Reformatting an Acer Laptop

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AVT

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I've got an Acer laptop that needs to be reformatted. There's no recovery CDs available - they have a partition that's supposed to have the system backed up, but reports that I have the wrong hard drive installed. Acer warranty claims that this is not their fault because it was not reported before the warranty expired. I can't install from a generic XP CD because it claims the CDKey is invalid.

At this point is there anything I can do with this system?
 
You just need to get the right disc. Acer should sell the physical media for probably $15 or so.
 
SlowCobra said:
You just need to get the right disc. Acer should sell the physical media for probably $15 or so.
Click to expand...

Just got off the phone with them, only available for laptops purchased after March 06. This one was purchased in 05.
 
SlowCobra said:
You just need to get the right disc. Acer should sell the physical media for probably $15 or so.
Click to expand...

MrF said:
Is that an OEM XP CD?
That's what you need.
Click to expand...

Yes, standard Newegg OEM XP CD. I had previously been under the impression that they're all identical, but apparently not given that it finds the Laptop's CDKey to be invalid.
 
So go find the Acer OEMBIOS files and take the XP OEM CD, extract the contents, put the Acer OEMBIOS files in, burn the files to a new installation CD using nLite, voila... an Acer-locked XP installation CD. I made one just last week for reformatting a customer's Acer machine, took me all of 8 mins to create an Acer-locked XP installation CD (meaning it will only install on an Acer, and it won't even ask for a key nor bother with activation since it's - get this - locked to Acers...) :D
 
MrF said:
If it still boots, it helps if you can recover the original key used on the pre-installed OS. That key would be more forgiving for activation.

Also, see if this helps.
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml
Click to expand...

I have the key, it's on the sticker on the bottom of the laptop. The problem is that XP says it's invalid.

So go find the Acer OEMBIOS files and take the XP OEM CD, extract the contents, put the Acer OEMBIOS files in, burn the files to a new installation CD using nLite, voila... an Acer-locked XP installation CD. I made one just last week for reformatting a customer's Acer machine, took me all of 8 mins to create an Acer-locked XP installation CD (meaning it will only install on an Acer, and it won't even ask for a key nor bother with activation since it's - get this - locked to Acers...)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how this is going to help given that XP thinks the CDKey is invalid.
 
A little lesson in OEMBIOS technology:

OEMBIOS files are used to tie an installation of the OS to a branded piece of hardware. So, that means when you have an actual OEM copy of the OS, such as the one Acer used to install XP on that laptop at the factory (ok, so they used a static image deployed to the hard drive in a rack of 'em, all at the same time, but the idea holds).

The OEM tied copy is branded, meaning it will only install on the given brand of hardware - Dell XP on Dells, HP/Compaq XP on HPs and Compaqs, etc... till you get an Acer XP on an Acer, for the most part.

You can create your own "restore disc" by locating the necessary OEMBIOS files that Acer uses (they're easy to locate, just a small archive with 12 files in 3 folders. As stated above, since you do have a legit XP OEM disc, you can take those 12 files in their 3 folders and "dump" them into the contents of that legit XP OEM disc you have (when you copy the contents to your hard drive).

What you'll end up with are the installation files that are basically identical to what you'd find on an Acer XP installation disc - you can then burn those files to a new CD, using nLite just to burn the files and create the ISO or burn the CD directly, and when you're done, you take that CD, put it in the Acer, boot off it, install XP, and it will not ask you for a Product Key because... <drumroll please>

That CD is "tied" to the Acer hardware and won't install on any other brand of laptop. The key on the sticker is effectively useless and the sticker itself is what matters - with your own custom made Acer XP "restore CD" you won't need to enter the key (which it wouldn't accept anyway since it's not the royalty OEM key - that's buried inside the OEMBIOS files)...

See where that leads? You make your own Acer restore CD, that's as simple as I can explain it. If the concept of "this CD will install XP on your Acer branded laptop and it won't ask for a key nor will it require activation since it's tied to that hardware" doesn't make sense, then I guess I'm done here... ;)
 
Joe Average said:
A little lesson in OEMBIOS technology:

OEMBIOS files are used to tie an installation of the OS to a branded piece of hardware. So, that means when you have an actual OEM copy of the OS, such as the one Acer used to install XP on that laptop at the factory (ok, so they used a static image deployed to the hard drive in a rack of 'em, all at the same time, but the idea holds).

