Flashing Underscore on Boot

[Gawin]

Hi. Recently I got this problem on my Acer Aspire 5742G where my laptop gets stuck on black screen with a flashing underscore at the top left corner right after the Acer splash screen. I can get into Bios but I can't get into safe mode (normally I could press F8 to get into Advanced Boot Options but this no longer works).

The problem started when I decided to try out Windows 8 Preview a few days ago. I managed to set up dual boot windows 7 home premium/windows 8 preview and it worked fine. But I only gave 20GB to the windows 8 partition and I decided I needed more. Being a total newb to partitioning, I thought it's a simple matter to transfer space by shrinking the volume of the win7 partition, format the new unallocated space and extend the volume of the win8 partition. But after I did this, all the partitions apart from the recovery one became "simple partitions" instead of "primary partitions". I don't know the difference between the two terms and I didn't think it was a problem so I just turned off the laptop once I finished with it. The next time I turned it on the problem started. Could this have caused problems with the hard drive? It's the only thing I can think of that caused the problem.

But more importantly how do I go about fixing this? Unfortunately I can't find my recovery disc either.

 

[Pinhedd]

Primary partitions are bootable, simple partitions are not. There are a finite number of bootable partitions on old partitioning schemes but this has changed with new hardware and OS support.

If you do not have a recovery disk you can download a Windows installation ISO that can be burned to a DVD from here

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/w/microsoft_os/3316.2-1-microsoft-windows-7-official-iso-download-links-digital-river.aspx

These links are provided by Microsoft for trial, recovery and repair purposes. You must download the edition that came with your laptop and install it using the CD key that is present on the Certificate of Authenticity located on the bottom of your laptop.

 

[Gawin]

Thanks! I did as you advised and the installation worked the second time (on the first time the installation got stuck at "completing installation..." for some reason). It's a huge relief. I just had a look at the partitions again and all the partitions apart from the recovery one and the disk drive are still simple volumes. Here's a pic



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
(Under the "Acer (C partition it says "(Boot, Page File, Crash Dump)")

Will that cause the problem again? How do I change them back to primary?

Finally it appears all my drivers have disappeared (graphics card, mobo, etc). I can download them online again but it's a bit of a pain and I don't want to miss something. Will a system restore do the trick or can I use the Recovery partition?

Thanks again.

 

[Pinhedd]

Thanks! I did as you advised and the installation worked the second time (on the first time the installation got stuck at "completing installation..." for some reason). It's a huge relief. I just had a look at the partitions again and all the partitions apart from the recovery one and the disk drive are still simple volumes. Here's a pic

[url]http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6572/partitions.png[/URL]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
(Under the "Acer (C partition it says "(Boot, Page File, Crash Dump)")

Will that cause the problem again? How do I change them back to primary?

Finally it appears all my drivers have disappeared (graphics card, mobo, etc). I can download them online again but it's a bit of a pain and I don't want to miss something. Will a system restore do the trick or can I use the Recovery partition?

Thanks again.

Oh I see, simple is the layout, not the partition type. Simple is what it should be in that case

 

[dodger46]

Acer Recovery
Power computer on. Hold Alt and keep pressing F10 at the Acer logo. You may need a password. If you have used Erecovery before you would have been asked to create a password.
If your first Erecovery the default password is 000000
Select Factory

 

[Gawin]

Thanks guys, really appreciated the help. =D