I am trying to fix my friend's daughter's Acer Aspire One mini laptop but am having alot of difficulty. I reinstalled Windows thinking the problem was a corrupted OS, but after reinserting the HDD with the new OS, I still can't get past the recovery screen. I swapped her HDD with mine to see if her mobo was ok, and my HDD loaded my Backtrack 5 portion of the dually booted HDD, but not the Windows partition. I also unplugged the CMOS battery for about an hour (maybe less) with the hope of resetting a possible BIOS lock to no avail. Normally I'd search through archives of websites to see if someone had this problem before, but when I search MDL's search bar, it always refers me to what Ask.com discovers about the subject, and not to any MDL threads. So please forgive me if this quastion has already been resolved by another member, I cannot find that thread. If anyone can direct me to any leads to a solution, I would greatly appreciate a link so you can make me look like a hero. TYIA
So far 2 processes that I discovered on the web did not resolve this issue. renaming the updated BIOS file and putting it and the batch file on an exFAT flash drive (FAT is not an option for formatting) and starting with Fn/Esc held for a few seconds. In the Windows Startup Repair environment, I let it run its scan to detect errors, and upon no discovery I select the "Dont Send" option. Then on the final Startup Repair page, instead of clicking the prompted "Finish", I choose "View advanced options for system recovery and support" where I affirm the next 2 screens regarding keyboard and country, I go into Command Prompt. In Cmd, I run the following commands successfully; bootrec.exe /fixmbr bootrec.exe /fixboot bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd Upon rebooting, I am plunged back into the vicious loop of error correcting processes that do not correct the error that has me locked out of this operating system's environment. Any feedback whatsoever is requested with hopes of resolving this quirk.
can you boot into safe mode via f8?, if so try and load into windows through than and then run To Run the SFC /SCANNOW Command in Windows 7 1. Open a elevated command prompt (right click -> Run as administrator), and do step 2 or 3 below for what type of scan you would like to run. 2. To Scan and Repair System Files 3. when finish restart system
For some reason, the damaged boot sector will not allow me to access the OS at all. As stated in the first post, I can boot into BT5 (a linix OS) just fine, but no Windows OS can be booted into. I can't start in safe mode, nor can I boot into any of the other 3 options. I could access command prompt via the Recovery Environment, but aside from the Bootrec commands that successfully completed their tasks, all other commands I enter seem to be not supported commands. About the user, I asked the girl what the last thing she was doing on her laptop when it died, and she said it was a Skype virus she contracted. Additional research suggests that it was a virus that altered some of the code impressioned in the mobo somewhere. I already wiped the HDD with DBAN and reinstalled a new Windows 7 OS and other software onto the HDD. I've been trying to flash the BIOS that I located the updated version, but I am having no luck with that either. Assuming FAT32 or exFAT will suffice the formatting requirements, does any MDL member know which commands I can use in Command Prompt to activate the flashing of the BIOS from the files located in the flash drive? I feel this might be the most helpful based upon the failures I've endured seeking other solutions. Any other thoughts?
put files in the root of usb stick means simply copy files to usb stick yes, as DBAN is universal tool, there is still posibility that it won't delete everything, what I think you need is low level format, these programs usually can be found at HDD manufacturers site, and they will be for specific series hdd, you don't need to restore as in the posted link, you need to wipe it, There was DOS Avira link in one of the links, you can try it, but there's very low chances that it will find that virus, but still some chance is. I'm not saying that virus is the same, I have shown only that they are not deep somewhere in the hardware, but in HDD master boot record(MBR) I heard about two MBR virus deleting methods: 1. I heard from server administrator wich works with Linux servers, rewrite MBR 20-30 times, but there's still no warranty. 2. Do a low level format. it will wipe out everything from hdd, it will be like just bought but prepare, it can take up to few hours, and software is DOS based. About BIOS flashing from DOS, make bootable flash disk with DOS(already gave link how to do that), next copy flash utility and firmware file(for example AWDFLASH.exe and XXXXX.bin)to flash disk, next enable usb boot in machine that you're gonna update, insert flash disk then launch it, when DOS is loaded you will see A:\> then enter your bios flashing utility name in my case it will be awdflash.exe and hit enter. then follow on screen instructions and just in case if utility has option to verify written bios verify it. then restart PC, if you hear beep it means everything is ok and flashing is done(if no beeps but you can see POST(BIOS startup) screen it means everything is ok. If you have any questions ask, you're welcome. And about thanks, if message really helps you, best thanking method is by clicking thanks button in the low left corner of the message, let the others now that someone is helpful.
I loaded Puppy onto a 16GB FAT32 flash drive, but I am not able to boot into it. I tried to create a DOS startup disc, but the HP USB disk storage format tool did not recognize the ISO, so I just copy/pasted it to the flash drive. Is there something I am doing wrong, or should it just boot off the ISO? When I boot, I get a black screen with the following text; Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart _ This laptop has not CD-ROM drive, and though I have an external drive to use for booting disks, it aint plugged in.