[ibex_57]

Hi
I have an Acer Aspire 5051AWXMi. I installed Style XP to customize my laptop with themes and logons, but had a problem so I uninstalled it. Now I can't logon to my laptop because the Acer Aspire screen just stays on, not moving to the original Windows logon. I'm a student and have 9 pieces of coursework on it. I can't restore or I will loose them. Need advice.

Regards
Ben

[Wolfeymole]

Hello Ibex

Welcome to TCF

Reboot and tap F8 continually to get into Safe Mode and choose the option Last Known Good Configuration like in the pic below.

[ibex_57]

Hi Thanks for help but had no luck, the acer aspire screen just stays on, no windows logon. I tried the last known good configuration, No luck. I had Style XP on and changed my logon to a custom one, then uninstalled it. Was i supposed to change it back to default??? Worried now as it has 2 Years of work on it I'm puzzled on what to do next.

Thanks in advance
Ben

[Wolfeymole]

Have you got the XP disk Ben?

[ibex_57]

No that's the problem.

If i re-install XP Media Centre 2005, will I lose my files??

Where could I get one from? There wasn't one in the box with my laptop, it was preloaded.

[Wolfeymole]

Ok
I'm presuming you have a recovery partition situated on the hard drive,

When you boot up first of all you should see the option.

The first (XP, main) should be at the top.
Then underneath should be the recovery option.

Do you see that?

[ibex_57]

Is that when I press F8 as it is booting up?

[Wolfeymole]

No, on boot up you should see a screen like the one below.

Where it says windows 2000 pro you should see your recovery partition, boot to that in the time allowed, be quick as it may not give you much time to do so.

[ibex_57]

Right. As I had a personalized bootscreen from Style XP (the first option on that screen), the second option says Windows XP Media Center Edition. I don't have an option for WIndows 2000 or a recovery partition. The laptop is relatively new (3 months) and I'm not aware of a recovery partition.

When I select Windows XP Media Center Edition (instead of my personalised bootscreen) another black (DOS-type) screen appears with many more options, including Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Comand Prompt and Last Known Good COnfig. None of these work. In most cases, computer just hangs at the Acer Aspire screen. Same happens obviously with Start Windows Normally. Starting in Safe Mode (any of the three) a list appears with "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\syste m32\DRIVER\ql1080.sys etc. Full screen listing, but all different files (all ending in .sys). Only way to get out of this screen is to hold down power on/off button and reboot.

HELP!!! I just go around in circles!!

[Wolfeymole]

Right click My Computer, choose Properties, choose Advanced, choose settings under Start Up and Recovery, click the Edit button and cut and paste what is in there back here if you can otherwise it looks like a brand new install.