Extensa Recovery Question

My wife has an Extensa notebook. She bought recovery discs from Acer and I'm trying to do the recovery for her. There are two "systems" discs and two "recovery" discs. I am in what feels like a loop where it asks me insert "Backup disc 2 or the recovery disc," I insert recovery disc 1, it works for five minutes, then the tray pops open and I get the same message again. I tried inserting recovery disc 2, but then I almost immediately got the tray popping open and the same message. Disc 1 seems to be what it wants. But I've been doing this for hours now, and I can't believe that the process would be designed to keep prompting me to insert the same disc that I already have in the machine. Has anyone else gone through this process? Am I on the right track?

 

It may be something related to the hardware; try installing a fresh windows and let the recovery disc now.

 

The recovery disc is all we have. It didn't come with a Windows CD, apparently.

 

Hi,

perhaps there is a solution for you here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...ad-links-nice-try-but-you-still-need-key.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq-voodoo-pc/120228-clean-vista-install-no-activation.html

Also, I'd contact Acer and tell them these discs won't work for you and request either a refund or a working replacement.

Michael

 

I appreciate the help, but this thing is getting even more frustrating. We actually have a Dell Vista disc. Following up on MR's second link, I used vlite to make a generic (non-OEM) Vista installation disc. But now the machine has a new issue. The DVD drive seems to be running, in the sense of getting power, opening and closing, etc., but I'm no longer getting the option of booting from it. In BIOS, it is set to be the first boot option. It won't boot from it even with the Dell Vista disc in the drive. I even enabled the F12 multi-boot menu, and the only options that gives me are the HD and a network boot.

 

Ouch!
this sounds like a bad optical drive. Perhaps it is only the connection that is no longer properly seated. At first, try to remove the drive (you need at least to loosen a screw (or more)) and reseat it.

Got a 4GB USB stick you can wipe? Then look here: Install Windows Vista from Bootable USB Flash Memory Drive (First hit on Google for "installing vista from usb")

Michael

 

It really is just one thing after another. I solved the DVD drive problem, at least in the short term, by hooking up a USB DVD drive. But when I enter my product key, I get a message saying that it doesn't match any of the Windows editions available to install. I created the disc using Vlite starting with a Dell Vista disc. I followed the special instructions for a Dell disc, which meant deleting a file and a folder from the sources folder.

 

Activate by phone. MS decided to not allow OEM keys to be activated online a few years ago.

Michael

 

Tried it but it doesn't work; even when I uncheck "Activate online," it says that the code doesn't match an available version.

I'm really not even sure if this is hardware or software. When I try to boot Windows off of the HD I usually get a BSOD with errors like MEMORY_MANAGEMENT or PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. (Although once I did get in safe mode.) I tried reseating the RAM but that didn't help.

 

You should run Memtest then. Perhaps one of your RAM modules is faulty.

Michael

 

Good call; it had a bad memory module. MEMTEST wouldn't get past test 2. With that module out, it is basically working. The DVD drive still isn't being recognized; I'll try reseating it once the replacement memory module arrives. Thanks VERY much for your help.

 

You're Welcome

 

This may call for a new thread, but I finally made some time today to see how to reseat the optical drive, and I can't see how to remove it. Does anyone know how to do this for this model (Extensa 5620?