Help! recovery issue in my new Aspire 5920G

I just got a new Aspire 5920G yesterday. Before I go anyfurther, I planed to make a set of recovery DVDs using Acer's eRecovery Management utility. But when I tried to burn the factory default into DVD, I was prompted an error, which said something like "please insert a blank CD/DVD into ...". The disks are good, so is the DVD writer (already tried it before making the recovery DVDs). Anyone has idea what this problem is?

Then I want to try the Alt+F10 feature to restore the system, but it didn't work either. Now the situation is I can use the machine, but once I need to restore the system, I have no way to do it.

My hidden partition is still there intact. I remembered (not sure) that someone here once said this Alt+F10 can be recovered by using some files in this hidden partition. Could anyone give me some help here?

Thanks!
Numen

 

Alt-F10 didn't work for me either.

Boot into Vista and use the Acer widgets "Acer Erecovery Management"

This worked for me. I chose restore to factory defaults and then the laptop restarted and restored itself. Fixed my software HD-DVD player issue I had.

 

Are you sure u didn't delete anything To use D2D Recovery you need to enable it from Bios first

 

When I first started my machine, I went to disk management, and found that other than the expected hiddend partition (about 10G), C and D drive, there is one volumn about 1.3G without any use, I delete the volumn and merge it into D drive. Is this action related to the lost Alt+F10 effect?

I can confirm that the bios option regarding d2d recovery is enabled. Also I also tried to recover using eRecovery, aftering giving the password, the machine restarts to vista as normal rather than restore the machine.

Does anyone know why I got the error when I try to burn the factory default to DVDs? I tried to reinstall eRecovery to solve this, but cannot eRecovery from Acer's ftp download place for 5920. And the eRecovery install application feature doesn't contain eRecovery as well (contains other acer softwares though).

Thanks!

 

Go to C Drive and see ACER Folder It Contain E recovery Copy I think (You need to uninstall empower tools b4 u re install recovery software.

 

I managed to recover my machine by using the following steps.

1. Run MBRwrWin.exe from C:\Acer\Empowering Technology\eRecovery in command line with flag -unhide 0 to make the hidden recovery partition visible.

mbrwrwin -unhide 0

2. Go to disk management to make the recovery partition active.

3. Restart the machine and the recovery session automatically starts.

4. After the recovery, eRecovery can create factory default DVDs (still don't know why it didn't work before).

Now, the Alt+F10 still doesn't work on my machine, but at least I have a set of recovery DVDs so that I can do the recovery when needed.

Thanks for the advice from bigspin and Threader anyway.

 

Had the similar problem and found the fix for my machine. My Acer came with a unlettered, unnamed partition (presumably for restoring), a C drive and a D drive (60gig). Didn't want the D, so I zapped it in vistas disk manager and did a restore. Vista reloaded but the machine would hang when it attempted to reload the Acer software. Mine would hang in the eRecovery module, the 8th of 10 modules.

I recreated a 10g D drive, called it "DATA" (its original name) and did the restore. Worked fine and everything loaded. It seems that the Acer utility software looks for information on the D drive during the install process. Hope that helps.

 

I had the same issues. The laptop went back for a replacement HD-DVD drive problem solvled.

The alt-F10 issue, well it seems its tricky but just keep tapping the keys and eventaully it will work.

 

I'm also thinking about recovering / reformatting, whatever you want to call it - basically just do a clean wipe and restore it to factory default.

I only see C and D drives - so not sure whether I even have a hidden partition?! So what do I need to do in order to restore to factory default... With old desktops I have always just pressed f10 or f11 (something like that) when the computer is first booting up - will this work? I want it to install Windows Vista again as well as the Acer software which is bundled with the laptop when you get it new.

Has anyone tried / successfully restored to factory default in this way? I just think my laptop has got some real junk on it at the moment, probably bad registry slowing it down, and I fancy a clean start!

