Acer 5600 - Need some urgent help reformatting

[XFH-Jay]

Hey all,

Well, I have an Acer 5600.

Along with that 2 backup DVDs I created when i first started it up.

Now, I'm trying to reformat by loading when booted. I set it in the BIOS to load the DVD drive first, but it shows a blinking sign then eventually normally starts up Windows MCE.

What can I do to continue the reformat? This is urgent as I need it reformatted within 3 hours.

Thanks

[Decker]

Sounds like your 2 DVD's ain't bootable, so you need to get it booted to an OS first then - but wait.... If that's the case you don't have a system backup just a load of files.

Why 3 hours - be quick...

[Matt8]

What decker said.

Either your discs are bad, or not bootable. If you Acer laptop has a recovery partition built in, sometimes you can boot and hit a key (F10 or F11-differs for most PCs) and do the restore that way. Otherwise, if it is built in, sometimes you will have an app you actually launch in Windows that restarts your PC and begins the recovery yourself

[Canuckkev]

Or you might have to hit a key to boot from the disc drive. A good idea to just mash the keyboard repeatedly when booting up, to be sure you didn't miss a "press any key or I will load windows in 2...1...0 seconds" prompt.

[Kratt]

which is the boot menu key anyway nowadays?

[Canuckkev]

Probably different for every manufacturer. I've seen Dell's where it is F2 now...wtf? F2? I like F10 myself. Or Del.

[krakjoe]

anything but f8 for intels ....

I'd suggest you use MagicISO or similar to find out if in fact either of the disks have a boot record on.

Also, what were the backup disks made with ?

It's a possibility you might be able to find a floopy (usb disk) image to boot from and then load data from the dvd-roms

[Decker]

Why are we bothering - the 3 hour deadline passed and not even a response!!!!
For all others switch on and hold down as many keys as you can if you don't know - or you could check with the manufacturers DOH!