My acer aspire am5100 desktop needs a recovery to wipe the hard drive. I have the discs, but when they are placed in the drive, the system doesn't recognize them and starts up normally. It basically ignores they are there. The reboot process shows to either push the delete button to enter setup mode or hit f12 to boot menu. What do I need to do for the system to recognize the discs in the drive?

go to acer ,,in all programs and u will find how to burn recovery disc...but remember a system recovery is already there on ur hard drive...drive d.......so not nessarasy to burn if u dont want

i think you need to check that nothing has come lose inside.

Have you tried booting to the system recovery again and starting it over? Otherwise you may need to wipe it clean and start from scratch. Download a program like Darik's boot an dnuke to wipe the hard drive clean (this will destroy all data on the hard drive, including system recovery data if that is saved on the hard drive instead of CD's.) Then try the system recovery again (if it's on CD's)

no you do not need recovery disc..you can sore the backup in your hard disk only...but store it in other drive..than the system drive.

Hi you should be able to do the following, if not you will need an external CD drive & recovery disk.


1. Consider what data you still need from your Acer Aspire One's hard drive. Save the files to an external USB device.

2. Restart the Acer Aspire One's operating system. Wait for the Acer logo to appear on the LCD screen.

3. Press the "Alt" and "F10" keys at the same time to bring up the recovery menu. Press "Enter."

4. Click "Next." Follow the prompts that appear on the screen to restore the operating system back to factory settings.

5. Use the drop-down boxes to select the time zone and language information for your Acer Aspire One. Restart the netbook when you are prompted to finish restoring the computer.

6. Connect the external USB device to your Acer Aspire One and transfer the data you saved earlier back to the netbook.

Warning:
It is possible to delete the hard drive partition that has the recovery tool.

If your Acer Aspire One no longer has the recovery partition, you will need
to acquire an external USB DVD drive and then contact Acer for a recovery DVD.
Connect the USB drive to the netbook's USB port and then insert the recovery DVD in the drive.

Hope this helps.

You will need the correct Acer disc for your model to work or a store bought disc from Microsoft which works on all PC's

make sure disc is clean wash gently with warm soapy water going from middle to outer edge then dry with soft cloth going from middle to outer edge make sure cdrom is set to boot first then put RECOVERY DISC in first when finished put system disc in.
hope this helps.

Jeff what you have to do is this dont disturb yourself just go straight off the system then later on it and press your key F11 down at a time simultaneously then it will bring the system recovering factory settings for you and follow the instructions then you are through is just that all you have on the system will be gone but you will have your system back alive the way it was manufacture to work BYE THANKS

You can do it without disk to but for it should be hiddden partition is installled when your vista is load first time.For that
There is one option in bios D2d enable it .then save settings.
For enter bios when you power up the computer press F1 or F2 or "del" key then go to main menu find D2d
then enable then save and exit.
Then when it restart press ALT +F2
then you see recovery mode follow the procedure and wiped acer.
But if there is not any recoverry then you need recovery disk.

Let me know if you need more assistanse.
Thanks.

Successfully Reinstalling Vista would prove it's not the hard drive and just file corruption, although file corruption can be caused by faulty memory.