Acer Hidden Recovery Partition

HI Umster, I have the system discs for all acer models, these are the intial boot cd's prior to the recovery loading, PM me and I can send you a D/L link

J.

 

Are these 2 files hidden on the D:\ somwhere?

 

OMG Im in balls deep here.

Okay, I have an ACER 5100, not mine, friend from school ... being a ditsy female she cant remember her eRestore password, so after 2 days of guessing, I do what the guide recommends and thats format.

I use the restore Discs, it stops at 44% every time (batang.ttc) and stops.

I've read these forums like 9 times over, and I too have no Alt + F10 function

I followed the guides, found the mbr.bin and the exe, still no ALT +F10 .... in the mean time, i format again with my XP home disc to give me some sort of operating system to work with, and now I have no D:/ACERDATA drive.

SO its all up to the sneeky hidden partition from what i read.

so.... to sum all this up

1. I need a step by step for

a) getting my ALT + F10 to work
b) telling me how to deactivate Drives C: and D: and activating the hidden one so this machine will boot from it and restore itself....

2. Any ideas you Pros out there might have.

E-mail me, or MSN me PLEASE i've been at it for 3 days solid, and the girl who owns it wants it back .... she'll have my nuts if she finds out it's a paper weight at the moment!

[email protected]

THX!!!

 

i found mine in the ISO file on the restore discs..... jsut used winrar to copy them to the C: and ran them. hope that helps.

 

i messed up with my aspire 5580 , i deleted the factory partition and had no back up dvd,
but i could successfully get to my acer to work

this is my cook book

needed :
knoppix cd
another win xp install cd
Active partiton recovery software


restore the deleted factory partition with "Active@ partiton recovery"
i was lucky enough to not overwrite that partition
boot the last version of linux knoppix
in knoppix go to the main menu ---> system -->Qtparted Create reorganize and remove partitions
click on /dev/hda .( mine was hda1) wait
on a list of partitions, set the factory partition as active , click on the first , right button set active , respond yes
the save the canges by clicking the diskette icon
answer yes
shut down knopix and
grab another windows xp install cd
boot with it and do as you are about to reinstall the xp
select install to the second partition be carefull here, install it in the C drive
when the other xp cd rebooted. it started the Factory partition and so the eRecovery program
then . run knoppix again and set the active partiton to the C drive ( hda2)
and thats it, hope it helps

Malvinas Argentinas

 

Okay! I Fixed IT! ... with no help either = (!!

Heres a step by Step How. My problem was that the restore discs stopped at 44% leaving me with a "NTLDR is missing" error, and a pc with no OS. I had lost the Alt+F10 function because of this. If this sounds like you, or you just formatted the drive, read on!

This is for an ACER 5100

You Need:
Restore Discs (Even if they dont work)
Copy of Windows XP
WinRar

1. Format the Drive (Fat32 OR NTFS it doesnt matter)
2. Install Windows XP (NTFS Format is part of it, so you could skip 1 if you wanted)
3. Insert Restore Disc 1, on restore disc 1 there is an .ISO file, this can be opened and it's contents viewed with WINRar
4. Go Download Winrar
5. Browse the ISO file, and find the MBRWRWIN.exe (may be slightly different depending on the machine, but SHOULD have MBR in the title) and RTMBR.bin file.
6. Copy those files to the C:\ of the laptop. Mine had an MBR.BIN AND a RTMBR.BIN ... ONLY COPY THE RTMBR.BIN .... from what i can tell the MBR.BIN fudges things up.
7. Now Click "Run" in the start menu and start DOS (type cmd into the run box)
8. get to C:\ and install the RTMBR.bin file.(if you dont know how type below)

cd C:
mbrwrwin.exe install rtmbr.bin

it will do a little "finding slot, added to slot 3" sort of thing, and thats it. then type exit. DOS will close.
9. Reboot the machine
10. It will say "found new hardware", let it install, then reboot again.
11. As it boots, hit ALT+ F10 and BANG! it should work!

if it doesnt, restart again, hit F2 (or whatever gets your laptop into the BIOS)

scroll through and on mine there was an option to turn on or off the ALT+F10, make sure thats ENABLED, and turn off quick boot to give you more time to hit Alt+F10

If it doesnt work the first time, try all the steps again, but it worked for me first shot. Hope this helps!!

