Acer Aspire Switch 10 SW5-012 Refuses to boot anything but Windows recovery.

CupTheYoutuber

February 14, 2015 8:39:16 PM

So, I deleted my recovery partition to try to reclaim some of the tiny hard drive on this thing, without reading into it (Stupid, I know) and I ended up bricking the windows install. So I thought, "Oh well, who cares I'll install linux.", and I followed one of the guides.

Now, here comes the problem. When I deleted the recovery partition, windows booted to a blue screen saying I needed to repair my computer, not a big deal right? Just boot linux and move on. Well, not really, because even if I select my USB disk in the boot menu, windows overrides that and just dumps me back at that recovery screen over and over again no matter what I do. I've tried turning secureboot on and off, wiping secure boots settings, changing boot orders, using the f12 menu. Nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to at the very least get to the grub splash screen, I'm dead set on getting some form of linux to work on this as I dont want to pay Acer for repairs.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I forgot to add switch to the name. Whoops.

More about : acer aspire sw5 012 refuses boot windows recovery

Best solution

Clayto1332

February 14, 2015 10:02:05 PM

Go to your BIOS, turn off UEFI and change to legacy boot. You can then boot to whatever you want, format the hard drive and install Linux.

Windows 8 is a pain in the ass.

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CupTheYoutuber

February 14, 2015 10:30:06 PM

Clayto1332 said:

Go to your BIOS, turn off UEFI and change to legacy boot. You can then boot to whatever you want, format the hard drive and install Linux.

Windows 8 is a pain in the ass.

I cant find any option in my bios to turn UEFI off or change to legacy boot. Just system information, secureboot settings, BIOS security settings, and boot order settings. None of which have any options in them to do that.

I also forgot to add Switch to the name of my netbook like a dipshit, so that might be why.

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Clayto1332

February 15, 2015 1:07:45 PM

Turn secure boot off. Then you should be able to find where to either turn UEFI off or Legacy boot on.

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CupTheYoutuber

February 15, 2015 3:15:04 PM

Clayto1332 said:

Turn secure boot off. Then you should be able to find where to either turn UEFI off or Legacy boot on.

I have secureboot set to off, here are some pictures of the BIOS and the windows recovery screen.

http://imgur.com/YurG8lX,MTsHFeq,hysTsX8,zdoBfpr,GKyUGN...

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Clayto1332

February 15, 2015 3:49:40 PM

According to this article:

http://community.acer.com/t5/Notebooks-Netbooks/Aspire-...

A bios update will give you the legacy boot option. Since you can't boot into Windows this can be tricky. You would have to create a bootable USB drive as outlined in one of the articles in this thread:

http://community.acer.com/t5/Notebooks-Netbooks/Aspire-...

You will follow the same steps but will probably have a different bios version. You can find that by going to ACER's site and looking up your laptop using its SNID:

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers

Sorry man, things were a lot easier before this UEFI stuff came about....

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CupTheYoutuber

February 15, 2015 6:48:52 PM

Clayto1332 said:

According to this article:

http://community.acer.com/t5/Notebooks-Netbooks/Aspire-...

A bios update will give you the legacy boot option. Since you can't boot into Windows this can be tricky. You would have to create a bootable USB drive as outlined in one of the articles in this thread:

http://community.acer.com/t5/Notebooks-Netbooks/Aspire-...

You will follow the same steps but will probably have a different bios version. You can find that by going to ACER's site and looking up your laptop using its SNID:

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers

Sorry man, things were a lot easier before this UEFI stuff came about....

Okay, so I managed to update the BIOS and the firmware and I still cant find any options to enable legacy boot anywhere. And the system still refuses to boot from my USB.

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Clayto1332

February 15, 2015 10:44:08 PM

Are you still being dumped back into recovery? Does your flash drive have bootable Linux on it? Or a Linux installation?
I hate to say it man but you might have to repair your Windows 8 installation to get the thing working. Not every UEFI capable laptop BIOS is this way... If you have another computer, you can download a blank Windows 8 ISO from here (for the time being):

https://userscloud.com/rqk8hut8629o

Then you can find an ISO burning program like poweriso. Just beware, if you were to get poweriso from poweriso.com, you have to de-select all of the adware and promotional offers from the installer as you go. If you boot the ISO to a DVD, UEFI will recognize it as a boot device and it will give you advanced troubleshooting and the option to reinstall Windows.

