Solved Replacement hard drive will not install from Acer Factory

mushroomking

New Member
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I was handed a Gateway NV52L with a hard drive that is now a paperweight
included was the purchased factory recovery cd's. I have spent a couple hours chasing my tail with the mindless tech support people in India (thanks Acer) that tell me the same things 4 different ways.

I got their download to flash the ROM to the latest/greatest and verified the BIOS settings. I have turn secure mode off and on.

Setting the BIOS for UEFI, When booting the computer using the System Disc they supplied, you get the Gateway logo for a couple minutes (normal) and then asked language (English) and then 3 options, 2 for what recovery would you like to preform and 1 to exit, no matter which recover you select you get the message that this must be run in Legacy BIOS mode.

Setting the BIOS to Legacy and rebooting you again get the couple minutes of Gateway logo and then the message that this must be run in UEFI mode.

After talking to one of their supervisors and jumped through the same hoops, they decided it was the CD's they sent so after waiting a week for new CD's, I get the same results.

any help out there?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7 pro 64
1) Set the UEFI/BIOS firmware to OS boot UEFI mode & Secure Boot ENABLED.

2)Boot the DVD in UEFI mode.

Windows 8 Downgrade-006 SB for posting.PNG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
that is part of the circle I have been running around in, if i do that after a couple minutes i get language selection and then option to restore. once the restore option is clicked I get the message that this function must be preformed in Legacy Mode, please enter BIOS and change the setting.
I did fail to mention I replaced the 500gb paperweight with a 1tb same model type Seagate, exact same HD but double the size. I have formatted NFTB and I cleaned back to RAW (per supervisor suggestions).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7 pro 64
that is part of the circle I have been running around in, if i do that after a couple minutes i get language selection and then option to restore. once the restore option is clicked I get the message that this function must be preformed in Legacy Mode, please enter BIOS and change the setting.
I did fail to mention I replaced the 500gb paperweight with a 1tb same model type Seagate, exact same HD but double the size. I have formatted NFTB and I cleaned back to RAW (per supervisor suggestions).
As you are booting the DVD in Legacy mode, with UEFI/BIOS firmware set to UEFI mode, you will recieve that message.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
And if i set the BIOS to Legacy mode it tells me this must be booted in UEFI mode, this must be a setting/option/something to get past this, i am sure it is part of the security settings built into win8. What I need to know is how to get past it. I have another set of Acer Recovery cd's (yes these are CD's not DVD's) for a different computer running Win7 and can install that. I can wipe the drive again and toss in a Microsoft Win 8 DVD and install that. I would like to do the factory recovery for THIS unit.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7 pro 64
Acer Iconia W700 Recovery using System DVD - Acer Community

"Please boot this recovery disc using Legacy BIOS mode."

"Restore Fail: This recovery system can only be used on UEFI mode. Please press OK to restart the system immediately."

How do you repair the problem?

If you have changed the BIOS settings, then reset the BIOS settings to default.

To do a full recovery you must first delete everything on the hard drive at the command prompt and leave the space unallocated.

- Boot the computer using the Windows 7/8 installation media.
- On the first screen, press SHIFT+F10 to bring up command prompt.
OR
- Boot the computer using the Windows 8 system repair disc or recovery USB flash drive.
- select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.

- Run the following commands at the command prompt.

diskpart
list disk (this will give you a listing of the disks on your system)
select disk # (select the disk you want to clean, for example select disk 0)
clean (running the clean command will delete all partitions on the disk)
exit

Diskpart.png
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G580
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3230M
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, standard user account
    Other Info
    UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8 product key.
I suppose I am seeing a couple of things that confuse me. There is a FAC on the Gateway site for that computer saying Gateway does not recommend using UEFI when going to Windows 8.

When you boot the recovery media as UEFI, you say you get 2 recovery options, what are they? Since this does seem to be Recovery media, not sure exactly what it might be set up to do and what the condition of the current install would need to be in.

Do you have any way to tell us what the file structure is on the Recovery media you have?

A camera works well for taking pictures of offline situations so you can attach pictures if you think they may help. Use the paperclip on the advanced replies for attaching.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
"Please boot this recovery disc using Legacy BIOS mode."

"Restore Fail: This recovery system can only be used on UEFI mode. Please press OK to restart the system immediately."

genet, those are the exact messages I get. I put the HD into a desktop and ran diskpart and cleaned it. Disk Management now says 'You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it. 931.51 GB Unallocated.

Talking to the Acer support people, they say to start with UEFI and secure boot on. What do you suggest before I try this again?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7 pro 64
Talking to the Acer support people, they say to start with UEFI and secure boot on. What do you suggest before I try this again?

Leave the HDD Unallocated, & boot the DVD in UEFI mode.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
OK, by running diskpart and cleaning it did work.
I am curious why the disk didn't work this way right out of the box? It was a sealed box in a sealed antistat bag.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7 pro 64
Most likely formatted.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
Acer Iconia W700 Recovery using System DVD - Acer Community

"Please boot this recovery disc using Legacy BIOS mode."

"Restore Fail: This recovery system can only be used on UEFI mode. Please press OK to restart the system immediately."

To do a full recovery you must first delete everything on the drive and leave the space unallocated.

- boot the computer using the Windows 7/8/8.1 installation media
- press SHIFT+F10 to open command prompt
- run the following commands at the command prompt

diskpart
list disk (this will give you a listing of the disks on your system)
select disk # (select the disk you want to clean, for example select disk 0)
clean (running the clean command will delete all partitions on the disk)
exit


Just wanted to say thanks for posting this! I ran into the same thing and Gateway told me to make sure there was only 1 partition on the drive but did not mention the drive had to be unallocated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
Ok, thanks for that feedback.

Here is more info about Legacy BIOS Boot Mode (installing using the MBR partition style) and UEFI Boot Mode (installing using the GPT partition style): LINK
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G580
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3230M
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, standard user account
    Other Info
    UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8 product key.
Thanks for Posting the cure for this --- everyone !!!!!

I was having the same problem with a Gateway Windows 8 computer with a new hard drive and Gateway/acer recovery discs. This was the first time I've restored window 8.1 on a new hard drive and was going goofy looking for the cure. Thank god
google found the Windows Eight Forums and this 'little talk' about curing the problem.

it's up and running thanks to everything posting the cure... I used a USB adapter on the hard drive plugged into a Windows 7 box, ran diskpart and then started the install and it just finshed, up and working

Thanks, again,:dinesh:

Bob
NA6T
Northern California
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    XP-VISTA-WIN7 ultimate-windows 8.1, etc
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    home built
    CPU
    intel
    Motherboard
    various
    Memory
    16gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    various
    Browser
    all available
    Antivirus
    AVT
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