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Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:22:11 -0700 (MST)
From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To: Markus Hoenicka <markus.hoenicka@mhoenicka.de>
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Cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Acer Travelmate 8371 bricked by installing FreeBSD?
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On Thu, 11 Nov 2010, Markus Hoenicka wrote:

> Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> was heard to say:
>
>> The net effect was that wiping out the first partition caused it to stop at 
>> boot.  It's been long enough now that I can't recall how I restored the 
>> drive; may have taken it out and connected to another machine.  The restore 
>> was just an original image of the drive, which I always do (and suggest) 
>> before allowing the system a first boot.  Clonezilla is great for this.
>
> Great news :-(  Next time I'll be wiser, hopefully. But if that strange 
> partition is indeed required for booting up, I guess my only option is to 
> ship the brick to Acer and have them put on a fresh disk image, given that 
> there are no recovery disks included.

The Acer UK site has BIOS downloads:
http://acer--uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3427/~/updating-the-bios-on-the-travelmate-8331,-8371-and-8371g-series

Restore disks may be free, depending on the age of the computer and the 
unhappiness of the customer.  Can't find a direct link on that site, may 
require email.