Unable to use recovery cds on Acer laptop--"insufficient partition found"

[lexahb]

Hi. Ok, I'm desperate. My Acer Extensa 4420 laptop, running Windows Vista, is less than a year old. A month ago I brought it into Best Buy Geek Squad because suddenly Windows would not load. It was sent away for "repair" and when I got it back, they said that my hard drive was replaced. I got it back with no operating system because they said that I needed to recover the system with the recovery cds. I sent away for the recovery cds.

I received them today, 2 System Install cds, and 2 Recovery cds. I tried to install as per the directions. After I install the first system install cd, it says Windows installing files. Once that is done, I get an error message that says "Insufficient Partition found." I called Acer. They walked me through the process several times, still got the same error message. They said that I need to get a new hard drive...even though my hard drive was SUPPOSEDLY just replaced through Best Buy.

What could be going on here? I am frustrated beyond words.

[Broni]

I'd be too.
Your computer is under 1 year old, so I assume, it's still under warranty, correct?
This:

I got it back with no operating system because they said that I needed to recover the system with the recovery cds

is simply ridiculous.
If I were you, I'd go back to Best Buy, and I'd bring a whole *censored* with me.

[lexahb]

Now I'm not sure whether Best Buy or Acer is trying to play me for a fool. Acer is blaming Best Buy, and I'm sure when I go to Best Buy tomorrow, they will blame Acer.

Also, when I was on the phone with the Acer reps, they kept insisting to me that I only had 1 System disc. I said, no...I have TWO System discs, and TWO Recovery discs...and they're like, no, you have 1 System disc.

The whole thing doesn't make sense.

And yes, it is still under warranty.

[Broni]

Whoever you deal with, this is what your point should be:

Look, this computer is under warranty, and I don't give a sh** what you do, but I want my computer in perfect working condition. Period.

Get some manager, don't talk to regular people, who play games with you.

[lexahb]

Yeah, you're right, and I'm planning on doing that. From the day I brought it in to Best Buy, until now, it's almost been a month, and this saga is still not over.

[hayase920]

Dear lexahb,

I have an acer extensa 4420 and I had the same problem. All you have to do is get an original window's vista cd (borrow it from a friend or something and use your serial number on the back of your laptop) and reinstall it. You need to boot the cd and you will notice it say that the format is incorrect, thus you need to delete the old partition and create a new one. After windows vista installs, you'll notice that none of the drivers are installed thus you need to use your recovery disk 1. In order to use your recovery disk, you need to go into setup (F12 or something...i cant remember the hotkey) during post startup screen and change the order your computer boots up---->> change CD drive to boot first. When you restart your computer with the recovery disk it should boot up and follow the directions. That's it~~ You should check your processor and ram if it was originally the same after you did the warranty cuz geek squad gave me a different processor and ram that was different from the original one i sent in!! *censored* them =( took 6 months for them to fix my comp too. =(


Best,

hayase920

[Broni]

Dear hayase920
There is no reason whatsoever to monkey around faulty, under warranty computer.
Actually, there is one reason - to lose the warranty.