Try Acer's restore from the hard disk method. I could not find which Acer tower you had but here's the article.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080609191551AAe3cgP notes the usual Alt+F10 method.
Bob
My mother received a new (Windows 7) laptop for Christmas, so she's letting my boyfriend and I take her old Acer tower pc that's running Vista. This computer is full of problems, as my mother isn't very computer savvy and the system was bought in 2007.
I'd like to do a full system restore to get it back to factory settings. All her files have been transferred to the new laptop, so we're not worried about data loss. But, she no longer has her system recovery disc.
Is there anyway to restore the system to factory settings without the disc?
Chowhound
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