Downloaded eRecovery Mgmnt won't install?

I downloaded the eRecovery Management software from Acer's website. When I tried to run the exe file to install it, I get the error message:
"eRecovery can not be installed - 1.Bootable file."

Does this imply that I'm installing it improperly - that I can somehow place it into the recovery partition and have it start from ALT-F10?

 

It could mean that it can't detect your recovery partition on your hard drive.
Did you ever reinstall your operating system?

 

Re-install, yes, from the recovery disks I made after I got the computer. However, I'm told the recovery partition was likely corrupted. (Is it true that it be reconstructed?)

 

No clue - I'm going to defer to other forum members on this one.
(got rid of his recovery DVDs loooong ago)

 

What do you mean "got rid of"? How did you do that? What's the alternative? Image the entire drive or all the partitions?

 

I mean:
-getting my own copy of Windows Vista Ultimate
-clean-installing that on a totally formatted hard drive, even deleting the hidden partitions containing the recovery image
-throwing away my Acer recovery DVDs once I had my own backup system in place

 

Yes, I thought so. I assume you would get drivers for the hardware (DVD, WebCam, comms, mouse, touchpad, etc) from Acer?

Will this work with Windows 7 Pro, or home premium?

 

It doesn't matter which flavour of Windows 7 you prefer since "under the hood" they are all the same.
Drivers are available from Acer website if that laptop is officially supported with Win7.

Michael

 

Ok, lets get back to the original goal:
The error message is as above. Can the software be put into the hidden partition, somehow? Is that what needs to be done?

 

I suspect eRecovery checks the hidden recovery partition for integrity during installation. It might fail if the recovery partition is not as it should be.

Michael

 

on the software disc you burned comes erecoverey app, if you still have the original OS you will be able to install it.
There are different versions of erecovery and will not work on different versions of pqservice (NAPP version)

 

eRecovery from the recovery disks does nothing to the hidden partition. That is clear from my experiments

Acer has told me that if the hidden partition is corrupted, then the ALT-F10 invocation of eRecovery will not work. They also said that recovery disks will not correct this failure - will not fix or put software in the hidden partition. BUTTT, then they have eRecovery Management software that can be downloaded and installed. Except it gives the error message that I mentioned.

My question is:
1) It is possible that the downloaded eRecovery software must be placed in the hidden partition to make the ALT-F10 work?

 

But the recovery disks I made DO NOT have the eRecovery app. If I use the recovery disks to re-install the factory setting, I see no evidence of eRecovery at all.

I do see a NAPP entry in the hidden partition. What is that?

 

Of course, it does read the partition (and probably some integrity checks).
Erecovery is designed to create recovery discs from the hidden partition. It can also help with restoring the system or certain applications. But all this requires an intact recovery partition, which you don't have.

No.
I guess, the boot sector(MBR) has been altered somehow, perhaps due to an OS installation.

Michael

 

and what is your O.S.?
here is the acer mbr (inside cmd file to update mbr)

 

The OS is Vista Home Basic.
I downloaded and looked at the file. It runs mbrwrwin.exe to install rtmbr2.bin.

What is rtmbr2.bin? Virus checkers indicate that it contains a virus.

Here is the listing of my hidden partition: (w/creation dates)
PQSERVICE
-[Folder]System Volume Information-----2010-4-4
--MountPointManagerRemoteDatabase --2010-4-4----0 bytes
--Tracking log--------------------------2010-9-26---20KB
-NAPP6.log-----2010-9-27 17.4KB
-Restore.dat---2010-9-27 0 bytes

 

This should be the boot sector.
Scanned the Archive at virusscan.jotti.org: Acer_mbr.zip - Jotti's malware scan
Virustotal needs some time at the moment.

Edit: Virustotal is ready. http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan...7e94f85992358e94bc002e69b57a057faa-1288733860

 

What model do you have?

rtmbr2.bin it's not (trust me) a virus, is the acer mbr.

Copy mbrwrwin.exe and rtmbr2.bin to c:\

open a command line window Start>Run type cmd

do

cd/
mbrwrwin.exe install overwrite rtmbr2.bin - this installs the acer mbr.

next restart computer and on boot make Alt+F10 and you should see windows pe booting. if nothing happens you have a corrupted recovery partition.

cheers

 

Model: ACER 4530 model 6039.

Virus: I trust you; I just wanted to warn you.

But where is rtmbr2.bin installed? On the C Drive or in the PQSERVICE partition?

The PQSERVICE partition is not visible to Windows, even when I unhide it. Doesn't that mean its corrupted?
Did the file list I posted above not tell you anything?