Any questions my e-mail is stated obove in my "OMG HELP ME!" part .... since no one did I figured I'd offer up what i found.

this forum did help though ... thanks a lot.

 

ok i don't have the PQSERVICE partition but i have a 100% work recovery DVD and have a ISO image of it also
i have paragon partition magic
does creating a partition and copying recovery DVD files then doing like this will help

i have run the MBRWRWIN.exe with the instructions and found a new file in D:\eDS_PSD_drive.vmdf that is about ~2.9GB but Alt+F10 still doesn't work and still no PQSERVICE

 

Hi all!
I'm seriously in trouble with my Aspire...
I'd like to format the HD and restore tha factory settings to clean the disk but:
1) my Mat****a DVD drive doesn't work, so i can't boot the pc from the recovery disk;
2) i've no hidden partition as i can see from partition magic... ( no d2d)
3) my bios, althought i've updated it to the last release, doesn't boot from any external USB drive

how could i solve this situation??? thank you very much!

 

I'm new to this topic and don't feel like reading though 11 pages, so I'm just going to ask what it is that I'm confused about.

1) In Vista Home Premium, when I go to Drive Management, I have my C and D drive partitions, and then a drive before the C that has no letter fixed on it. It has about 7 GB of data on it. Is this the Recovery partition, or something else? How does one even use this recovery partition if they wanted to?

2) I had thought about deleting this partition, I don't want any of that recovery nonsense taking up even a few GB's of space. Why do I need recovery if I don't care about any of the crap they throw on my laptop at manufacture? Can't I just format my HD like a normal desktop computer and put what I want on it? I downloaded all the drivers from acer that were availabe for my laptop, isn't this enough? If I remove a recovery partition will my Laptop be deceased, with only way of getting it back up is to send back to Acer? If so... this sucks.

3) I never got a recovery disc with my Acer, it only came with the Vista Home Premium disc. I have an Acer 9420-6775. Is this normal? (Update: I've been told my recovery is probably on the Vista Premium disc that comes with my laptop, not sure if this is correct.)

4) What is the easiest way to format my HD's? I tried using a boot disc and also my Vista disc at startup and selected boot from CD/DVD but for some reason this laptop doesn't listen and it just bypasses and goes dirctly into Vista.

5) Thanks for any help.

 

Can anyone advise me please.

I need to run the PQservice restore. I have no dvd backup discs but the partition is intact on my acer 5685. I can see it using Partition Magic in XP.

I want to restore the ALt f10 function. I can see the 2 files i need to copy to the root of C: but i can't extract them from the hidden partition and don't know how to do this? Any ideas? Partition magic won't let me 'unhide' the partition as th e option is greyed out.

My 2nd problem is i don't understand how set the hidden partition to active so i can boot from it. I have downloaded the 'ultimate bootcd' but don't really know what to do with it to make it work. Can anyone advise on this please?

 

Hi all !
I'm havinging som problem with a aspire 9422.
I was told that there was no problem installing XP and use both vista and xp on my pc. But there was problem. It started that I only could boot windows XP.
Tried to download a boot manager but that made i worse, I had to format the disk and reinstall everything.

But now I want to make a restore to vista, so I can make a new try to dualboot windows xp and vista. The problem is that I don't have any restore CD. I have contacted acer 25 of April and asked them to send med a cd, but still they are saying that the cd will arrive soon. I'm starting to get rely tired of this and wounders if there is anyway to restore the pc using the backup partition? I can access it, copy files and so on from it in ubuntu.

Tried to restore the mbr hoping to use the alt+f10 feature, but when doing the command:
mbrwin.exe install rtmbr.bin
I'm getting an error message saying
Installing MBR ... Error while writing to rtmbr

Any ideas what I can do ?

 

Hi,

Apparently if you use a boot disc and run the fdisk you can set the hidden partition (containing the recovery) to be the active partition (using fdisk option2). Then when you reboot it will start the recovery. Then next time the machine reboots you must then set the active partition back to C.

