Reformating Vista. Please Help

To answer your install question - Generally if you boot the install disk it will start the process with some menus.

It says restore failed- reason 0xd000001e

I'm running out of questions and suggestions......

Have you seen this? http://www.fixya.com/s​upport/t1382468-acer_aspire

I have tried restore twice during the night. Gets stuck at 25% each time. Can't see
to do anything now. All I get is blAck screen
I put in my so disk and still nothing happens

OK correct me if i am wrong, i think i know how to fix it.
the cd wont go past 25% with the error, so it would be a good idea to connect the hard drive to a another computer, reformat it, then put it back into the pc wiht the XP disks.

i dont have another computer, only an ipod, so if this is how it will be fixed, i am thinking about taking it into pc world for them to do that.

i am at the point where i should buy a new laptop, but it works, (when its not meddled with by me) and i would prefer the money on a lens instead

Does your laptop have a floppy drive? or can you boot from USB drive? You can maybe create a bootable floppy or USB to access the command prompt and then do a format from there. I think the command is "format c: /s" without quotes . Or for quick format "format c: /q /s". Someone correct these if they are wrong. Then you can try the restore disk again.

I must admit though, the issues you are having sound more along the lines of virus, maybe even a bios virus. Or it could be your motherboard is on the fritz. So many problems, but, you won't really know unless you can restore to factory and see if the issue persists.

If you are getting stuck at 25% you may have a bad disk or possibly a bad sector on your hard drive causing the problem. I would have the HDD checked first, and if it is fine, try another restore or use your XP disks to at least have a computer again.

At this point you have three possible causes for a failed install. No particular order:

Faulty RAM, this is actually more common than people think. The amount of installs I've had fail due to this scary.
Faulty HD, alongside faulty RAM this is also likely.

Performing diagnostics may help you determine which is likely.

The third candidate is faulty media, you need another copy of the installation DVD to make sure. This is the main reason why I don't like recovery DVDs as they don't always build right causing grief down the line.

There are CD bootable testing aids but without another PC to get them you are in a tough spot. And HD replacements are not tough nor expensive but you still need something to load the system from.

As far as the restore CD goes they are evidently available from Acer for a reasonable charge.

i have a usb that i can boot from connected to a computer,
can someone please tell me how to create a boot file on a usb?

From Google - http://www.mydigitalli​fe.info …-key-with-vista-winpe-20/

I wouildn't even begin to try it. I have used Bart's PC bootable CD and there is supposed to be a flash drive version of that too.

thank you for everyones help
i took my computer into pc world as i was sick of trying to fix it
they have restored it, and yes u guess it, it was my restore cd that was faulty

I've seen a rash of problems with Vista related to the battery state of charge. For some reason Vista thinks the battery is dead, and shuts down on it's own. Removing the battery, running off AC, and re-installing Vista has fixed two of these for me.