Acer E Recovery

Hi,

Can someone confirm the following :

With a new acer laptop if I run the above does it just take an exact image for restore or is the image that gets created like when you start the box for the first time.

Also can you run this multiple times like ghost to cover yourself when chnages occur on the system. For restore I am assuming that the cd's are bootable and can be used if the hard drive crashes.

Thanks,

 

That will restore your computer to the exact moment that it was created. And for most people, this is the way it came from the factory because Acer recommends you do it before anything else. But if you configure your system the way you like it, and then create the recovery dvd, it will return it to that stage.

 

Thanks for the quick response. Can you do this more than once after more software installs and in the case of a drive going I am assuming that these just boot of the dvd and reload with a few questions.

Thanks,

Mark.

 

There are 2 ways to recovery:
1/ Create the backup DVD you mention, which will image the OS drive as it is at the time you create the image. Further backups give you the option to do a full or incremental back ( ie only changes since last backup).
2/ Recovery via the "D2D" option at bios boot. (needs to be enabled in the bios and need alt f10 to access during boot)

However I would strongly recommend you get Acronics True Image and create images of both the OS partition and the hidden usually PQservice partition. So you can restore the hidden partition if ever required and then restore from the partition rather than DVD - as for a fresh install this is quicker.

 

Both. You can choose between factory settings and an image of the current system.

 

In setting up my new Extensa 4620Z I've used both options. I immediately used the eRecovery utility to make a factory-default DVD (bootable). After putting things on a off the computer and messing around for a few days I restored it to that factory setup and installed the software I'm going to actually use. Then I made an image (which took two DVD's) of my configuration and filed it away with the factory-default one. So if something gets buggered up one day down the road I'll have the option of starting over with the factory setup or my own configuration.

That'll buy me some time to choose and install a standalone image-backup application like Acronis, et. al. for both of my computers.