I have yet to do this but will try tonight!

My problem is how you get the mbr file from the hidden partition onto the c drive to try and get the 'Alt F10' to work. I have never used Ubuntu (or Linux) at all and would welcome some help to achieve this? ideally a windows based solution would suit me.

 

To unhide the partition read this how to unhide a hidden partition normaly this hidden partition should already be active ?

 

I have tried to set the recovery parition as active and booted on that.

I get an error message saying that a drive letter can't be found and the pc restarts...

 

hey guys.
I have a problem, I have erased both my C and my D partition, and I do not have any bootdiscs or recovery CDs..(I called support and they will send me recovery kit but it might take 2 weeks), I have tried the [Alt]+[F10] thing but my recovery partition does not boot, what can I do? (I have set the BIOS to enable d2d) I have an Acer Travelmate 8202 and a slow internet connection so I can not download any heavy stuff... tnx

 

To all the Newbies that posted on this thread so far: a lesson well learnt for you... BEFORE you decide to delete partitions etc. rather investigate what the potential outcome your fiddling and curiosity will have on your nice new computer by:

a. Searching the forums
b. Simply typing your question into the Search bar located on the top right of this screen.

That way less :cry: for you as most times you will be forewarned what the consequences of your actions will have. There is normally SOMEBODY out there who has burnt their fingers doing what you might want to try. Why burn your fingers too?

 

"To all the Newbies..:" eerrw what do you know about it? this is the first time I ask for help about computers since the last couple of years, and the reason I got my computer fktup was cuz I tried to install XP pro clean without recovery but it was not possible with the license I had...

 

Thats why you search these forums first. All the answers are here.

You are never too old or wise to learn.

 

You are obviously a "newbie" when it comes to using acers otherwise you would have never made such a simple mistake. You should have asked a question here or done a search first and then you would have found out, that if you erase everything and do not create the backup DVDs when prompted that you were messing up your notebook.

I am constantly shocked at the amount of people that go ahead and do things without thinking "what is going to happen here" and then they come on the forums and expect magic to occur to fix their screw ups. I am sorry but if you removed everything and didn't bother to create the backup DVDs when first prompted then you will have to wait the 2 weeks for acer to send you the recovery kit. There is nothing more that you can do except wait or temporarily install some other version of windows.

Also the reason why alt+f10 does not work anymore is because when you tried to install XP pro it overwrote acer's special master boot record (MBR) which allows for alt+f10 functionality therefore the only way to get it to work again would be to access the recovery partition (if is still there) and copy 2 files and run them.

 

Teejay & Evolution - If you don't feel you have time to help people asking for help then don't reply - but you shouldn't discourage people form asking for help if they have made a mistake.
Most lessons learnt in life come after you have made the mistake. Then you may need to ask for some help.

I recently asked for some help - having serached the formus and not quite found the answer i was looking for. As it was Evolution pointed me at a thread with the answers. I didn't find the thread because i had been searching for something slightly different.

My problem arose due to a hardware fault (i eventually found out). This caused me to not be able to boot the ALT F10 and stopped me burning a recovery disc.

I'm sure this doesn't apply to all but don't discourage people from asking for help - just beacuse you know the answers - there was a time when you didn't.

 

I've just made MY recovery partition(not acer manufactor's one) by using partition magic and drive image.It works like acer's one, the difference is F11 instead of Alt-F10.
What I don't like acer manufactor's system is too much pre-installed staff that makes system slow.
I suggest don't waste time to fix acer's eRecover. Try something else like Acronis, the function is the same, and easier.

 

Everybody is welcome to NBR. Be it simple questions or complicated ones.

All that is asked is that folks search for answers on GOOGLE before posting here. And think before doing stupid stuff.

 

Dear sam613, can you give us a detail procedure for the creation of the non-acer recovery partition?

 

login is admin password is password

 

The procedure is quite complicate. In short, I create a new primary partition which make it bootable, and put the backup tools and backup data there. When PC boot, I press F11 so it boot to the hidden recovery partition and make backup or restore. If no F11 press, it boot to Windows XP as usual.
It's necessary to modify MBR to make the whole thing works.

