Thanks Paul.

I think I will take it to the PC shop, run by a bunch of Filipinos who do good work but I always have to check their work since they use pirated software and i've found viruses/malware on my machine after going there before (I don't think they did it on purpose, but you never know in this country, lol).

But I just found a confounding factor: the PC mechanical HDD is very very slow now, showing 99% usage and only 0.7 MB/s throughput. Quick scan shows no viruses. Implications from a internet forum is that it's a failing hard drive. Scandisk (from within Tools| Filemanager ) shows no clear errors (but this program is not that reliable, perhaps use Gizmo's "Crystal Disk Info"? https://www.techsupportalert.com/con...diskinfo.htm-0 )

I think I need a new hard drive, preferably a solid-state SSD, agree? While I am there, I will ask the boys to install Windows 10, home edition, 64x bit? That will do it. And I don't think I will lose my license key with Microsoft, since the MAC address doesn't change, being on the motherboard, when you replace a hard drive, as you have said or implied.

If you have a freeware program to check hard disk health for Windows 10, feel free to recommend. I just downloaded HDDScan – Free HDD Diagnostic Utility.

Thanks,
RL

On Saturday, October 13, 2018 at 3:32:41 PM UTC+8, Paul wrote:
RayLopez99 wrote:
On Saturday, October 13, 2018 at 3:35:32 AM UTC+8, Flasherly wrote:
On Fri, 12 Oct 2018 11:54:46 -0700 (PDT), RayLopez99
wrote:

I forgot to mention, I keep getting the "USB HDD: Verbatim (which
happens to be the brand of my USB stick) has been blocked by the
current security policy" when trying to boot to a bootable USB.

Any workaround? I will play with BIOS settings...but if anybody has a
quick fix let me know...will post my findings here later.


-
Should be. It's simply more likely an IT-type forethought and default
setting, to be more or less simply overridden with the appropriate
setting. I'd run a search on that for an appropriate discussion forum
on an override. More like an inconvenience posed than actual security
policy; ... granted, and not just anyone would think to mention
Verbatim, than might a popular conception be to assume any ol'
flashstick is embedded with the Deadliest Virus Alive, specially
embedded and hot off press from the Beijing Military Academy of
Computer Sciences.

I don't run an embedded boot manager on a W7 partition, including the
MSFT provided less than more an elective of GRUB (in case the other
drives are actually seen by the installation and not disconnected
prior with extreme prejudice).

I "point" to it, to boot W7, from another SSD drive with a non-GRUB
embedded OS arbitrator, variously to "hide" drive partitions as
suitable. The arbitrator, fwiw, is also provided on the HIREN
resource grabbag, though fairly simply and less extensive as perhaps
GRUB.

My BIOS menu is the first available Boot Device override - a so-called
"Boot Menu Selection" assigned to F12. Along with a BIOS HDD
(sub)selection for 1st-order boot device, maybe four valid USB
formats, below, including USB HDD which I then select.

Flasherly, Paul:

I figured out the problem, and I don't think it's easy to fix. I also have a request below.

In the Acer Aspire V5-122 there is no good BIOS for you to turn off UEFI/Secure Boot and turn on Legacy easily. Everytime I attempt to follow directions as found online to turn off any password in UEFI/Secure Boot, it does not work to recognize my bootable USB. When I turn on Legacy BIOS, I get a "bootable media not detected....press any key' message. I tested the Rufus bootable USB stick, which has Windows 10 loaded on it, on my tower (which has no such terrible BIOS) and it works like a charm to boot into the USB stick, and the Windows 10 setup, so it's not the USB stick's fault.

Here are my action items:

1) [Attempt to once again create a bootable USB stick that has Windows 10 on it, which I think is FUTILE]: What links--are they the ones Paul gave above (I think they are, so don't sweat answering this one--for me to: (a) download Windows 10 Home edition for the target Aspire laptop, from within the laptop? I am pretty sure it's the link Paul gave above, "Windows Download Manager"; (b) download Windows 10 Home edition from outside the target Aspire laptop, so I can make a bootable USB stick? Don't bother answering this if you don't know off the top of your head, it's just context for action item #2 below.

2) even however if I make a bootable USB stick as per 1) above--without using Rufus--I doubt I will be able to get into the Aspire V5. I am firmly convinced that the Acer people have a 'crippled' version of BIOS (if you see the comical screen, you can only use arrow keys and F5/F6 keys to get around, you'd agree) that does NOT allow you to easily change anything and does NOT allow you to get into Legacy mode (what I mean is: you get into Legacy mode, but somewhere in the Acer hard drive you get a "no bootable media" message). I'm pretty sure the only way to change an OS is from within an existing OS. In other words, I think, without specialized equipment like they have in PC repair shops that allow a 'clone-to-clone' hard drive copy, you will NOT be able to load another version of OS from OUTSIDE of the OS you are in. Just to make it more clear: when I transitioned, in 2015, from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 Home edition, all 64 bit, it was done from within Windows 8.1,
using Microsoft links. The MSFT engineers figured out how to trick the boot sector or whatever so Windows 10 could be loaded. On this laptop I doubt using a USB stick (or even an external CD-ROM, which is not standard equipment for this model laptop) would have worked. Just a strong gut feeling..

So my second question is this: is it possible to reload another build of Windows 10 from WITHIN Windows 10? The answer imo is yes, but you have to click on the right links. I think you must do the following: https://www.appgeeker.com/recovery/d...indows-10.html

Go to Advanced Setup, select Troubleshoot, Advanced Options, then you are presenterd with the following options: System Restore (I got the laptop to be a non-brick from a "reset" already, this option is akin to that), System Image Recovery (this looks promising), and other options not relevant, including UEFI Firmware Settings, which much to my disappointment simply reboots the PC into BIOS (see #1 above, that's back to square one)

So clicking on System Image Recovery, you get ...nothing because my laptop just seized up, lol.

So the question remains, how to upgrade from Windows 10 Home edition, 64 bit, version circa 2015 to Windows 10 Home edition, 64 bit, version circa 2018, from within Windows 10? The secret might be the Windows Tool that Paul referenced in this post. If you think so, say so please.

THe other option is more brute force but will also work: take this laptop to the local PC shop, have them using their "hard-disk to hard-disk dedicated clone machine" (which they have), simply copy Windows 10, latest version, 64 bit, onto the hard drive. Then, as Paul says, since Microsoft has the MAC id of the laptop, it's already registered.

The purpose of this entire exercise is to get around the problem of Windows 10 not being able to go from Windows 10 (2015 build) to W10 (2018 build).

Many thanks appreciated, if I come up with anything I'll let you know, I'm fiddling with the laptop now. I got this laptop for my near teen PH girlfriend, half my age, and she doesn't use it anymore, lol, dating her is like dating your daughter I imagine, she changes phones every year, uses PCs/phones solely for videos and social media, spills coffee on the laptop keyboard (the problem was never really fixed, even with extensive repairs, the edges of the screen make it blurry), but she's good in bed... hehe.

RL

It doesn't sound like all that friendly of a machine.

https://community.acer.com/en/discus...aspire-v5-122p

https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thre...P-Bios-Bricked

In the second thread, the participants are all excited about
updating the BIOS (to 2.06 first, likely due to some
architecture change with respect to secure boot). But they don't
make it clear what using the 2.12 BIOS gives in terms of
additional functions.

The BIOS says boot devices won't show after changing modes
until the setting is saved and the BIOS has had a chance to
POST again. Around 2:06 of this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q8aOFKts7s

Paul