AARRGGGHH!
Attempted the reinstall, it failed, could not delete a folder "~Windows.something" (missed the extension). I think this is a temp install folder. It did a "recovery" and came back with a Win8 login screen.
Could not delete this within Win8, "in use". Used a DVD booted utility to delete this and rebooted.
BIOS seems corrupted -- Gateway BIOS has the option to get into BIOS updates (esc or del, forget which) or boot sequence (F12). This no longer shows. Other original BIOS messages show, but I no longer get the BCD options that were there before.
Reboot came back with a Win8 home screen without mouse or keyboard support. 2 users were originally set up (myself and wife), went into a home with no user selection.
I have no way of doing a boot into any of my other partitions (with working Win7 for example) because I can't choose another partition to boot from, nor even choose a DVD to use recovery.
For what it's worth, Win7 came with the machine, and I bought a legal Win8 upgrade.
So, system boots into a corrupted Win8 environment with no mouse/keyboard support, and BIOS options to choose others are no longer there. I have never seen an OS update or install that has corrupted BIOS!
Currently using UBUNTU on a $25 garage sale netbook that has been bullet proof for years...