Acer computer problem - won't boot up?

[Martinjmpr]

Last night my wife's Acer computer just quit without warning. No error messages, nothing. When we try to start up we get to the Acer "Welcome screen" and that's it.

Sometimes there is text at the bottom of the screen that says "preparing automatic repair" but nothing happens.

Tried restarting multiple times but still the same thing. I CAN access the BIOS by pushing F2 right at start up.

So I tried creating a Windows 10 boot disk on a USB flash drive. Although I changed the BIOS to boot from the USB first, it's still doing the same thing: Getting to the Acer "splash screen" and freezing there.

Is there anything else i can try before I take it to a professional? Biggest issue is that my wife runs our camping group from that computer and she has important files she needs access to. Even if the computer is toast, we need to recover those files.

Does this seem like a hardware or a software (windows 10) issue?

Thanks in advance! As an addendum, if we need to take it in to get fixed, where would be the best place to go in the SW metro (SW Plaza) area. I'm going to assume that Geek Squad is probably not the best place to go?

[Erni]

If you got the pc to boot from an usb then burn an ISO of Linux on a drive and try that. If you use something lite like puppy Linux the whole image will run in ram and you can check if it?s the hard drive or the actual pc hardware. If you can launch into Linux then you can try to access the hard drive and at least copy out the contents. If the drive is fine but hardware is bad you can try to transplant the drive to a similar pc.

My son dropped his old laptop and I just transplanted the HD into my daughters similar laptop. It booted up after a whole lot of updates. Would not do that but his old pc has the Audi maintenance software on it.

[Delfuego]

Sound like the the hard drive (hardware/physical). Could also be a Windows 10 failure related to the hard drive (software/logical).

If you can physically remove the hard disk and get it mounted on another machine, you can copy the data you need is the disk is still good.

If you absolutely have to recovery the files from it, I would do that first. Any attempt at repair can damage the files stored on the disk. We have used this company in the past http://www.datatechlab.com/ for data recovery. It is not a cheap process. If you go this way let me know, I might be to get a little discount for you.

[Gman]

Sounds more like a hardware issue to me. If it were software, you'd get some form of notification that there was a problem trying to start the system. Even if the boot drive had failed entirely, you'd be notified that the boot device was not found.

You might be able to remove the drive and access it from a working system to recover your files if they're not encrypted.on the disk.

It's a tough way to be reminded about the importance of backups or using some form of cloud based storage for important stuff.

[thedave1164]

could be that you have a failing hard drive, I have seen a lot of these that have sectors going bad.

Best bet is to find a computer repair shop that knows how to deal with these things, don't continue to try and boot as it will just get worse if it is going bad, you will eventually lose data.

If the shop knows what they are doing you can expect to pay $300 to $450 for recovery, I was usually around $350 parts and labor to recover and 95% of the time the system was restored to working, 3% was just data recovery, 2% was beyond my tools and limitations, so it had to go to a data recovery specialist for platter removal and data recovery.

[Martinjmpr]

OK here's this mornings update: I watched a couple of Youtube videos and was able to get to a different startup screen and it's saying it can't recognize the HD. So that leads me to think its and HD issue. GRRR!

And no, no backup.

I never could get it to boot from the USB either but I'm not 100% sure the USB boot disk I created is any good. I just created it today and I've never used it on anything else.

I need to look into data recovery, if possible. There are a lot of things on that HDD that we will want to keep.

[thedave1164]

You are right, DO NOT do the geek squad, they are limited in what they can do, even if the tech knew how to fix it, they have to follow a script and it just gets your computer working again, no regard to data or programs.

[Martinjmpr]

So where can I go for data recovery in the SW metro area?

[Delfuego]

http://www.datatechlab.com/

[Martinjmpr]

At this point I still have my fingers crossed hoping that maybe it's something like the HD controller. I'm going to go and get an inexpensive drive enclosure and pull out the HD and see if I can manually recover the files. A new computer would cost less than trying to have the files recovered by a service.

[Martinjmpr]

Update: bought a SATA drive enclosure at Microcenter. Running scans and repair now. Fingers crossed.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220512/756c6a155d0b2f197df548bbfa048ad1.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JohnnyEgo]

For what it is worth, when a Windows 11 update borked my Dell in a similar manner, it turned out not to be the hard drive, but Windows fiddling with the BIOS. Like you, I could access the BIOS, but every exit strategy lead me back to the frozen Dell screen, despite the USB boot priority or any other changes I made. Some rando on the internet suggested I power down and remove the CMOS battery to completely reset the BIOS. This actually worked for my situation, when nothing else would.

[Gman]

If it's a spinning disk, I'd go straight for the copy. Get as much data as you can as quick as you can.

Continuing to work a failing disk can make the problem worse, including an extensive repair. Going the repair route would be secondary.

[Martinjmpr]

Good news, the disk itself appears to be working in the external drive enclosure. Still not sure what to do with the computer. I could try the CMOS battery thing I guess.

I think for now I'll try to grab all the files off the HD and then put it back in and see if we can get it repaired. Wife is very particular about how she likes her computer set up so if I can possibly restore it back to its previous condition that would be the best. Otherwise it is hours and hours setting up a new computer for her.

So now that I know I will NOT need a data recovery service, where is a good place to take it in the SW metro area for repairs? Any recommendations?