When Acer Notebook Self-Burn Recovery DVDs Failed…

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Acer notebook does not come with recovery disc nor Windows installer. What happens if the notebook hard disk is replaced and you need to re-install Windows? Here is my true story with my wife’s Acer notebook.

My wife owns an Acer notebook for two years. The hard disk was replaced last year and has failed recently. She managed to backup her personal files before the notebook showed: “No bootable device found – Insert boot disk and press any key” message (read: death) at start up .

The hard disk got replaced and she asked for my help to reinstall Microsoft Windows Vista and upgrade to Windows 7 (she bought Acer Windows 7 Upgrade kit).

No problem! The Acer Recovery DVD (2 discs!) I made for her notebook last time had been waiting for this moment! (The Acer notebook doesn’t come with recovery discs nor Windows installer)

I was wrong. The Recovery DVD failed at the half way of copying files into the newly installed hard disk. Acer didn’t give a Windows installation disc. And, I can’t install Windows 7 because the upgrade kit DVD was not bootable…

My wife paid for both licenses of Windows Vista and Windows 7 upgrade, but I didn’t have a way to reinstall Windows to her notebook.

That’s bad.

At the end, I made a call (1800-88-1918) to Acer’s official service provider in Malaysia — Highpoint Service Network Sdn Bhd. I took 5 minutes to have the staff understood that the notebook hard disk has been replaced, it’s new and blank — it cannot boot up the hidden recovery partition got in the original hard disk…

After he understood my situation (blank hard disk, recovery dvd failed, no Windows installer), he ask me to send the notebook to their service centre for reinstallation service, which cost RM120 because not longer under warranty.

We went to their service centre at Berjaya Time Square in the morning and have it done in the same day evening. Very efficient! Paid RM120, and the Acer notebook had Windows Vista installed, as well as many other Acer bloatware… Then, I took over 1 hour to upgrade Vista to Windows 7 using the Acer Windows 7 Upgrade Kit.

My two cents

I can’t help but to compare it to my OS X Lion experience. Upgrade Mac OS X only took half an hour. The Lion operating system is in the cloud storage, you can download and install it anytime, anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection. Yes, Internet Recover works even if your Mac has a blank hard drive! You can also easily make a bootable Lion OS installer (see instruction here).

I could have saved all the trouble if my wife were using a Mac notebook… Since MS Office already in the cloud, Will we have Microsoft Windows in the cloud, too? What’s your suggestions to prevent this kind of disaster from happening again? How do you backup Windows installer? Please share with us in the comment.