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Question

should I format my new hard drive from another computer

Mar 28, 2017 11:58PM PDT

I lost my acer 5742 hard drive . bought a new one cant the software to install

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: format
Mar 29, 2017 1:21AM PDT

All you have to do (and the only thing you can do): on your laptop go back to factory conditions from the recovery media that you got from Acer or that you made yourself.

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boot loop
Mar 29, 2017 2:48AM PDT

the acer has been in a boot loop for months i destroyed the original hard drive and bought a new one. I installed it and thought all i would need to do is follow the instructions that acer sent the installation cds but it says no bookable device so I hooked up the new drive to my think pad and used disk management to create a partition and i was thinking i could just install them from this point

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Re: no bootable device
Mar 29, 2017 2:58AM PDT

If it doesn't boot from the installation CD's, it's one of the following:
1. In the BIOS the CD isn't set as the first boot device, and you didn't select the CD as the device to boot from in the boot menu. Check the BIOS-settings.
2. The installation disc is not bootable or severely damaged. Check the disc in another PC.
3. The CD-drive is defective and can't read the disc. Check with any other bootable CD.

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lets not forget 4
Mar 29, 2017 3:22AM PDT

4. or something else was wrong with the computer and the original harddrive was good.

Normally you would not have to format a new harddrive since they are usually already formatted. all you have to do is to insert the recovery disk, boot the computer, check the bootloader (f12) and make sure it is set to boot from cd, then follow the on screen instructions.