Hey guys,
This thread seems to be very good at helping people with acer laptop recovery so here's my story:
Had a lovely Acer 5610 for a couple of years with Vista, it ran like a charm. Came with a hidden boot sector on the hard drive and no recovery CD, which was fine as well. Over the holidays, I realized that the hard drive was starting to fragment very badly (it's over four years old, so understandable). I can still access a lot of files when I plug the hard drive into another computer. Now, if I were to buy a new hard drive, how can I reinstall the Vista from the hidden sector on my old hard drive on the new one? As I said, there was no recovery CD and the laptop is no longer covered by warranty. When I try to purchase an Recovery CD from Acer, it tells me that 'Recovery media is no longer available for the serial number you entered'. I'm still not sure what they mean, but I'll play along I guess. This may sound stupid, but can I somehow put the hidden sector on a CD and basically 'create' a boot CD for Vista specifically for my laptop?
I also tried getting a vista mirror and entering the product key I initially had, but it won't accept the key for some reason. So I'm kind of limited to the hidden sector on the old drive (which doesn't need a key, from what I understand). Any other options?
Thanks a lot for your time,
Irene