acer extensa 5620 need restore help ( hdd may have been changed out too )

[Soundguy]

at work we have an acter extensa 5620 ( 5620-6830 )

it travels to and from the jobsite... it's been running slow a while and regualr malware and antivirus checks don't show anything.. but it has had a bajillion software titles installed on and oof and many removed, over the years.

We got no budget to repalce, and I'm using my OWN netbook here at work ( gotta love the construction industry! ).. anyway.

I went back tot he back office to take a look.

doesn't appear that it has an oe restore cd.. so i figured it had a restore partition.. didn't find it.. but curiously did notice in my computer it showed a c and a d drive.. both 88.1g display tag on the machine shows it was equipped with a single 200gig hdd.

hopping into bios i figured I'd see a single hdd, and figured it was partitioned.. but I find 2 physical hdd's and the dvd drive.

my ?guess? is the previous guy in the back office had a ?crash? and had a new hdd instaleld and someone perhaps cloned the drive over or reinstalled vista home on it.. but it now no longer has a restore partition?

anything ia'm missing here?

I'd love to get this machine back up and going a bit faster.. it crawls right now..

opinions..

 

[RobertN]

Try a websearch on that model an "recovery menu"? Some times it is a function key to get in to some of the recovery or setup modes

Also, sometimes Windows just gets constipated and needs a rebuild. It just gets loaded up with intermediate files and stuff.

 

[Soundguy]

that's what I THINK is happening here. drive and unused file constitpation. just trying to find the dang rebuild option.

tried bios.. just boot controls and hardware options... in windows i found the thing to roll back updates to restore points... but I can't find out anything about reovery partition info.. and the original packet of info that came with the pc ( still hav ethe box and all.. has no cd..e tc.. )

 

[Tig]

When it's being a dog is the hard drive working furiously? It may be paging to disk due to insufficient memory. Being an old machine, memory may be relatively cheap. Another gig will give it some breathing room.
CrapCleaner is also good at tidying up a machine.

 

[Soundguy]

it's just browsing an email window and opening pdf files. the 3gig it came with sould be quite sufficient for that.. but i will check.

sometimes it is paging.. other times.. just thinking..

 

[Tig]

I was expecting to hear that you had one gig.

 

[Tig]

I found a site that says to Recover, do a cold boot. Hold Alt down and press F10 repeatedly until the recovery message appears.

 

[Soundguy]

i'll give it a try tomorrow am!

 

[RobertN]

I've found it is typically F10, F8, F2, or Delete

I found a site that says to Recover, do a cold boot. Hold Alt down and press F10 repeatedly until the recovery message appears.

 

[MossRoad]

Before you blast it, try this....

Install CCLeaner.
Install Auslogics disk defragmenter.

Uninstall any software you no longer need.

Delete any user profiles you no longer need.

Turn off the paging file.

Boot into safe mode.

Run CCleaner

Run Auslogics disk defragmenter and tell it to optimize the disk.

When it finishes, turn on the paging file again and set it to 2 times your ram, or 6000 in your case for the minimum and maximum so the swap file cannot chang size.

Reboot and see if it helped. If not, you only wasted 10 minutes of your time.

 

[Soundguy]

ok.. ran a hardware and mem check, etc.. no issues.

here's some more info.

alt-f8 at bootup does get you to the recovery menu. recovery partition not found

as I suspected.. it appears the machine had it's oe hdd replaced at some time after purchase.. a 200g was removed and 2/88 g replaced. was probably done at best buy / geek squad, looking at the notes from the previous manager to use the machine.. i believe there was a note that the machine had been dropped.. ( it's an 12-07 anyway )

At this point i'm kind of doubting acer will have a recovery disc for sale if the amchine was designed for a recovery partition that was not cloned over.. but will try.

geeksquad cost would be crazy on a 5yr old laptop.. considering a new one that would exceede this one's capability can be had for 350-450$ i'm guessing.

will see what the acer site says.

still open to hearing opinions.

 

[Soundguy]

more info.

went to acer site.. found out a few things.

for sure said if hdd was replaced, that recovery partition would not be repalced/cloned over.

also said that if hdd was repalced to order a erecovery cd, or make a backup using erecovery.

went to erecovery in the acer folder and it's pasworded (ARGH! )

trying to get in touch with the old employee now for the restore point password..

went tot he acer media recovery page.. put in the SNID.. and no media is available for that old of machine.

ho-hum.... hope the guy remembers his password from 5ys ago..

and hopefully he DID do a 'save-restore' in the erecovery program after having that hdd replaced.

it won't let you see if there are any valid backups untill you enter the pword..

