Acer and vista reinstallation

So i bought an acer extensa 4620z.
And i decided to put ubuntu linux on it. Well in the process i didnt think about it, and i let ubuntu format my HDD and it wipped out all partitions.

Now months later, i decided ot put vista back on there.
After talking with acer tech support, they talked me into buying thier System Recovery complete restore disk things.
Now when i put those in it says "No partition Available"
So how do i make hte partition available?
What do i need to do.
Please respond ASAP.
AIM - Stemgun

 

Cancel that. Got it :]

 

I realize that you have solved the problem and that this thread is nearly two months old, but I'm going to post the official solution anyway, so that the search engines will pick it up.

I just got off of the phone with Acer technical support after discussing this problem. I had this problem recently, as I was trying to restore Windows Vista on my Extensa 5620Z after having removed a Linux installation. (I am experimenting with dual booting.)

The solution is to do the following:

• go to acerpanam.com.
• make sure the "driver" tab is selected. Choose the type of computer (i.e., notebook) and the model.
• Look for "Post Acer Disk Formatter CD ISO Image" and click it.
• Choose to download.

It will download an ISO image, which you will need to burn to a CD and boot with to format the hard disk drive to a structure the recovery discs can recognize. The ISO file is somewhat large, though (>200 MB), so be patient.

I have advised Acer that they need to update their knowledge base and support website with this information, as the error message and the solution to this problem can't be readily found there.

 

Update.

Scroll down to short version for direct conclusions and inferences.

Long Version

The steps I took used an Ubuntu Linux Live CD to create and modify partitions. You can obtain a free copy of this here. Under Ubuntu, use "gparted" to modify your partitions. (This should be available as "partition editor" under the "system" menu. I think it's under "administration.")


Downloading the Acer Disk Formatter is not enough. You do, indeed, have to create partitions beforehand before running the recovery program. Why a recovery program would need these made beforehand is beyond me; most other OEMs' recovery programs would just repartition the hard disk as needed instead of requiring the end user to do all the work.

I experimented with different partitions -- FAT32, FAT16, and NTFS using a Live Ubuntu Linux CD. I noticed that a single partition on its own was not enough for the recovery program; if there was only one partition, it would quit with error "no partition available."

So I created two partitions. I falsely concluded (and shared with Acer technical support) that a FAT16 partition was what was needed for the recovery program to run. However, I observed several things when creating partitions.

• the first two partitions could be a mixed FAT16, FAT32, or of both, although in my case I had success with two FAT32 partitions.
• the Post Acer Disk Formatter CD ISO Image appears to convert the partitions to NTFS.

So after the conversion took place, I reran the recovery program. On my first try, I had success; it actually started to copy the images over. However, when I re-deleted the partitions and tried recreating them with different sizes, the recovery program would go as far as language selection and then state that the restore failed, with error 0xa000000e. A search of this error message on Google shows speculation about it being an error with the recovery media or filesystem.

Indeed, I suspected it was an issue with the partitions. So, I rebooted from the Live Ubuntu Linux CD and -- once again -- blanked the partition table. I then created two very large partitions (each >40 GB), ran the Disk Formatter, and then found that the recovery program executed successfully.

Guess what I discovered about my partition table when I booted back into Live Ubuntu Linux? Those two FAT32 partitions I created were now NTFS partitions -- one taking up 8 GB of space out of the 40 I allocated, and the other taking up 3 GB out of the 40 I allocated. Perhaps the recovery program wouldn't work before the partitions I created weren't big enough for the data that was being copied over? I'm guessing that the partition with 8 GB of used space is my system one, and the other one is the recovery one. When I managed to finally boot up into Vista, I discovered that this was correct.

There is also one other final concern. (God, this recovery program from Acer is crappy.) Even though the recovery process copied over the files, it did nothing to the master boot record. What this means is that -- since I had Linux previously installed on the computer and Grub, a boot loader, installed to the master boot record -- the computer was still trying to load up a Linux installation that didn't exist! I was planning to reinstall Linux anyway for my dual-boot setup, so Grub detected the Vista installation when I reinstalled Linux and I was able to boot both operating systems from the menu. If you don't plan to reinstall Linux and you still have a Linux bootloader on, you will either have to somehow configure it to load your Vista operating system or somehow get Microsoft Vista's "fixmbr" utility to fix your master boot record. This could be done from an operating system disc and possibly from a custom, bootable disc burnt using utilities downloaded from the Internet. It appears that Grub is dependent on a file (menu.lst) on a Linux partitino to display and allow the user to choose an operating system on startup, so not having a Linux partition may make using it impossible. I really can't say for sure.

Short Version

The steps I took used an Ubuntu Linux Live CD to create and modify partitions. You can obtain a free copy of this here. Under Ubuntu, use "gparted" to modify your partitions. (This should be available as "partition editor" under the "system" menu. I think it's under "administration.")

I can't say for certain, but it seems to be highly likely that Acer's recovery program expects you to already have partitions setup for it to copy over. The partitions must be the proper size for the files being copied over; it seems that it will return error "0xa000000e" when you have not formatted the partitions using the Post Acer Disk Formatter and when the partitions are not big enough for the files it plans to copy over. To be on the safe side, make the first partition you create at least 15 GB in size and the second one at least 5 GB in size. This may vary from model to model, so I can't say for certain what the exact size is. It should be noted that my Acer model is an Extensa 5620Z.

If you do not have at least two partitions on the drive, the Disk Formatter will not see any and will not actually format anything, and the recovery program will give an error -- "no partition available." I do not know what the recovery program expects the two partition types to be, but I used two FAT32 partitions without problems. The disk formatter formats one or more of them to NTFS, and the recovery program finishes with both of them being NTFS. I do not know whether starting with two NTFS partitions and skipping the Disk Formatter will still allow the recovery program to work.

The steps used in the recovery process does not appear to modify the partitions' size.

Even after you've done all of this work, you still have to take additional steps to ensure the master boot record has a program that will properly load your operating system(s). If you had Linux installed previously, you more than likely had a bootloader called "Grub" installed to it; if that's the case, it may malfunction. You will have to reinstall the bootloader somehow. In my case, I did it by installing Ubuntu Linux to separate partitions. This reinstalled Grub and set it up to allow the selection of either Windows or Linux on bootup.

It is possible that you can create your own bootable disc that contains a Windows "fixmbr" utility or some other utility to reinstall a Windows bootloader, but I don't have enough information at the moment to give the specific steps required to do so.