At 09:04 PM 3/25/99, you wrote:

>        We have a restore CD, but obviously we can't use it, because we
>can't get that far.  If necessary, after we ~do~ get it to boot up,
>reformatting and re-installing the OS will not cause any grief for
>them.

On the two Acers I have restored their was the directions for how to use
the Acer Restore CD on the sleeve. You need to get into the CMOS and change
the CD-Boot option to yes or some such. It's not real obvious and doesn't
stay selected. In that you set it once boot from CD and then it resets to
normal mode which is HD.
Once set you you save, exit and boot again with the restore CD in drive, it
then will reformat drive, and do a reinstall to "factory new" settings.
So try this after exhausting all methods of getting any data needed off the
drive.  You can try a boot disk made from a Win98 machine and see if you
can access the drive and then do a simple install of WIn9x. that may get
you back to what you need.


!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!
Patrick Meyer
A French Norman in a foreign land,
pining for the fjords.

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