 

rtmbr2.bin is installed on first sector of hdd. You can not see it.
It's this file that gives the ability to Alt+F10 to restore OS to factory when you need.

cheers

 

OK. I will try it.
What about the eRecovery Management software that I downloaded from the Acer website. Is that going into PQSERVICE sosmehow? And if so, how?

 

No it wont go install to pqservice.
It checks if everything is ok with pqservice and if it is it will install.

cheers

 

I executed the mbrwrwin.exe program. The response was:
"No moving previous MBR.
Installing MBR ... OK"

During the re-boot, I tried ALT-F10. Everything stopped. I had a black, blank screen with a character cursor at the top left. When I tried to reboot without the ALT-F10, it again stopped in the same way.

I restored the image of that partition that I cloned before running mbrwrwin.exe. When I rebooted, I got the message "NTLDR is missing".

I went into the HD with GParted and noted the flags. The boot flag was set for PQSERVICE, but NOT set for ACER (the OS) partition. Once I reversed these settings, the computer booted normally, but there no response to ALT-F10 while booting, or after boot completed.

Its clear now that the "NTLDR missing" message came because the PQSERVICE partition was set as the boot partition, and there was no NTLDR - the OS loader for Windows. The loader was in the ACER partition (the OS partition).

Even tho PQSERVICE is not marked as hidden, Windows does not see it.

I assume this means that PQSERVICE has been corrupted. So now, how do I bring it back?

 

can you tell this
Partition size of pqservice?
Files/Folders inside pqservice?

PQService partition size for vista normally is 12GB.

If you have a linux cd you can try boot from live cd and see details of partition.
also if you go to Control panel>Administrative tools>Computer management>storage>disk management you will be able to see partition size.

cheers

 

To lloco73: I posted this earlier; it has NOT changed. The partition size is 10GB with 85.89 MB used.

 

What tool have you used to determine that?

I just checked my recovery partition with Gparted:
Size: 12.00 GiB, Used: 8.82 GiB, Unused: 3.18 GiB

Windows Disc Management does not want to show how much space is used.

So if Gparted reports similar figures, then your recovery partition is fubar.

Michael

 

I used Partition Wizard (see http://www.partitionwizard.com/). DO NOT use this software to change your partition; it is not stable for all functions. But it DOES show the contents of the partitions as files and folders. GParted does not do that, but is a much better tool for working on the drive. The two are very similar in their human interface. Both use a linux live CD base.

 

Well that is why you cannot recover. You only have 85,98MB used, it should be the opposite. I think that your pqservice is messed up.

Just download a linux live cd, boot it up and see the files on the pqservice.

One folder that must be inside pqservice is D2D folder (inside are the images to recover to factory).

cheers

 

I posted the file list; there is no D2D folder. The question is : How do I repair this?

 

Send to Acer.

Or build your own recovery partition stuff - this is a feature of Acronis True Image.

Michael

 

Do you have recover disks burned from erecovery?

If you have them i can arrange you the other files that are needed. if not sorry but i cannot help you.

cheers

PS: If you want to mount your PQService mbrwrwin can mount it just open a cmd and type
cd/
mbrwrwin mount hd0:1 ( 0 is the hdd number, 1 is the partition number, mbrwrwin must be on c: drive)

 

I do have the recovery disks. I made them just after I purchased the laptop. They work just fine; that is how I got here.

Why does Windows not mount this partition automatically, just like it does the other drives besides C?

The corrected command worked, but after command "C:>K:", the response was "The system cannot find the drive specified." I even tried "C:\>mbrwrwin -unhide 1" and the same command, but still got the same response.

The correct command is C:\mbrwrwin mount hd0:1 K" where K is the drive letter.

 

try opening cmd as administrator.

 

C:\>mbrwrwin mount hd0:1 K: -----works only if you have the colon after the drive letter
C:\>K: ----works also

Note that : "C:\>mbrwrwin mount hd0:1" will use the next available drive letter, but it was not available.

Now Windows sees the PQSERVICE partition contents as Drive K. The files are:
Napp6.log (18KB Modified 2010-10-31)
Restore.dat (0 KB modified 2010-10-31)
(folder) System Volume Information (modified 2010-10-26)

Anyway to keep this partition visible over reboots?

What's next as far as fixing this partition?

 

think not possible must do everything again

first thing grab your recover cd's and copy them to a folder D2D\images. if you have drivers cd copy them to other folder and name it patch.
rest of files and folders i can arrange you.