[ftaal]

Hi to all. I am trying to do a clean install of windows 7 ultimate 64 bit on this laptop but after it installs and reboots it goes to the acer erecovery management screen with to only option to exit, then repeats. How do I get around this? I have reformatted both c and d drive but left the hidden one alone (pqservice) so backup is intact. I have the burned cd's anyway but I want to run 7 on this machine. After install it says preparing desktop then it reboots to erecovery. I can't seem to get out of this loop. Please help!!!!!!

[Elvandil]

The D: drive probably contained all your original licensed Windows installation files. The smaller partition just boots to direct recovery to the larger one. It is far too small to hold recovery files for replacing Windows. So you've already lost the version of Windows that you paid for.

Since laptop manufacturers allow no changes to the partitions, you also lost the ability to access recovery through the keypresses as soon as you formatted the partition.

Your software warranty on the machine is void.

The machine probably doesn't boot because the smaller partition is active. You may as well remove all partitions and start over.

But if you want to keep it this way, boot to the recovery environment, get a command prompt, and use diskpart.exe to make the 7 partition active.

[ftaal]

No I didn't make any changes to the partitions, just formated the 2 large ones and left the recovery partition alone. The paid version should still be there. Installed 7 ultimate 64 bit to c: but erecovery keeps coming up with only one option....... "exit"

[Elvandil]

There are usually 2 "recovery partitions". A big one and a small one. And formatting of any partition on the drive is enough to change the MBR that the company put there so you can access recovery. There is only one option now because all the recovery files are gone from the format.

The warranty is lost as soon as you format anything.

But, I'm not here to argue with you. If you want to boot from the partition you have 7 on, then you need to make it active. That means booting from the DVD and using diskpart.exe.

[ftaal]

Ok, Ive used diskpart to make part 2 active which is the one I installed 7 on but it still goes to erecovery. If these partitions are formatted then what is on them to point to the erecovery app?

[Elvandil]

Everything that was on them before is still on them. Formatting does not erase the files. It just creates a new file system. And the partition tables and MBR are not changed by formatting, anyway.

What commands did you use in the Diskpart console?

[ftaal]

Thanks for replying. I used select disk 0, then select partition 2 then active. I ran out of time to try getting 7 to work so I just restored the laptop to factory with Vista using the burned disks from erecovery. That way I know that everytthing will work as before without worrying about driver issues. Thank you soooo much. Peace out.

[Elvandil]

OK for now.

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