Stuck in boot loop - Acer

[PToz]

Acer laptop is stuck in eRecovery boot loop. Have managed to borrow external DVD & Win XP Pro CD. Have tried both repair & set up & keeps rebooting back into loop. Can access command prompt thru XP repair. There is PQService partition, C & D disk partition. All files are still there, happy to leave them there & just boot back into XP. How can I get rid of loop? Can I amend or delete a file thru command prompt to stop it trying to boot into eRecovery ?

 

[me 1]

Unfortunatelly, I'm not familiar with the eRecovery (can U check files on the recovery partitition with the dir /p (this allows you to press space bar to scroll maybe U can find the file that's loading the Erecovery and rename it)
Have U looked in bios, for any option to turn it off? Or check if your hard is first to boot? (I now, silly, but I HAVE to ask 😉 )

So, your acer boots up from the recovery partition...
Ok, I'm familiar with repair (recovery console) and I'm thinking at DISKPART. Not for partitioning, but to try and make your C:\ (if that's your hard drive with windows instalation) the active partition again. (so it can boot from it again)
It should go like this:

diskpart
list disk (or list partitions)
select partition YOUR_PARTITION_NUMBER_HERE
active

as I think U already know, press enter after every command.

Restart and see if it works.
(PS: not everyone knows cmd, so that's a plus!)

 

[PToz]

Thanks me1
I think I have tried everything possible from BIOS boot options. Currently booting from USB CDROM (with Win XP software CD). Tried swapping around IDE0: (this was original boot disk) and IDE1:
Tried disabling D2D recovery. Everything leads to Starting eRecovery -- Win XP scrn -- Acer 'Pls Wait' screen - then reboot.

I have now booted from CD into XP repair CMD prompt. DISKPART seems to be limited, it brings up a list of partitions in a square box and only gives me option to ESC or D-delete partition. I typed DISKPART /? and my only options are /ADD or /DELETE
Listed Partitions are:
C: Partition1 (PQSERVICE) [FAT32]
D: Partition2 (ACER) [NTFS]
E: Partition3 (DATA) [NTFS]

Using DIR, both C: & D: still seem to contain all the files. I believe the C: PQSERVICE is Acer hidden partition that contains all files used for recovery. I'm not really sure which partition it is booting from when stuck in this loop (C: I guess)
I have looked in a few ini files using TYPE cmd to try to find out what is making it boot into eRecovery, but can't seem to find it.
There must be a line hidden in a file somewhere that is telling it to boot into eRecovery mode (my thoughts, but I could be wrong I tried asking in an Acer forum, but they just tell me to buy disks or go to Acer shop.

Both C: and D: boot.ini says it is booting into Windows XP & I can't see anything unusual in there regarding recovery.

Is there another way make Partitions active, or to check which is active ?

 

[PToz]

You had the right idea, but I was limited by XP repair DISKPART cmd. Found another way.
Made a bootable DOS USB drive and downloaded PTEDIT onto it. Booted from USB into DOS and ran PTEDIT. Changed boot code for 1st partition to 00, and for 2nd partition to 80 (I didn't change the 'Type')
Rebooted, reset BIOS boot order, rebooted back in Windows .... viola
thanks for helping ..

 

[me 1]

Hi again! 😉
I'm sorry I couldn't answer yesterday, but I'm glad I could help a little and I'm glad it's ok now.
I can't figure out why diskpart had so fewer options showing, but U did a great job making a bootable usb and finding an alternative to set active partition.
Keep up the good work! 😀