need help big time

LilacBleeds said:

it says I need a 2gb usb stick which i don't have!

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How did you install mint?

If you really want help, I can help you, but you are going to have to post what I ask for.

lunatic59 said:

At this point I see your options as this:

1.) Try it with a 1GB USB stick. Some of the smaller distros should fit and it might work.
2.) Get a 2GB USB Stick. You could borrow one from someone as you'll only need it for the install.
3.) Call Acer and hope they can walk you through the recovery process as long as your recovery partition is still intact.
4.) Take it to someone who will install Linux or try and recover Windows 7 for you.

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There is a lot more options, we can fix this. I think I know the problem, but she needs to answer the questions.

I'd highly advise trying to get Win7 back. It's important to make the Recovery (Acer has its own tools to help you do this) for the Win OS just in case you don't like linux.

Do some research into linux before installing it and make sure your hardware is going to work. More than likely, everything will get detected however, wifi might have issues. As mentioned earlier, I have 2 Acer laptops a 5733Z with an Atheros wifi and an AO722 with a Broadcom wifi. The Broadcom is detected and has a 3rd party driver Mint asks me to install, the Atheros is a no go.

If you can't recover Win 7, eg; you wiped your hard drive with Mint and you want to run Win 7 the cheapest way is to call Acer. Say you need the recovery disks for your model netbook. I don't know the exact cost but a friend did the same with their Lenovo S10 netbook and the cost was about $45 CDN. Then spend about $50 CDN and buy an external DVD-R and reinstall that way.

Lilac, a few questions.
1. How did you install Mint? Did you use a windows based installer?
2. Do you have a USB DVD drive? I'm guessing no, as not many people have those.

Also, if you *really* don't want linux, you can boot to a live environment (loads from USB, no system level changes) and recovery any data on the computer. But, if you are just a little uneasy about it because of this, I'd give it another try.

Rule number 1: stay calm. Everything will work out.

LilacBleeds said:

I have found some boot recovery that you put on a Ian but it can't find it
I dont know what to do?

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We can not help you unless you answer the questions. Every make and model of acer netbooks are slightly different.

I have never done a install through USB which is some what new to me. I us to work with the Linux.org community BIG TIME along with working with SuSE Linux team then we all took off to Open SuSE.
These guys are all asking valid questions and they are only doing there absolute best to get you back on track. I myself remember the days of the (OH NO I just flopped my computer oh gawd what do I do.) Like there all saying here to you (DON'T FRET) we can work with you to get with what you want done.
I am guessing you would really like to try out Linux Mint but you would ALSO really like to have the option to go back to windows 7 which is not that hard to do.
Me myself I never liked what they call (dual booting any of my systems I ran but that is just me) and I never used any laptop or notebook to do so. I had the option of buying myself a whole new drive and I just switched over the plugs from drive to drive as I needed.
I did help a friend of mine though dual boot his laptop and it was not that hard he was doing the same thing you are doing through the whole process too.
(((((One thing I REALLY suggest is to pick a Linux OS that lets you install the flavor of OS onto a CD rom so you can boot into it from the CD rom drive.
If you cannot do this there are ways to do this on a USB drive as the same applies above for this also.))))
This way you can get familiarized with the new OS. Have a look at how things are structured without even touching your windows partition at all.
It was a common mistake that I also did.
If partitioning drives ect is all new to you this would have been your best option.
Questions for you:
1. Do you have a windows 7 disk or recovery CD that came with that Notebook.

I think what all of us should be doing from here on out is to get the notebook back to windows 7. What you are all doing here IS very confusing to any new user to the world of Linux. Trust me and it is very scary when things like this happen I know from experiencing this myself.
We can work on the Linux part of things later.

LilacBleeds said:

I have tried to install the mint 11 and thought it was on my usb but was on Android hard drive I think not sure

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Explain please?


What is your android hard drive?


Do something for me.

Shut down the pc, remove the battery, usb, sd, and everything that can be removed, with out a screw driver.

Replace battery, then start computer. When you see writing on the screen. Press f12. You may have to hit f12 a few times. Then hit down arrow (to stop the countdown to reboot), write down everything on the screen and report back.

Can you get into your BIOS settings? If Acer's bootloader is interfering, you may be able to find a work around with the BIOS.

Also, when installing a linux distro (which you now don't want to do, but might later..?), you can often tell it where to place the bootloader (likely grub).

LilacBleeds said:

Done this its the same
There is no where to put a cd
It has two window 7 250gb hard drive and 4gb on android but now i cant see any

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So when you boot the pc, you keep hitting f12 and nothing happens?

At second 6 on your video, there is a boot screen that says, Hit f2 to enter settings, f12 to change boot order.

Are you saying that when you hit f12, when the screen appears, nothing happens?

Yeah, windows 7 is a dvd image, so it'll need ~4 gb of storage. I forget which program I used, but it was pretty straight forward and you just loaded the ISO and it made the boot image.