The OEM tied copy is branded, meaning it will only install on the given brand of hardware - Dell XP on Dells, HP/Compaq XP on HPs and Compaqs, etc... till you get an Acer XP on an Acer, for the most part.

You can create your own "restore disc" by locating the necessary OEMBIOS files that Acer uses (they're easy to locate, just a small archive with 12 files in 3 folders. As stated above, since you do have a legit XP OEM disc, you can take those 12 files in their 3 folders and "dump" them into the contents of that legit XP OEM disc you have (when you copy the contents to your hard drive).

What you'll end up with are the installation files that are basically identical to what you'd find on an Acer XP installation disc - you can then burn those files to a new CD, using nLite just to burn the files and create the ISO or burn the CD directly, and when you're done, you take that CD, put it in the Acer, boot off it, install XP, and it will not ask you for a Product Key because... <drumroll please>

That CD is "tied" to the Acer hardware and won't install on any other brand of laptop. The key on the sticker is effectively useless and the sticker itself is what matters - with your own custom made Acer XP "restore CD" you won't need to enter the key (which it wouldn't accept anyway since it's not the royalty OEM key - that's buried inside the OEMBIOS files)...

See where that leads? You make your own Acer restore CD, that's as simple as I can explain it. If the concept of "this CD will install XP on your Acer branded laptop and it won't ask for a key nor will it require activation since it's tied to that hardware" doesn't make sense, then I guess I'm done here... ;)
Click to expand...

Wow, I had no idea that a system like that even existed. Going to try all this, thank you!
 
"dump" the files isn't exactly a technical enough term or description of the process. It could be numerous amount of things. Are you saying extract the files to the root of the disc into a folder or... copy the archived folder to the root or.... copy to a certain folder or.... extract the data from it and use the unattended installer with nlite.... etc.
 
Take an XP OEM CD - this means an actual unbranded OEM XP Home or Professional installation CD, aka a System Builder edition.

Copy the files off the CD into a folder on your hard drive, let's call the folder XP_OEM.

When you peek into that folder after the copy, you'd see something like this:

files1.png


When you extract the archive with the necessary OEMBIOS files in it, you'll find something like this:

files2.png


Copy the $OEM$ folder directly into the root of the XP_OEM folder; copy all the other files into the XP_OEM\I386 folder - and when prompted to overwrite because of duplicate filenames, overwrite them, all of them (there's only 9 of 'em). When you're done, the XP_OEM folder will look like this:

files3.png


which is the original content off the CD + that folder in the root and the files in the I386 directory. One caveat is necessary here, but only if you're using a true OEM XP CD (which is unbranded and consider a System Builder edition):

You need to go inside the I386 folder and delete the following folders:

WIN9XMIG
WIN9XUPG
WINNTUPG

Those folders only pertain to upgrade installations, which isn't something you can really do with the OEM XP (System Builder, unbranded) edition, so delete the folders entirely. At this point, you're ready to burn.

Grab nLite, install it (and the .NET libraries if necessary - on XP they might be, Vista/Windows 7 already have 'em), then run it, point it to the XP_OEM folder, let it scan the contents. When it's done, click Next twice (might be three times), get to the actions list and choose Create ISO because that's all we need nLite for. You can use some other tool if you feel more comfortable but, nLite already has the info necessary to create a bootable CD whereas simple burning tools will require you to fuddle around with creating a bootsector, etc etc - nLite does all this for you in one basic step.

Create the ISO and then burn it with some tool of your choice, or you can have nLite actually do a direct burn and make the CD for you.

That's it. If this whole process takes you longer than 10 mins to create a working OEM-branded XP installation CD of your choice and branding (once you have those OEMBIOS files, that is), then you're doing something wrong.

I've had customers over the years bring me Dells, Sonys, HPs, Compaqs, Gateways, Medions, Acers, IBMs, etc... basically every single brand of machine that XP has ever existed on, and I've got a library of 115 different sets of OEMBIOS files because of it.

When someone brings in a <insert brand here> machine, I take my OEM System Builder copy of XP, copy the files to the drive, find the OEMBIOS files for that specific brand and extract them, copy them into the installation files as required, delete the 3 folders, burn the content to a 12x CDRW with nLite, install the OS, happy customer, money in my pocket, and I don't even waste a CD in the process. ;)
 
AVT said:
I have the key, it's on the sticker on the bottom of the laptop.
Click to expand...
That is not the key I was talking about.
The key on the sticker is different from the key that the manufacturer used to activate the initial installation.
If you can recover the original key, in most cases, you won't even have to activate.
 
