HELP!!! Acer eRecovery - HELP!!!

Ok, so I bought this Acer Aspire 5100 laptop preinstalled with Windows Vista. I ended up blowing out Vista and replaced it with a license I had of WinXP Home SP2. Everything runs fine and dandy now, but I want to blow away the extra 8GB that Vista is hogging on my HDD, but want it backed up to DVD.

ALT-F10 no longer works either. And my system didn't come with any recovery CD or DVD either.

Anyone know how I can get a backup of this partition so that it will autoload from DVD? Or how can I get the eRecovery software for XP?

Bottom line is that I want a backup of this partition so that I can always reload it should I need to.

Thanks!

 

Acer uses a custom Master Boot Record (MBR) that allows ALT-F10 to work. By installing Windows XP on your system, it overwrote Acer's custom MBR.

Try and getting an XP version of eRecovery/eManager from Acer support website. You could probably be able to create the recovery CD's that way.

Acer Driver Download Page: http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5100.html

If you want to create a backup of the recovery partition then you should get a drive imaging program like Acronis TrueImage and create a backup image of it. In either case you won't be able to use ALT-F10 to automatically restore your system unless you get the custom MBR installed again. There are ways to get it back but unfortunately I haven't had much luck with it. Destination drive errors and programs not being installed are such problems.

 

Thanks. I found the eRecovery software for XP but it gave me an error when installing.

As long as I can manually set the boot partition, then I will just use my Acronis True Image software to make a backup. I should just be able to set that partition as active and it should start, correct?

Thanks.

 

I don't know what would happen if you did set that partition as bootable, my best guess is that you would end up with it loading the recovery software each time you boot up.

I recommended using Acronis so you could make a backup of the recovery partition.

What you could try is install a copy of vista, install eRecovery, then create recovery DVDs and restore your computer that way. But you still won't have ALT-F10.

 

That's what I think I will do. Thanks for the tips.

 

Oh GREAT! I went to do a recovery and now it gives me an error... wtf? I'm hosed. Is there any way to get a replacement DVD from Acer? Their site sucks for real info.

 

Yes phone them and oder set recovery disk for you model of laptop

they most like be fee or $20 to 30 depend what they charge for replacements

 

Ok, will do that...

Thanks.

 

Could someone be kind enough by sending me the RTMBR.BIN? Please send to [email protected]

Thank you

 

I would suggest that you LEARN from your mistakes and in the future you do a 1:1 backup with a disk imaging program such as Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image.

--ssx--

 

Noone should have to pay for recovery CD'S. They should send the CD'S/DVD'S with the system instead of a partition. I had simular probelm tried useing the disk i made when i bought my laptop. They did not work. I tried the eRecovery Alt+F10 on startup no luck. I called Acer and told them my problem. They said they could send the recovery set but there would be a charge. I said no way i should not have to pay for something that should have came with the system. It took a few mins but they gave in to send them free after asking a manager.

 

i agree w/ XpUser,, bug the @#@# out of them and blame it all on them then ask for a supervisor,,, at this point they usually relent and just send the disks for free.... and if everyone would do this maybe they would get the message that WE expect the RESTORE disks w/ drivers for OUR models...

another rant well used,
thanks for listening,
bigO