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CupTheYoutuber

February 16, 2015 1:10:10 PM

Clayto1332 said:

Are you still being dumped back into recovery? Does your flash drive have bootable Linux on it? Or a Linux installation?
I hate to say it man but you might have to repair your Windows 8 installation to get the thing working. Not every UEFI capable laptop BIOS is this way... If you have another computer, you can download a blank Windows 8 ISO from here (for the time being):

https://userscloud.com/rqk8hut8629o

Then you can find an ISO burning program like poweriso. Just beware, if you were to get poweriso from poweriso.com, you have to de-select all of the adware and promotional offers from the installer as you go. If you boot the ISO to a DVD, UEFI will recognize it as a boot device and it will give you advanced troubleshooting and the option to reinstall Windows.

Yeah, my USB has bootable linux. I do have a Windows 8.1 32 bit disk I can put on my USB to reinstall Windows. I'm going to try a few more distros before I completely give up on linux. though.

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Clayto1332

February 16, 2015 1:40:44 PM

Let me know if you can get one to work and what you did, if you would... I am going to tell people to shy away from Acer if this is how things are.

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CupTheYoutuber

February 16, 2015 8:16:09 PM

Clayto1332 said:

Let me know if you can get one to work and what you did, if you would... I am going to tell people to shy away from Acer if this is how things are.

I'll keep you posted. I would definitely tell people to shy away specifically from the Switch 10 as even if it is possible, its probably not worth all of this work anyways.

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r3tr0freak

June 4, 2015 2:03:52 AM

Same problem here: The boot options in the bios are not editable. I installed latest bios and firmware. Did anybody find out any trick to get linux running on this machine?

---> Ahhh!!! Got it: After setting the "Supervisor Password" in bios, all greyed out options (including secure boot settings) are available! Ha!

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haiphan02

June 24, 2015 1:33:50 PM

r3tr0freak said:

Same problem here: The boot options in the bios are not editable. I installed latest bios and firmware. Did anybody find out any trick to get linux running on this machine?

---> Ahhh!!! Got it: After setting the "Supervisor Password" in bios, all greyed out options (including secure boot settings) are available! Ha!

Did you get it to work? I'm in the same boat, please reply..

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kbeurskens

June 26, 2015 10:50:17 AM

r3tr0freak said:

Same problem here: The boot options in the bios are not editable. I installed latest bios and firmware. Did anybody find out any trick to get linux running on this machine?

---> Ahhh!!! Got it: After setting the "Supervisor Password" in bios, all greyed out options (including secure boot settings) are available! Ha!

With a Supervisor Password set I can switch Secure Boot between Enable and Disable, but I still *cannot* change to other boot methods than "Standard". The option then IS grayed indeed, but there's only one option (no []-brackets) so you can't choose for something else. Do I overlook something?

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SpeedxP

August 6, 2015 9:49:40 PM

Make sure your usb is UEFI 32bit bootable (/EFI/bootia32.efi)
Acer Aspire Switch 10 support to boot efi 32bit only and not support legacy boot.

Acer Aspire Switch 10 use wimboot for run windows,if you delete recovery partition, it's become unable to boot
(C:\Windows\ store only link file to wim image in recovery partition and update file)

Example : gParted Bootable USB is support efi 32bit , you can try to download and boot them.

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philmcneal

September 18, 2015 4:39:20 PM

SpeedxP said:

Make sure your usb is UEFI 32bit bootable (/EFI/bootia32.efi)
Acer Aspire Switch 10 support to boot efi 32bit only and not support legacy boot.

Acer Aspire Switch 10 use wimboot for run windows,if you delete recovery partition, it's become unable to boot
(C:\Windows\ store only link file to wim image in recovery partition and update file)

Example : gParted Bootable USB is support efi 32bit , you can try to download and boot them.

i've seen this solution posted https://gist.github.com/franga2000/2154d09f864894b8fe84 but I was wondering if this laptop can take a distro like this one https://www.linuxliteos.com/

man this must be an easier way!

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Leslie601298

October 4, 2015 12:42:40 PM

For anyone that has this problem on switch 10. DO NOT DISABLE SECURE BOOT CHECK! Just add your supervisor password and the Secure Boot Mode settings should be available. If you go and disable the secure boot check it will lock these settings out. Been trying to figure this one out for about a week and then just stumbled on to it when I was working with another switch 10 tablet (Because the battery died on the first one, Waiting on the chargers for both of them). Put the supervisor password in and noticed that the stuff was shaded as if it could be changed. Disabled the secure boot check and it disabled all the settings in the mode they were in. Changed the secure boot check back to enabled and they were unlocked again. Hope this helps. After you unlock the settings you can add another UEFI file as trusted so it will boot from it. Worked for me. Booted a MSDaRT (Microsoft Diagnostics And Recovery Toolset) disk from USB.