Joe Average said:
Copy the files off the CD into a folder on your hard drive, let's call the folder XP_OEM.

When you peek into that folder after the copy, you'd see something like this:

When you extract the archive with the necessary OEMBIOS files in it, you'll find something like this:

Copy the $OEM$ folder directly into the root of the XP_OEM folder; copy all the other files into the XP_OEM\I386 folder - and when prompted to overwrite because of duplicate filenames, overwrite them, all of them (there's only 9 of 'em). When you're done, the XP_OEM folder will look like this:

which is the original content off the CD + that folder in the root and the files in the I386 directory. One caveat is necessary here, but only if you're using a true OEM XP CD (which is unbranded and consider a System Builder edition):

You need to go inside the I386 folder and delete the following folders:

WIN9XMIG
WIN9XUPG
WINNTUPG

Those folders only pertain to upgrade installations, which isn't something you can really do with the OEM XP (System Builder, unbranded) edition, so delete the folders entirely. At this point, you're ready to burn.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I wanted to know, Thanks; very informative.

Now, what about using a tool that extracts the license key from Windows. Is the one it extracts going to match the OEM bios one?
 
I wouldn't know, never used such a tool (I'm guessing it would work like the Magical Jellybean Keyfinder, however). The key extracted would still be of no use with just any old OEM System Builder non-branded XP CD - why? Because the key is tied to the PIDGEN.DLL file included in the OEMBIOS files I've been talking about.

If you had the actually "royalty key" as they're known for Acer, and you tried to use it with a non-branded OEM System Builder CD, it won't work because it's tied to those Acer OEMBIOS files.

The key on the sticker should be of some use, but in my experience, it has never ever allowed me to install XP on any type of hardware, even branded. Go figure...

Hence, I use the better and more accurate method for an OEM machine which is to "make" an installation CD designed specifically to be installed on a given branded OEM machine, Dell for Dell, HP for HP, etc. When I'm done with the installation, I simply re-use the CDRW for something else, and re-create the installation CDs as required. I don't provide them to the clients; if they want the real OEM media, they have to get it from the OEM, not me.
 
Now, do the OEMFILES change over time? I see this website that has OEMFILES you can download to make your own restore disc but it has multiple versions per manufacturer. Dell has a few you can download, Sony has a few, etc. Joe, you mentioned you have a large collection of OEMFILES, is this because the old ones are no longer usable on newer systems?
 
Not that I've noticed, no. Tying the BIOS to an OEM distro with XP isn't the same as what Vista and Windows 7 use which are SLIC tables embedded in the BIOS for specific purposes. I've never had an instance where a disc I create using the OEMBIOS files for a given manufacturer have failed, and some of the OEMBIOS files are dated way back in 2004 - long before XP SP3 came out, yet they still work just fine.
 
So this process you are describing only works with XP?

As for the Vista,7, what I understand is that the bios SLIC and a file on the Vista disc need to match up and it bypasses the key/activation process? How have you delt with that?
 
Yes, it only works with XP. There are ways to accomplish making your own custom OEM-branded installation discs for Vista/Windows 7, but because of how it's done - SLIC tables and such - that basically crosses "a line in the sand" because that's exactly how people originally pirated Vista, and was part of the reason a few weeks ago for that crap with the Lenovo OEM royalty key/SLIC table leak.

With XP you can't really modify an Acer disc to install it on a Dell - well, it's possible yes but the idea is simply ludicrous. An OEM installation on an OEM machine doesn't require activation because of the entire licensing equation for OEMs.

The whole intention of the SLIC table bypass with Vista/Windows 7 is to pirate the OS, plain and simple, and use it on non-OEM branded hardware to bypass activation meaning using an OEM SLIC table licensing gimmick to install Vista/Windows 7 on a machine you build yourself, or anyone has. If you have an OEM machine with Vista on it, you're covered. The only reason those SLIC table bypass hacks exist is to use the OS on any hardware someone chooses and "fakes out" the activation by making their home built machine look like an OEM machine which doesn't require activation.

"And that's all I have to say about that..." and I think you can figure out why. :D

This thread is going a bit far... so don't be surprised to see it get locked...
 
But if you have an OEM machine with Vista licensed to it and you drop in a normal OEM disc, is it still going to ask you for the key? I'm just wondering if the issue described above for OEM disc not working on the Acer would effect a Vista licensed machine, or will any ol' disc work.
 
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