"Acronis True Image" also has the backup and recovery function like acer eRecovery. I've never use that though.

 

Hello everyone,

Ok I have a Acer Travelmate C110 and I bought it from ebay. A previous owner removed all partitions and loaded xp home on it. This apparantly caused all tablet functions to be null and void from the system. I did purchase the recovery disks(all 4) and I was also successful at downloading the NAPP CD for this tablet. I burned the ISO image with Nero Burning Rom. I hope that I burned it correctly. I deleted the existing OS from the comp and made a new partition. I am using a Sony USB External CDrom drive, and this is where I am stuck at. I really am not sure what to do next, and I have really been searching and reading everything that I can in these forums, and have yet to realize an answer to my problems. I would really appreciate it if someone could give me some insight into what I should be doing next.

Thank you,

 

To Evo,
What are the 2 files to be copied to reinstall the alt+F10 function?

 

Can Someone please give me a step by step on getting this c110 back to normal. I see that this has been a big issue for this tablet, although no one has given a complete step by step,that I have found, considering that I have all the disks.


Right now I have nothing on the hard drive, it is fdisk'd to 100% . I have the NAPP CD specific to the c110, and I also have the bootable disk 1 from acer, and disks 2-1,2-2,2-3. I would be very grateful if someone could give me a hand on this, as it has become extremely annoying, and I may just send this baby out of a car window at 80 mph, and that would certainly be a waste. But that is how frustrated that I am.

 

Instructions (you will need to still have your recovery partition in order to do this)

You will have to access the partition called PQService and copy the 2 files called mbrwrwin.exe and rtmbr.bin to the C drive you need to have a C drive for this to work by the way.

Installation ( Note I know this works with the factory windows I don't know if it will work with a "outside" copy of windows)
All you have to do is type the following in xp command shell :
mbrwrwin install rtmbr.bin <-----(type that in the dos prompt)

It will add the file to a slot...
Once you have done that reboot the computer and wait it took a while, it then seems to find new hardware don't know what it finds then do a reboot and then you can alt+f10 to your heart's content.

Hope this helps you and all others who wanted to know how to do this...

 

thanks evo, btw my os is vista premium and i look at that 2 files in pqservice but found nothing, i only found 1 file which is MBR.bin

 

I got a ACER ASPIRE 3620 Laptop, and i always use to use the RECOVERY FUNCTION, to recover my Windows, by pressing ALT+F10.

But now i have formated my C: and now i cannot use the ALT+F10 anymore? I press it in the begining when the computer is starting and nothing happens?

My Recovery drive is still present, its called "PQSERVICE" and its about 3gb.

Someone told me to do something with the boot.ini but i am not sure how...

Please help me how can i get my Windows back?

 

did you ever find an answer for this? i'm pulling my hair out here.

i've found the correct files, copied to c drive... in command prompt type "mbrwrwin install rtmbr.bin" and get the same error message "error while writing to rtmbr"!

 

Evolution,

I think your Instruction has busted my computer.

I had copied those 2 files as you stated, then i restarted...

When it was restarting it just got stuck at one point and there were some scribble on the black screen and i could do nothing beside restart again, so i did and same thing came up.

So i didnt need anything on the drive anyway, so i restarted again and pressed ALT+F10, and it worked. I started the process and it completed everythiing. When it completed everything and then restarted, the SAME scribble came on the screen again?

I am stuck now and cant do anything.. Can you guide me furthur?

I had Windows XP from the beggining, i never got Vista.
(I am at a diff comp now)

Waiting for a response.

 

What do you mean by scribble? I did this twice on my 5102 after the MBR got corrupted and each time it worked flawlessly. The main fact that ALT+f10 is working now and it wasn't before means the files did exactly what they were supposed to do. If the drive's Boot sector was corrupted then you should see no operating system found as I did when my MBR became corrupted but I never saw any scribble. Something else is most likely corrupted. Did you only copy those files to drive C as I said or did you cut them off the recovery partition? You were suppose to only copy them not cut or remove them from the recovery partition.