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KarmaBV

November 22, 2015 3:00:51 AM

CupTheYoutuber said:

So, I deleted my recovery partition to try to reclaim some of the tiny hard drive on this thing, without reading into it (Stupid, I know) and I ended up bricking the windows install. So I thought, "Oh well, who cares I'll install linux.", and I followed one of the guides.

Now, here comes the problem. When I deleted the recovery partition, windows booted to a blue screen saying I needed to repair my computer, not a big deal right? Just boot linux and move on. Well, not really, because even if I select my USB disk in the boot menu, windows overrides that and just dumps me back at that recovery screen over and over again no matter what I do. I've tried turning secureboot on and off, wiping secure boots settings, changing boot orders, using the f12 menu. Nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to at the very least get to the grub splash screen, I'm dead set on getting some form of linux to work on this as I dont want to pay Acer for repairs.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I forgot to add switch to the name. Whoops.

I think the only option you have NOW is TO PAY ACER SERVICE TO MAKE YOUR ACER S10 REVIVE ! I They will remove the HDD and "flash" all 3 partitions (recovery, Windows 8.1, ABfiles). As soon as your Acer revive, prepare to put your SD card (at least 32 GB), one 4port USB hub, one 32GB USB to make the ultimate tools for recovery ( I used both Windows Backup and Acronis to make a bootable USB for partitions recovery...). You can email me for more instructions. My Acer Service charged me only 15 USD for this repair.
Good Luck

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Don_5_

December 17, 2015 7:39:07 AM

I have the same issue with this crappy ACER Switch 10. I made some progress though. I tried a bunch of usb drives. The only one that shows up after mashing F12 is my PNY attache 8 gig drive. Keep trying different usb drives and then try installing from it.

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Leolipop

June 23, 2016 1:32:00 AM

I had the same issues as mentione above.The solution came wing the upgrade to windows 10.After they were installed form windows update i noticed that my C drive was no longer 21gb and had expanded to 28,5 , no more hidden recovery partition! i used a flash drive and made it from windows tools a recovery drive and thats it....For no reason after cleaning up the c drive to get rid of the 8.1 installation , my disk had 12gb used so i reseted the pc without the use of the recovery drive i had made and now i am at 21gb of free space ! Job done both for making a usable recovery partition since the hidden one was unusable and also gaining that wasted disk space.

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jjscalak

July 8, 2016 1:25:31 PM

hei.
Can you share this ISO again ?
I have problem with Acer SW5-012 - i need WIN7 on it...
But i have problem with install it... and i think i should to back to WIN8.
But your link is expired....

Clayto1332 said:

Are you still being dumped back into recovery? Does your flash drive have bootable Linux on it? Or a Linux installation?
I hate to say it man but you might have to repair your Windows 8 installation to get the thing working. Not every UEFI capable laptop BIOS is this way... If you have another computer, you can download a blank Windows 8 ISO from here (for the time being):

https://userscloud.com/rqk8hut8629o

Then you can find an ISO burning program like poweriso. Just beware, if you were to get poweriso from poweriso.com, you have to de-select all of the adware and promotional offers from the installer as you go. If you boot the ISO to a DVD, UEFI will recognize it as a boot device and it will give you advanced troubleshooting and the option to reinstall Windows.

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jjscalak

August 14, 2016 10:52:27 AM

Someone else have recovery media for Acer Aspire Switch 10 SW5-012 - and can share it ?

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somda

September 8, 2016 11:11:01 AM

This is the correct answer and yes the USB port on the computer works. Do as Leslie says and just plug-in the USB when in the UEFI screen. Then under 'main' under Secure Boot, use the second option (says something like add EFI file). You should see HDD1 and USB on the next screen - choose USB. For windows 10 you can simply add bootmgr.efi confirm prompts to save, save changes while exiting and you should be able to boot from USB.

NOTE: The USB must be FAT32 formatted (use rufus to burn ISO).

Leslie601298 said:

For anyone that has this problem on switch 10. DO NOT DISABLE SECURE BOOT CHECK! Just add your supervisor password and the Secure Boot Mode settings should be available. If you go and disable the secure boot check it will lock these settings out. Been trying to figure this one out for about a week and then just stumbled on to it when I was working with another switch 10 tablet (Because the battery died on the first one, Waiting on the chargers for both of them). Put the supervisor password in and noticed that the stuff was shaded as if it could be changed. Disabled the secure boot check and it disabled all the settings in the mode they were in. Changed the secure boot check back to enabled and they were unlocked again. Hope this helps. After you unlock the settings you can add another UEFI file as trusted so it will boot from it. Worked for me. Booted a MSDaRT (Microsoft Diagnostics And Recovery Toolset) disk from USB.