 

[MossRoad]

I recall we had a laptop that a disgruntled employee password protected the bios and hosed the OS before he left. There are no password reset jumpers on the laptop as there are on desktops. The only way to repair it was to send it to the vendor for wipe and restore, which was going to cost a couple hundred bucks on a 4-5 year old laptop. It just wasn't worth it, so we scrapped it and put the money towards a new one. Grrrrr!

That's why its important to have an "I.T." person in any company of any size that gets first shot at all computer equipment to set up things like passwords, anti-virus, administrator account, user accounts, etc... and keep the info on each machine in a safe place. For small companies, a simple numbering system for assets and a corresponding file folder drawer in a locked file cabinet can make a world of difference a couple years down the road when the inevitable repairs/upgrades/restores pop up.

 

[Soundguy]

I agree. and unfortunately.. I get stuck doing all the IT work when soemthing breaks... what I don't get is authorization to have any controll over new stuff. so the centralized passwrod and account thing is a pipe dream for me.. I work for a construction firm that is family owned.. the upper level managers and execs are either in the family or friends of the family. one of them deals..

 

[RobertN]

- Try those cleanup programs mentioned earlier in this thread

- Get another HDD and load Win7; keep old drive as backup(get one of the usb enclosures and make it an external drive)

- Bite the bullet and get a new one

The last option may be easiest and cheapest in the end. You'll wind up spending at least some money, and a lot of valuable time dinking with an old machine, when you can get a nice laptop for $350-500 as you mentioned..

 

[Soundguy]

tried the cleanup programs, as mentioned. no change. I know for sure some of the win install is damaged due to a missing driver or 2.

getting another hdd and a copy of win 7 will be most ofthe cost of a new laptop anyway... plus finding drivers and whatnot and hassles with 5yr old gear ...

if we cannot get the password from the prev employee.. I'm telling them to go hit OD, WM, Staples or BB.. get a 350-450$ laptop.. it will have as much or more memory and computing power and storage as that 5yr old one that cost 580$.

Not sure how any of the options that require budget expendature will fly.. we've been told to operate on -0- budget

gotta love this economy right now.

I started a new engineering job as well recently... havn't punched a time clock in 20ys.. and as an independent contractor was used to thinking onmy feet and just taking care of problems onthe fly and self managing. now in a position where I have to get 3 ok's to do anything..... (sigh)

 

[RobertN]

Have you done a search for and installed latest system drivers, and then run latest Windows updates? What two drivers were missing?

And back up that HDD... before you have a system crash

 

[MossRoad]

I agree. and unfortunately.. I get stuck doing all the IT work when soemthing breaks... what I don't get is authorization to have any controll over new stuff. so the centralized passwrod and account thing is a pipe dream for me.. I work for a construction firm that is family owned.. the upper level managers and execs are either in the family or friends of the family. one of them deals..

Yeah, but a guy can dream, right? Hee hee! I used to get the clean-up tasks until I got in charge of things so I know how that works. Much easier if you can plan it in advance. Give those clean-up steps I posted earlier a try before you wipe it. It usually makes a very noticeable improvement. :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

tried the cleanup programs, as mentioned. no change. I know for sure some of the win install is damaged due to a missing driver or 2.

getting another hdd and a copy of win 7 will be most ofthe cost of a new laptop anyway... plus finding drivers and whatnot and hassles with 5yr old gear ...

if we cannot get the password from the prev employee.. I'm telling them to go hit OD, WM, Staples or BB.. get a 350-450$ laptop.. it will have as much or more memory and computing power and storage as that 5yr old one that cost 580$.

Not sure how any of the options that require budget expendature will fly.. we've been told to operate on -0- budget

gotta love this economy right now.

I started a new engineering job as well recently... havn't punched a time clock in 20ys.. and as an independent contractor was used to thinking onmy feet and just taking care of problems onthe fly and self managing. now in a position where I have to get 3 ok's to do anything..... (sigh)

Woops. Didn't read all the posts. Sorry it didn't work. Bummer.

 

[MossRoad]

if we cannot get the password from the prev employee.. I'm telling them to go hit OD, WM, Staples or BB.. get a 350-450$ laptop.. it will have as much or more memory and computing power and storage as that 5yr old one that cost 580$.

Try Tigerdirect.com. They have some pretty good deals on refurb laptops for less than $300.