The windows XP that you did this with was it the factory version or a outside OEM or retail copy? As I said I know it works with the factory windows not with any other version.

If you have made the restore disks when you first turned on your notebook try using those to recover windows and see what happens. If you didn't create those recovery disks then you should contact acer support via email and see what they advise you to do.

NOTE: Even though you read my post on how to restore ALT+F10 the idea or instructions on how to do this wasn't mine, all I did was repeat what I read to do (in this thread and in past recovery partition threads) when ALT+F10 no longer worked. If it wasn't me that told you to do this then you would have read it here anyway. ALT+F10 is working on your notebook so the process obviously worked, you must have corrupted something else on your notebook AFAIK your notebook should be working .

 

ok, this is my situation start to finish:
bought acer aspire 5050-3371 off ebay. owner said he'd owned a couple months, so almost brand new. when it arrived appeared new (ie, none of his files on it), but at closer look, a large part of c drives space was already being used (20.2 gigs of 33.5). there is a folder (windows.old) which appears to be holding most of the programs hostage. the only thing given to me from previous owner is the vista upgrade disk (vista home basic was factory-installed). i don't have any recovery disks, obviously, as i'm not the original owner.
i haven't done too much for fear of seriously f*%/ing something up (i'm a computer dummy). i just want to reclaim all this space and the factory-shipped state so i can start anew.
alt/f10 does not work. i used paragon to copy mbrwrwin.exe and rtmbr.bin to the c drive. ran command prompt as instructed here. all it says is "error writing to rtmbr.bin". now when i boot, if i hit alt/f10, i do get a screen where i have 2 options (enter or escape). either way, i end up right back at the main vista desktop.
can anybody help me?!? i'm going bald...
:confused2:

 

Evolution,

Your trick has worked for the 5th time i tryed.

This can mess up your computer, and cannot. ITs just your luck.

I was able to regain my windows and then follow the procedure Evolution provided and then worked.

After using MANY different softwares to mess with the partitions and bios i was able to get to this point.

Thanks to all, and am now at my Orignal Factory Windows.

 

Can some one explain how to get ALT+10 work again?

I got it to the command line in the alt + f10 section but nothing happen, i am 100 % sure the partition is still there as it showed up in the Disk management.

Really need help as my warranty gone and wanna restore my laptop back to the default.

my acer laptop with Vista Home Premium hasnt got those 2 files required to restore the ALT-F10 function

one more question what's the PArtition type of the PQSERVICE should be, i enable it with the PTEDIT32.exe and it show the partition type number is 27, or should it be type12?

 

Trying to get my laptop to recognise my digital TV Hard Drive recorder I ended up being able to see my Acer PQSERVICE drive as a separate drive in 'my computer'. However, now whenever I shut down the laptop it says eRecovery is waiting to shut down and then not responding so I have to end task.

Can someone help this very simple novice please?!

 

Thanks for the tips; I managed to get the restore back on the drive.

I'm having a slight of a problem now. It restored, but now when starting the computer, a line of random characters shows up after the Acer boot screen and Windows won't boot up.

Is this something to do with the mbrwrwin and rtmbr.bin files?
Thanks

 

What are you people doing that is causing this? This past weekend I installed vista again (issues ) anyhow went back to XP the very same day. Now my MBR was overwritten and ofcourse ALT+F10 didn't work anymore so I used my backup DVDs to restore windows. Once I got into windows I copied the same 2 files mbrwrwin and rtmbr.bin did the exact same procedure that I outlined a few post back and presto ALT+F10 is working again and I saw no side effects like strange characters or any "scribble" after the POST screen, windows booted up like nothing happened.

Obviously if you guys are doing what I outlined and are getting problems then it is clear to me that either you are not following instructions or you are messing with your computer somehow while this process is going on (restarting too fast maybe). The main fact that ALT+F10 is now working but you can't get into windows means you guys did something you shouldn't have.

 

Hi,

I made some Acer recovery CD's but have no idea how to use them. I assume you have to set the BIOS to boot from the DVD drive?

