Acer Arcade has completly ruined my Acer 5930G

Hello everybody! Hope you are enjoying the wonderful summer! (Or winter I guess depending on where you live.)

Enough with the courtesies and on with my problem. As the topic suggests Acer Arcade has managed to more or less ruin my computer, or well not the computer itself but the current Windows installation.

After some searching I actually found an older thread here at Notebookreview which covers the exact same problem. Despite this I decided to start a completely new thread with hopes of getting more attention, I apologize for if I should have just used the old thread instead.

The old thread is:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/427979-acer-arcade-has-trashed-acer-aspire-5920-a.html

As the problemdescription in that thread is almost the same as mine I will just quote it. (I didn't drop a cable on my acer arcade button, I actually pressed it while lifting my computer and I haven't disabled D2D. I did call Acer support though aswell, which didn't help at all, supprise supprise...)

It's been a while since my last backup (read ~2 months, yes I'm that stupid ) and I would desperately need to recover some files stored on my C drive.
So, is there anyone reading this who has been through the same problem and could offer any advice?
Does someone know any other way of facing this problem other then the one used in the above mentioned forum thread?
Is there any way for me to recover my data / access Vista?

I have tried taking out the harddrive and connecting it to various other computers through USB using a harddrive cabinet without any success. Each time the harddrive has been found but I can't assess it / explore it's content as I get a message saying that it contains damaged files.

Any, and I mean ANY, help or advice on the matter at hand would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

/Sampler

EDIT*: In this post taken from the above mentioned thread – (Direct link to post) http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...trashed-acer-aspire-5920-a-2.html#post5443587 – one of the key steps of trying to restore/access your data apparently is to change AHCI to IDE in bios. The linked to post refers to changing it in the "IDE" bios option. My BIOS at the other hand has a "SATA" option which I can change between AHCI and IDE. I'm guessing that this difference is due to me having a 5930G whilst the computer at hand in the other thread is a 5920G.

I'm puzzled here. Should I still change AHCI to IDE or is that a big "no no" in my case? Could changíng to IDE do further harm in my case?

Anyone?

 

think of the devil and the devil is there lolz !! anyway thanks for your message ill be glad if i can help you out with this acer arcade disaster!!

yes u can switch to ide mode.. try stuff i mentioned in the other thread you have been qouting.. if u have a different scenario than that you have to clarify how it is different before you go ahead

best of luck

 

Hi Sampler
Just got your PM but pleased to see that the only person who was able to help me - Vistorx - has picked up on your case.
I didn't get much back, it has to be said, and strangely enough, as you will see from the previous post, everything I did get was about 6 weeks out of date.
Still it was a lot better than nothing, and I rebuilt the machine using a combination of that data and the initial backup I had done when I set it up for my friend - the actual owner.
I immediately invested in good backup software and set it on an automatic schedule for him so that if it did die again at least I would be able to retrieve the data.
Ironically, this Acer has been getting more and more erratic over the last couple of months - flickering screen, refusing to start up properly, although never when I am there, do you think it is scared of me and my friend has just bought a new laptop, which I have just set up for him! Needless to say it was not an Acer!
Follow all the tips in the other post (including making sure Acer Arcade is correctly installed after recovery), be patient, and grab anything you can, is the only suggestion I can give you.
Best of luck - I really do feel for you!
Pam

 

I did get stuck in an Arcade Instant-On loop, but I was able to get out of it by forcing a shutdown using the power button.
But then again, I also didn't have the kind of data issues that you're running into.

Try booting into a Linux Live CD (your BIOS should be configured to boot from the CD/DVD drive first, hard drive second) and seeing if you can access your necessary data that way.

Failing that, try getting your hands on a Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) DVD and using that to perform a Startup Repair (if the Vista partition is detected).

 

Firstly, thanks for the replies guys/girls, really means a lot!

Visitorx: I think my senario more or less is the same as PamJW's was.

If I start the computer by pressing the Acer Arcade button Acer Arcade launches and the app works just fine. (Meaning that I apparently payed ~850 € for a DVD player :| )

If I start the computer by pressing the powerbutton I end up in System Recovery. It looks like this with the exceptions that the OS isn't shown and that the background is plain grey instead of having that Vista look;



When I click next I end up in this menu.



