Acer Backup/Factory Recovery query.

Hello! I have been given an Acer 6930G by a family member to setup. After realising there's 0 discs included with the laptop, the Acer pop up message tells me I have to make my own factory default image. I have successfully made it on 2 DVDs, my question is now in the manual there is nothing about how to use it, I was wondering if anyone can share any insight to me as to how it works.

Basically I know it is probably a bootable DVD as the root of the DVD suggests (several "BOOT" files) I was wondering how it actually looks like? I haven't tested it yet as the user was extremely desperate to get it running so I had to give it up the moment the DVDs were made.

If I put the DVD in and select to boot from it at start up (before getting into windows) does it take me to some sort of custom screen where I can SELECT that I want to reformat and restore the laptop? I want to know what options I am given and I can only assume that it's the same for most laptops.

And I can only assume again, that if I factory restore it, it will come back with Vista activated and all the initial bloatware again, along with all the drivers for it (so I don't need to go track them down).

This is all I need to know, I wish I can test it but I can't even get the laptop back now (until it breaks ...)

If someone can post their experiences with it I will be grateful, this is just more for reassurance than anything, and confirm my assumptions? Many thanks in advance!

EDIT: I have discovered that I can launch that recovery app by pushing ALT+F10, I have managed to wrangle the laptop temporarily to test and have discovered that I can choose from 2 back up options, but I dare not go any further, can someone tell me the next steps? One says factory default, and the other is user's backup.

I can guess that if I choose the first option, factory default, it'll ask for the DVDs I have created? And the 2nd option will restore a backup I made selecting the user option on the recovery app.

Any insight to this highly appreciated, please advise! Thanks!

 

you shound also go in and burn applcation disk too from erecover utils

 

Acer systems come with a hidden recovery partition called PQSERVICE. It holds all the default installation files. When you make the recovery disks, they are backups for the recovery partition.

When you hit alt+f10 at startup, on the Acer white screen, and you have D2D(disk2disk) recovery enabled in the bios, and the Acer MBR is still in place, your system will enter the recovery console and give you the option to restore your system to factory defaults from the hidden partition or to a backup that the user can make with Windows eRecovery application. It will not ask for the disks that you made. It will completely overwrite the C: drive or primary, active partition. If you do not backup your files before hand, they will be lost. ERecovery does not give you the options to reformat or repartition your drive. You would need another software package to do these things.

If the PQSERVICE partition is formatted over or corrupted, the D2D recovery option is disabled in the bios or the Acer MBR is overwritten with another MBR, the alt+f10 recovery option will not work. Then you can boot off the recovery disks you created to restore the system to factory defaults. Factory defaults is exactly what the system was like when it was first booted out of the box. All software originally loaded is restored.

You will not be able to recover the PQSERVICE partition if formatted over or corrupted unless you make an image of it with third party software before hand and save it somewhere. The Acer MBR can be lost if you install another OS to dual boot the system, or attempt to repair the installation using a Vista installation disk. There are tutorials on the web you can find by doing a search on "repair Acer MBR" so I won't go into that.

In addition to making your recovery disks, you should also make an application/driver disk with Acer eRecovery. It will backup the Acer applications and drivers for your system in case you want to or have to do a clean install.

If you want to do a clean install of Vista, you should read the thread: Clean Vista install WITH NO ACTIVATION. It is in the HP forum here on NBR but it worked the same for my Acer 5315 when I tried it.

 

Holy ing awesome, you are the man. Thanks a lot.

As this is for a generic average Joe user, I do not intend to be what my family calls "nerdy" to laptops, I shall leave it as intended for the average user so it can be easy to recover/back up.

If it was my laptop then yeh I'd kill everything but because it's not being used by me it's not so bad...

 

Good stuff. We as an Acer family are leaning. At last.

Cheers,
Theo

 

paten thank you for the info, rep added

 

I agree
But only the 3% pass the test ..

Good job paten !!