So assuming my windows was corrupted beyond the point of booting into Vista, will all be well If I simply boot from the DVD? Does it perform the same function as the hard drive recovery (which I have tried and works) only not in the Windows environment?

THanks. The eRecovery software is pretty nifty. It does what it says without leaving missing drivers etc... I performed it when I first got my notebook, and I claimed back around 2.5gb of space on the C:\ Drive

 

New guy, here. Have a problem that isn't quite the same, but it's close. I picked up an open-box Acer 5610-2273 that appeared to be normal, but isn't.

I've discovered that whoever had this before me wiped out Acer's version of Vista and installed an regular retail version of Vista. This version has a few problems, one being that it wants to be activated. Another is the complete lack of Acer tools and drivers.

The OTHER bad news is that this pinhead's install wiped out Acer's MBR. ALT-F10, no go. One would THINK that the geeks at Best Buy would have run across this problem before, but all they do is blink and tell me I should refund this notebook and buy another. But I don't want to.

The restore partition is there. There are, of course, no restore discs.

What to do?

I've unhidden the partition with PTEDIT, but will do nothing else until I come back and see what you folks have posted.

I have found multiple files with MBR in their names. Three versions of MBR.BIN. One is in the root, one is in the RYTOOLS directory, one is in the SYSTEM32 directory.

I have also found an RTMBR.BIN file in the RYTOOLS folder and another one called RTMBR2.BIN in the same folder. All are 512 bytes.

Which one of these do I install with MBRWRWIN.EXE?

I have another week to bring the machine back without penalty- but I really want to keep it.

Suggestions? Much appreciated, and... nice to meet ya'll!

-Pink

 

If I was you I would return the machine and ask for a Brand New replacement. In a sealed box.

Why settle for something secondhand when you paid new prices?

 

Yeah I definitely recommend that.

I believe my laptop just went faulty with the hard drive causing nothing to boot up whatsoever except show the BIOS.

It's still under warranty, so why not try to get something better?

 

But I didn't pay a brand-new price for it, I paid $269. This Acer series is on clearance at BB. And there aren't any machines in the region, (well, except for a couple of more demos, and they're missing things like keycaps. At least this machine is clean and in good condition), and there aren't any more of the better Acers in this series that aren't open-box, either.

And I don't want to spend more money if I can help it. This was a great deal, and I bought it as a backup laptop.

So... the problem remains. Which MBR file do I use for the restore? After I posted above, I also found a couple of more .BIN files, on the PQSERVICE partition, such as VISTAMBR.BIN and ITMBR.BIN.

I could try them all, but I'm worried that the wrong one will make the machine unbootable, and that complicates things, because I'd have to then get other tools involved to replace the file with one of the other ones.

Can anyone help with which one it should be?

-Pink

 

Sorry, I misunderstood you. I thought you had bought a brand new machine with a secondhand feel and look...

Post a new thread with your problems rather than bury them in this old thread. Good luck, I wish I could help more

Regards
Theo

 

Hi

can someone say here what files are in the PQservice and if they are the same that we can find in the backup dvds/cds?
I saw in my recover dvd in folder IMAGES a file named ACERBP0X.WSI. what program open wsi files?

br
lloco73

 

Sorry - I'm new to all this and a real newbie!
I haven't deleted my hidden PQSERVICE partition but somehow I've accidentally made it visible as a separate drive (PQSERVICE (F ). Since it has become visible every time I shut down my Acer TravelMate 8200 I get an annoying message about erecovery not responding and I have to end task.
I just want it to close down properly!
Is there a way I can put PQSERVICE back where it came from and will this solve my problem?
A step by step account would be greatly appreciated as I know about diddly squat about computers, DOS or whatever!
Can some kind person help me out please?

 

can you explain where you get those 2 files because in my PQSERVICE partition there are more than one version of those and is that method work with new laptops with Vista Home Premium pre-installed in them?

 

My 5102 came with XP not vista so I know it works with XP computers, I cannot however say if it will work with notebooks that came with vista installed. I only have 1 version of each of those files, so I couldn't even begin to tell you which one of the 2 versions to use when it comes to vista sorry...