 

Here's the solution I could find for my Acer 5920G to go back to first day status, after trying couple of different methods:

Case: Notebook had initially Windows Vista Home premium. While trying to install another operating system, notebook happened to be not booting, ALT+F10 was not working, harddisk was not formatted therefore recovery partitions still exist.

Step 1: Go to http://gparted-livecd.tuxfamily.org/ and download live CD and write iso to cd. This will create a bootable disk with own operating system (Fluxbox) and partitioning software (Gparted)

Step 2: Go to BIOS of notebook (F2 at startup) and disable D2D recovery (I'm not sure if this is necessary but I did so)

Step 3: Change boot order in BIOS to make CD-ROM as first boot device.

Step 4: Insert your cd and boot the notebook using the CD. A partitioning program will appear when the CD runs properly.

Step 5: Identify your recovery partition (about 9Gb in size and mostly full), use change flags and mark as "boot". Some methods suggest to "unhide" the partition but this software does not show the recovery partition as hidden, I didn't change it but just marked "boot".

Step 6: Shutdown the application, remove the CD and boot.

Step 7: Since you have choosen recovery partition as boot partition the Acer recovery system will start and ask if you would like to return to factory defaults. By doing so, you'll have a clean installation of the original operating system you've received (Windows Vista Home Premium for my case).

Step 8 (Optional): After the recovery is complete, system automatically sets new Vista installation as boot partition, therefore you don't need to change it again. Optionally you may enter to BIOS and change boot sequence to make harddisk as first priority instead of CD-ROM.

Step 9: Enjoy (hopefully) your working notebook and plan about creating recovery CDs sometime (I'm not sure how the recovery CDs will work as I've seen many people complaining about them).

Regards,
Ilker Ustuner

 

Does anyone know of a way I can make an installation DVD from the restore partition (I don't want to create a recovery disk) so that I can do a Windows repair without having to format my hard drive or lose my data. Its annoying to have to delete all that bloatware that comes with my notebook each time I do an OS restore.

 

to Ilker ustuner, hi there. i've tried your method but it didn't work for me. at first when i finish the process of marking the recovery partition as boot, when it restarts it first say's "cannot find file:C:\D2D\Images\*.WSI". then it will continue when i click ok but i click on restore factory default, it say's "Restore failed-reason 0xa0000001.

i hope you can help me. thanks

 

geronix23 i have came across this same errors as well I was wondering if you have figured it out? I dont believe that the restore partition has been tampered with. I tried with ubuntu to activate that partition as boot it goes into the recovery mode but i get the same errors. I have reinstalled vista again in hopes of getting to activate that pqservice partition in disk management but it wont let me do anything or even view the data on that partition any help would be appreciated

 

Hi all,
You can try this method, you can create recovery dvds, then return factory default os.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=244655

 

geronix23, I have almost the same problem as your:

"cannot find file:Z:\D2D\Images\*.WSI".

and then:

"Restore failed-reason 0xa0000001"

The way I could solve this particular problem, in my case, was using Linux. It is supposed that all Linux distribution should work (I use Debian).

I have an acer 5315 with windows vista starter.

The problem looks to happen because the windows which run at pqservice partition, looks to be not able to see the files in it.

What I did to solve the problem:

1) create 2 partition dedicated to windows and some others to the Linux.
These two partitions are primary and all the linux system I put in the
extended partition as:
PQSERVICE|ntfs|ntfs| extended
extended: linux|swap|linux
the second ntfs partition with the same size as the PQSERVICE partition. I do
not the partition PQSERVICE, in all operations ...

2) Make the pqservice to be able to boot. At this point I could not use the key:
ALT+F10 to enter in the recover system. These two steps have made during
Linux installation.

3) boot in Linux and made a exact copy of pqservice to the second ntfs partition
using the command "dd". In my case was "dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sda3".
this process take some time ...

4) reboot the system and start the pqservice.

