Case Study: Data Recovery from an Acer Aspire 722 Stuck in an eRecovery Management Boot Loop with a Compromised Boot Configuration
Client Profile: User of an Acer Aspire 722 laptop.
Presenting Issue: The system automatically booted into the Acer eRecovery Management platform and initiated a file system scan. Following this, it reported “Windows could not start” and now persistently reboots into the eRecovery environment, despite the user attempting the “Restore OS and Retain Data” option multiple times, which reported success but failed to resolve the underlying boot issue.
The Fault Analysis
The client’s experience indicates a critical failure in the boot sequence, specifically within the chain of trust between the firmware and the operating system. The eRecovery environment is a separate partition that acts as a failsafe; its persistent activation signifies that the main OS partition is either corrupt or unrecognizable to the boot manager.
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Boot Configuration Data (BCD) Corruption: The most common cause for “Windows could not start” is a corrupted Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store. This is a firmware-independent database that replaces the legacy
boot.inifile. It contains the instructions for the Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr) on how to load the OS. Corruption here, often caused by a sudden power loss or a failing storage medium, prevents the system from locating thewinload.efi(orwinload.exe) file. -
Master Boot Record (MBR) / GUID Partition Table (GPT) Damage: The initial boot code in the MBR or the partition entries in the GPT may be damaged. The eRecovery tool’s “Restore OS” function likely attempts to repair this, but if the underlying storage has developed unstable sectors in this critical region, the repair is temporary and fails upon reboot.
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File System Metadata Corruption: The NTFS Master File Table ($MFT) or the $Boot file itself may have sustained damage. The eRecovery scan was likely checking the integrity of these structures. The “Retain Data” option attempts to rebuild the OS without formatting the user partition (
C:\Users), but if the corruption is severe, this process can fail, leaving the system in a perpetual state of attempting and failing to self-repair. -
Imminent Storage Media Failure: The cyclical nature of the problem is a strong indicator of a physically degrading Hard Disk Drive. Bad sectors developing in the system-reserved area (typically the first few gigabytes of the disk) would repeatedly corrupt the newly written BCD and boot files, explaining why the eRecovery repair appears successful but fails on the next boot.
The Professional Data Recovery Laboratory Process
The client’s decision to cease DIY repairs was critical. Each failed eRecovery attempt risks further data loss. Our lab’s approach is to bypass the failed boot environment entirely and work directly with the raw storage medium.
Phase 1: Physical HDD Extraction and Stabilised Imaging
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Drive Removal and Isolation: The 2.5″ SATA HDD is carefully removed from the Acer Aspire 722 chassis. This is the first and most critical step to prevent the host system from causing any further logical damage.
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Hardware-Based Diagnostics: The drive is connected to our PC-3000 system and DeepSpar Disk Imager. We perform a full diagnostic, paying close attention to the S.M.A.R.T. data. We specifically look for elevated values in:
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Reallocated Sectors Count (0x05)
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Current Pending Sector Count (0xC5)
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Uncorrectable Sector Count (0xC7)
These attributes confirm or rule out physical media degradation as the root cause.
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Sector-Level Forensic Imaging: A full, sector-by-sector clone of the source drive is created onto a sterile destination drive in our secure storage array. The imaging process is configured with adaptive read control to gently handle any unstable sectors that may be present, using read retry algorithms and timeout extensions. A bad sector map is generated, providing a forensic log of the drive’s physical health.
Phase 2: Boot Sector and Partition Table Reconstruction
With a secured forensic image, we perform a deep analysis of the critical boot structures without any risk to the original data.
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MBR/GPT Hex-Level Analysis: We examine the first sector (LBA 0) of the disk image in a hexadecimal editor. We manually verify the MBR boot signature (0x55AA) and parse the partition table entries. For GPT-based systems, we check the Protective MBR and the primary GPT Header at LBA 1 for consistency and validity.
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BCD Store Extraction and Repair: We navigate to the EFI System Partition (ESP) or the system reserved partition within our disk image. We locate the
\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCDfile and use offline registry hive parsing tools to manually repair its entries, ensuring thedeviceandosdeviceparameters correctly point to the location of the main Windows partition. -
NTFS Boot Sector Validation: Using the partition table, we navigate to the start of the main OS partition and examine the NTFS Boot Sector. We verify the OEM ID (“NTFS “) and the parameters within the BIOS Parameter Block (BPB), specifically the Sectors per Cluster and the location of the $MFT and $MFTMirr.
Phase 3: File System Reconstruction and Data Extraction
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$MFT Carving and Validation: We instruct our recovery software (e.g., R-Studio Technician) to locate the $MFT using the address from the BPB. If the primary $MFT is damaged, we use the backup $MFTMirr to repair it. Our software then parses the $MFT to rebuild the complete directory tree and file metadata, including the
C:\Usersfolder containing the client’s valuable data. -
Bypassing OS Corruption: This entire process is performed outside of Windows, rendering the unbootable OS irrelevant. We are working directly with the file system’s core metadata.
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Data Integrity Verification: Checksum verification is performed on the extracted files against their $MFT records to guarantee a bit-for-bit accurate recovery. All data is transferred to a new, stable storage device for the client.
Conclusion
The client’s Acer laptop was trapped in a boot loop due to a critical corruption of the Windows Boot Configuration Data and potentially underlying physical media degradation. The built-in eRecovery tool was incapable of performing a lasting repair, likely because it was running on the same faulty hardware that caused the initial corruption. A professional lab’s success hinged on physically isolating the drive from the unstable host system, creating a forensic image to preserve its state, and then manually reconstructing the broken boot chain and file system metadata in a controlled software environment. This approach bypassed the failed operating system entirely, allowing for direct, safe access to the user data.
The recovery was executed with 100% success. The client’s data was recovered from the C:\Users directory with its original folder structure and file integrity fully intact. The root cause was confirmed to be a corrupted BCD store with early signs of media degradation on the HDD.
Swansea Data Recovery – 25 Years of Technical Excellence
When system recovery tools fail and your computer is stuck in a boot loop, trust the UK’s No.1 HDD and SSD recovery specialists. We bypass failed operating systems and corrupted bootloaders by working directly with the storage device’s file system, ensuring your data is recovered safely and completely. Contact us for a free diagnostic.