None of the above four options work. It dose not manage to find any OS, probably due to still being stuck on the Acer Arcade partition. What is even better is that I have been told that Acer Arcade has the habit of deleting Vista Restore points. I can enter the Command Prompt but that is just about it.

I'm guessing that the major difference from PamJW's earlier situation is that I am on a Acer 5930G, meaning that the BIOS is somewhat different. So yeah, as stated in my previous post I have the SATA option instead of the IDE option, where I can change between AHCI and IDE.

I have downloaded MiniPE as from your recommendation in the other thread. Unfortunately I have kind of a noob question, sorry for that, but how do I burn the ISO file as a BOOT CD? I tried just burning the ISO file with NERO choosing the "Burn Data CD" option, which didn't work. Also, MiniPE seems to contain a lot of tools/programs, which ones should I use once I manage to get the BOOT CD working? Will it sence which tools to use on it's own?

TehSuigi: I tried all the basic stuff as taking out the battery, the pressing powerbutton trick etc etc, unfortunately nothing worked.

About the Linux CD I haven't tried that. As stated in my first post though I took the harddrive out and connected it to another computer using a external USB HDD cabinet. Doing this gave me access to the D drive but I couldn't access the C drive as I was told that it contained corrupted files. Do you still think that the Linux CD method could work? I have never used Linux myself.

The Startup repair will probably not work as I seem to be stuck on the Acer Arcade partition.

PamJW: Yeah the 6 weeks back thing is kind of weird. May I ask what kind of files where you able to recover? I desperatley would need to recover some university related documents, more precisly word documents. Not any major papers or anything like that, those are backed up directly, but lecture and seminar notes and stuff like that. Being able to recover some precious mp3's and photos stored on the harddrive would be a nice bonus.

Visitorx, which type of files where you able to recover?

And checking that Acer Arcade is properly installed after a reinstall will not be a problem as I plan to do a clean install withouth using the Acer Recovery option or the Acer CD's in order to get rid of all the bloatware once and for all. I mean I thought that I uninstalled all acer crap, including Acer Arcade but well, apparently I missed the hidden Acer Arcade partition. I guess that's what you get for not reading the manual closely.
I'm still really pissed of that pressing a button on the keyboard, once the computer is off, can do this much harm. Belive it or not, even though I have been putting of back up due to being busy (I know, poor reason) and the fact that my external harddrives have been full, I actually orderd a new harddrive which arrived this previous monday and I planned to set it up and back up some stuff this weekend...and then wednesday this crap. I must have bad karma or something lol. O well enough babbling, I just had to get some frustration of my hands.

 

Your SATA option is basically the same thing as the other topic's IDE option. Switching from AHCI to IDE simply disables the more advanced features of the SATA hard drive interface, and puts your drive into IDE (or PATA) emulation mode.

To burn an ISO, use the Burn Image option in Nero, not Data CD. If that doesn't work, try using ImgBurn. It's one of the best freeware burning apps I know. Failing that, ISO Recorder might work.

Give Linux a shot next.
As a last resort, try running bootrec.exe from the command prompt in System Recovery.

 

I'm sorry for asking a lot of questions, but there seems to be a lot of different Linux Live CD's, is there any one in particular that you could recommend TehSuigi?

Edit*: I wen't for the one found at Slax: your pocket operating system, feel free to let me know íf you recommend any other one though. Btw, thanks for the ImgBurn tip/reminder (used it before).

Edit*2: I managed to get Slax running and it gave me access to my drives. The C: partition is all messed up though. Documents and Settings is empty, the Program folder is empty, some folders are missing and some folders I can't access at all. The data is all on the harddrive though as the amount of spaced occupied on the harddrive is the same. I'm guessing the files are corputed somehow. Anyone have an idea? Is there any program which can repair files? I'm clueless.

Edit*3: I'm trying to follow the steps in the other thread in order to perform a chkdsk but once I launch the Command Prompt it launches from a directory called X. The command "cd C" dosen't work saying "The system cannot find the path specified". Trying "cd D" gives the same result.
I'm definitely screwed aren't I?

Visitorx where are you, I need you.

 

I personally use Knoppix for any emergency issues, but Slax works just as well.
Not sure if there's a Linux equivalent of chkdsk, though.
X: is the recovery partition's drive number. If it can't access C:, something has indeed gone completely haywire.
Not sure what the next step would be. Sorry!

 

I managed to recover all of my files!!!

Just wanted to drop by and give an update on my situation so that anyone unlucky enough to find themselves in the same situation as me will know what to do.