5) because, the windows installation did not change any information of
partition disc or the boot table, it is necessary to enter in linux and
make the installed windows be bootable. It is basically change the
/boot/grub/menu.lst to boot to the new windows partition. Maybe
it is possible to make in another way, but I do not know.

That was all I did to recover the windows. Actually I did many, many, ... many atempts and in one of then I remember that I format the first ntfs partition
using linux. Maybe it is necessary. I do not know.


The windows will be installed in the first ntfs partition.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=251130

see that link for info on loading XP on the 5315... and many other 5315 links

 

Thanks ricardosato1
It worked but somebody who never touched linux before and isn't bright might have problems with this howto.
I formated first (in fact it's second, first is PQSERVICE) partition with windows xp accidentaly or it formated it without my permission ;s so it might not be necessary.

Vista entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like this

title "Whatever you want, might be empty"
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

or

title "Whatever you want, might be empty"
root (sd0,1)
chainloader +1

It depends by disk mode in bios but in AHCI grub may not find menu.
Menu can be edited with command "sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst" under linux console or with other your fauvorite text editor just replace nano with geany, gedit or whatever editor you like ;d.

I hope I maked this way a little clearer.

I have Acer Aspire 5920

 

Hi,

I got TravelMate 6291 but possibly solution would be analogous.

In my case, problem was caused by incorrect partition type. My PQSERVICE had type of 12 (which is Compaq diagnostics). With this setting, service system loaded somehow after setting 1st partiton bootable, but failed to read data from its own partition ("cannot find file:C:\D2D\Images\*.WSI","Restore failed-reason 0xa0000001").

What I had to do was not only to make PQSERVICE partition bootable, but also to switch its type to 7 (HPFS/NTFS). I have used linux fdisk to do this. After this, service system was able to restore Windows to 2nd partition. Still it did not boot correctly, since I had destroyed MBR, but that's another issue.

Observe that after exiting service system, it would automatically switch boot flag to original system drive (2nd partition) and change its own partiton type back to "Compaq diagnostics". No matter if rescue succeed, failed by above reason, or user exited manually.

Regards

 

I had exactly the same problem: "cannot find file:C:\D2D\Images\*.WSI" and "Restore failed-reason 0xa0000001".
What I did was:
Boot Vista DVD, start command line, start diskpart.exe.
1. Assign some letter to the system partition (if it is not already assigned - it wasn't in my case).
2. Assign some letter further down the alphabet to the recovery partition.
3. Start the D2D32.exe in main directory of recovery partition.

Use diskpart's help.

I think the 0xa0000001 shows when the recovery program really cannot find it's files. The problem occurs when the recovery partition somehow gets a letter before the system partition. I've looked inside some batch files and it seems that way.

So, if you get PQService as C: and system partition as D:, it will not work. And it's easy to get this if you mess with bootable flag (as I did have to do, because some idiot just installed pirated Vista from dvd).
Luckily I was able to use Diskpart to amend that problem after booting from Vista dvd.

 

Hi ~
I have an acer aspire 5315 series laptop with windows vista basic and I wanted to change from vista 32 bit to windws 7 32 bit. Did the whole installing thing and when it was finished, Acer eRecovery management comes up saying "cannot find file: C:\D2D\Images\*.WSI when try to determine UI language"

I clicked OKAY cos it's the only thing to click and it goes to "how would you like to restore?". I chose "restore system to factory default" and something came up, everything was mostly blank but I read "hard disk partition 2 something something" then it would say "restore failed - reason 0xa0000001"

So I restart and try the other option which is restore system from CD/DVD and was told to insert backup disk 1 or system CD. I don't have any of those, or..where do I find it? I can't use my laptop now so I can't create a backup disk or whatever acer eRecovery is. It's just stuck at this restoring thing.. and I can't go anywhere

could someone help me please ~ I need to get it done asap
I have no idea what to do ~ and haven't done any of this before
i tried alt + f10 at the start but it made a horrible loud sound.... >=[

thank you