/Automatic Repair, choose Microsoft Windows 8, then the logo acer apears with "Diagnosing the PC" and then I get error "Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC Press Advanced options to try other options to repair your PC or Shut down to turn off your PC. Log file: \Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt"

Refreshing gets me message "The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again." which I have no idea how to do. I tried to set HDD Password and then remove the password, but with no effect.

Reseting fails too with a message "Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing." Which does not make any sense to me, 'cause I can see all the partitions in DISKPART and they seem to be like they allways were.

I'm really desperate, do you have any more ideas on what to try next?

Do you need/want to see the log file?

Thanks!

finlux

It sounds as if your hard disk is at fault, and may need replacing.

The best thing to do is to contact Acer support for your region, who can arrange a repair for you. I don't think there is much you can do yourself, other than replace the hard drive & reinstall Windows on it.

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