After hours and hours of work, trying various methods, software etc. etc. I managed to get my hands on a piece of software called GetDataBack.

I installed this software on a functioning desktop running Windows XP (GetDataBack is windows based) and removed the hard drive from my laptop and attached it to the desktop running it as a slave hard drive.
At this point Windows could not access the hard drive, it showed up in the DiskManager but when trying to access it within the windows xp/explorer interface I got a message saying that it contained corrupt data and that it needed to be formatted.

Next I launched GetDataBack and followed the instructions within the application. (For detailed instructions see this youtube video – YouTube - GetDataBack for NTFS Tutorial on scanning an image – I actually found out about this software through youtube .)
Thereafter GetDataBack worked on it's own for about two hours going through all raw data on the hard drive and building up a "file tree".
The file tree contained the usual folders, Program Files, My Documents etc., but to my despair they were all empty.
I was now on the edge of giving up when I noticed a folder called "Found" next to My Documents, Program Files etc. A folder called "Found", weird, I had definitely not seen that one before.

The Found folder contained literally hundreds of folders called "Found0001", Found0002" etc. To my joy, these folders contained my lost files. All the files where there, only the folder names were lost. For example a music folder originally named "Michael Jackson - Greatest Hits" was now named "Found0099" but contained all the original files in fully working condition.
The reason for the "Found look" apparently is that the files are no longer part of the file structure within Windows Vista, but since the raw data is still there and untouched, GetDataBack managed to recover/rebuild the folders/files individually and independently of Windows Vista.
After finding my data I could just mark/choose the folders which I intended to recover and copy them to another hard drive.

Well, I guess my next step will be to do a clean install of Windows 7 without all the Acer crap/bloatware. Repairing the current Vista installation is probably impossible, besides, I feel like it's time to move on to Windows 7.

TehSuigi, I would like to thank you for your effort of trying to help me. Really appreciated it!

 

Im glad you got everything worked out,but what is acer arcade?????

 

Acer Arcade is Acers own media player software used to play dvd's, music files, avi/divx files etc. This, in my opinion crappy and useless software, comes preinstalled with all Acer Laptops. The only way to completly remove it safely from your computer apparently seems to be to format your harddrive and do a clean install of any Operating System of your choice. (The Windows Copy which you recieved with your laptop can not be used as it is OEM branded and will install all Acer crap once again.) Uninstalling the program from within Windows will only remove Acer Arcade partly as it is stored on a seperate partition of it's own on the harddrive. This is due to the fact that one is able to launch Acer Arcade independently of Windows. Acer Arcade is acctually built upon a modified version of Windows XP. The real downside here is that this partition takes up about 6 GB of your precious harddrive space.

From what information I have been able to gather there is something seriously wrong with the software on the Acer Aspire 5920 and Acer Aspire 5930 series. Unless you are using one of these laptops I don't think that you have to worry about being afflicted with the same senario as I was.

 

Ok cool,ya i just picked up a acer aspire 7740 and looked to see if i had it and i did,but i guess i wont worry about it then,thanks for the info.......................

 

Sampler, I'm glad that you were able to get everything sorted out with your machine.
As long as you're going to have a backup system in place for your Windows 7 installation, feel free to wipe the whole dang hard drive and start anew.

However, I would like to quickly correct you on the Acer Arcade thing. Acer machines come with two separate pieces of Acer Arcade software.
Acer Arcade Instant-On is the one that blew up on you. It's on its own hidden partition, running in Windows XP Embedded. Personally, it's crap, and has a tendency to wipe your Vista system restore points or worse, the entire file structure!
Acer Arcade Deluxe, on the other hand, is a Windows-based software that runs in your regular Vista or 7 operating system. If your machine came with a Blu-ray player, it's a free software player and thus useful; otherwise, feel free to uninstall it.

 

I think I said basically the same thing as you concerning Acer Arcade, with the exception of not using the specific terms "Acer Arcade Instant-On" and "Acer Arcade Deluxe". But o well, maybe I came across a bit unclearly.

And yeah the hardrive is already reformated using Partition Magic. I have burned out DVD's of the OEM Vista Installataion in case I ever feel the need to reinstall it. (Most probably not.)

 

Well, I guess you're good to go then, Sampler!
Thanks for posting back with the solution too, in case anyone else runs into the same problem.