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Unklerupert

September 10, 2016 7:54:18 AM

Same issue here, wiped the recovery partition and rebooted to be greeted with

Recovery

Your PC needs to be repaired.

Press the Windows key for EUFI Formware Settings

Pressing the Windows key on the Switch 10 kb does nothing.

I've purchased recovery media from Acer (handily they supply this on CDs, not USB stick or even the option to download). I dumped all CDs onto a USB stick and when pressing F2 I've set the recovery bootmgr.efi, saved and exited and upon restart the Switch 10 just jumps straight back to the initial "Your PC needs to be repaired.' Seems it is completely ignoring what I've set in Acer setup utility access by pressing F2 on boot. Hair is being pulled and at the moment I think the only option is to send to Acer.

Recovery media cost around £51, full Acer recovery (ie sending back to their repair centre) £76.

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AllenLee1

September 12, 2016 2:06:38 PM

Clayto1332 said:

Go to your BIOS, turn off UEFI and change to legacy boot. You can then boot to whatever you want, format the hard drive and install Linux.

Windows 8 is a pain in the ass.

is their another link for this sir sorry bout being late on this but it just happened to me , and one more question when i download the link can i save it to a flash drive and put the flash in the acer ?

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Ronshere

September 18, 2016 8:12:09 AM

You can use the latest versions of PCLinuxos on it. PCLinuxOS features UEFI compatibility and it is available with the newest MATE or CINNAMON desktops.
I have successfully installed the MATE versions on several tablets and it run beautifully. also it readily sets up the WIFI and all audio for you during the installation so you will not have any trouble logging in to your WIFI. It also can be installed alongside Windows. You can easily download PCLinuxOS and use Unetbootin to burn it to a USB flashdrive to either install it to your tablet or boot to the flash drive just to run PCLinuxOS and check it out to see how it works and looks.
So you do not have to change anything in the BIOS to use it.

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wanisma

October 22, 2016 9:49:02 PM

CupTheYoutuber said:

So, I deleted my recovery partition to try to reclaim some of the tiny hard drive on this thing, without reading into it (Stupid, I know) and I ended up bricking the windows install. So I thought, "Oh well, who cares I'll install linux.", and I followed one of the guides.

Now, here comes the problem. When I deleted the recovery partition, windows booted to a blue screen saying I needed to repair my computer, not a big deal right? Just boot linux and move on. Well, not really, because even if I select my USB disk in the boot menu, windows overrides that and just dumps me back at that recovery screen over and over again no matter what I do. I've tried turning secureboot on and off, wiping secure boots settings, changing boot orders, using the f12 menu. Nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to at the very least get to the grub splash screen, I'm dead set on getting some form of linux to work on this as I dont want to pay Acer for repairs.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I forgot to add switch to the name. Whoops.

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wanisma

October 22, 2016 9:53:07 PM

CupTheYoutuber said:

So, I deleted my recovery partition to try to reclaim some of the tiny hard drive on this thing, without reading into it (Stupid, I know) and I ended up bricking the windows install. So I thought, "Oh well, who cares I'll install linux.", and I followed one of the guides.

Now, here comes the problem. When I deleted the recovery partition, windows booted to a blue screen saying I needed to repair my computer, not a big deal right? Just boot linux and move on. Well, not really, because even if I select my USB disk in the boot menu, windows overrides that and just dumps me back at that recovery screen over and over again no matter what I do. I've tried turning secureboot on and off, wiping secure boots settings, changing boot orders, using the f12 menu. Nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to at the very least get to the grub splash screen, I'm dead set on getting some form of linux to work on this as I dont want to pay Acer for repairs.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I forgot to add switch to the name. Whoops.

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kaptdeath

February 5, 2017 7:35:30 AM

I know this thread is old, but I am posting this here in the hope that it helps someone else. I had a similar situation with my Switch 10. My Switch 10 stopped accepting windows updates a few months ago. I tried every guide I could find to fix the "windows 8.1 stuck checking for updates" problem, including reinstalling 8.1 2X to no avail. Finally I decided to try switching to Linux to see if that might work better. In the process of monkeying around with the BIOS to get the new OS installed I happened to turn off FTPM support. (I can also confirm that the switch 10 uses a 32bit UEFI as my 64bit version would not work at all :fou:

) In the process of multiple reboots I noticed that 8.1 was trying to update. Yay, I let 8.1 update. During one of the subsequent reboots I turned FTPM support back on. Whoa, back to "stuck checking for updates" again. I turned it off, and update began to work again. There are dozens of fixes for "stuck checking for update" on the web. I never saw this one, and it worked for me. Good luck.

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