Restore PQSERVICE.

Ok, this is probably the third time i started a thread here and asking for help. I am really grateful for the service here. Especially to those who went out their way to help me (Hoggie ) But, once again, i found myself in another dilemma. I have the data in the PQSERVICE drive. but, its still not going to the eRecovery Setup! Im clearly missing a vital key of information here. I put PQSERVICE as fat32, and i put it hidden. But, its not called "PQSERVICE", its called "disk-1" and so-far, i am unable to change it because Ubuntu doesn't allow to rename a volume label to a specific name (that im aware of, through hours of searching the web) Will it still boot the PQSERVICE under a different name? If someone can answer me that, it would help ALOT! second, do i have to WRITE the data back to the "Disk-1" a.k.a PQSERVICE or COPY it? And will it make a difference?

 

not trying to jump into Hoggie's domaiin,,, but i imagine he's a bit busy w/ the new grand baby!!!


just letting ya know he may be a bit slow today he is a grandpa now!!!

 

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Acer-D2D-Erecovery-101&id=1160163

this info may help.... read it closely
it talks about the hidden partition,, and even needing the D:acerdata partition to be present for RECOVREY TO WORK

 

:tongue: :wink:

was just reading some news on THE Acer site

 

Ok, ive read it very thoroughly, but it ...sorta helped. This is the setup i have now:


Drive: | Name: | Size: | Used: | Filesystem: | Flags:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The "C" | "Disk": | 52.12 MB | 0.0 MB | Fat32/0C |
The "PQ" | "Disk-1" | 6.71 MB | 4.6MB | Fat32/0C | Hidden
The "D" | "Disk-2" | 52.96 MB | 0.0 MB | Fat32/0C |

Anyone can tell me what else am i missing? or What i did wrong? Do i have to make the hidden "PQ" as the boot? cause i already tried that. Do i need to put the Acer MBR and Rtmbr.bin in the "Disk" a.k.a "C"? And once again, someone please answer my original question.. Does the name of the volume matter? Or can the "PQ" find the appropriate drive according to the type? IM LOST!!

 

i've never done this... that being said....

i believe the PQSERVICE partition needs to be the FIRST PHYSICAL PARTITION, i may be wrong in that assumption, i'm just recalling that on my ASPIRE when viewing partition info (when there was more than 1 partition, which was 6 months ago)... the HIDDEN partition was the first one visible in DISK MANAGEMENT,, then the second visable partition was the C: drive ,,,
and the third partition was the D: "AcerData" or what ever it was..

now to answer your questions as best i can...

THE C: needs to be the desiginated BOOT DEVICE
YOU MUST HAVE THE ACER MRB FILES as the master boot record of the C:

now assuming you have d2d enabled in the BIOS,, the correct MBR,,, correct partition layout,,

you press the ALT & F10 at the ACER bootup screen and you should be presented with a special recovery screen.

 

Ok, i did just that. Ive also come to a breakthrough. I found out how to run a windows-style Command Prompt on Linux. Now i was FINALLY able to run fixmbr.bat after spending countless hours trying to get fixmbr.bat to work. I put all the Mbrwrwin.exe and Rtmbr.bin and Fixmbr.bat in the "C". (NOTE: THE DRIVE WHICH I CREATED TO BE THE NEW "C" DRIVE IS NOT HOLDING THE WINDOWS FILES, WINDOWS MANAGE TO CREATE ITS OWN C: DRIVE. AND I CAN ONLY SEE IT IN THE COMMAND PROMPT!) Then i use WineConsole CMD to run the batch file. This is when things head downhill... It ran sucessfully but it was unable to write to the Rtmbr.bin. it says:

I posted in the Ubuntu forum, but they take years to reply back. And, im not expecting to get an answer anytime soon. Also, do i have a corrupt RTMBR.bin? Could that be the problem?

 

Ok this might be a stupid thought but still...have you checked if RTMBR.BIN is NOT set as READ-ONLY?

Also..the problem could be in WINE..

 

Yea, its set to read-only. I was hoping that would be the case Yea, thats what im guessing too, Wine could also be a culprit, so ive already asked the people in the Ubuntu forum. But, i still wanted to make sure there wasnt a problem with the Rtmbr.bin file.

 

excuse my ignorance.... but can't you just change the read-only property??

cmd attrib X:rtmbr.bin -r

or
attrib /? for all the switches...


DOS...... THOSE WERE THE DAYS!

 

Its not on read-only. Its only on Archive...Ive got to find a way to get Rtmbr.bin to work, Im so close to the eRecovery, i can almost taste it! Any ideas, while im alittle excited? Can someone resend me another copy of the Acers Rtmbr.bin?.. Excuses my impatient behavior

[email protected]

 

attrib -a -r -s -h X:Rtmbr.bin

i think i downloaded that a file that has the ACER MBR files... i'll post a link in a sec.

http://rs375.rapidshare.com/files/88900958/acer_mbr.zip

BTW i never actually downloaded it.. but it looks like it's still there..... for some reason my ISP's AV program reports that it's a virus

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=11476&page=23

Search be ya friend people !

James

 

Ok, i was finally able to get my hands on the eRecovery disk! I was able to burn them from another computer that had the same Acer aspire 5100 series as mine. I burned a default backup of the system. After i used the both the CDs, i restarted my computer, then.....nothing happened!!??? After spending 5 minutes trying to figure out why it didnt work, i remembered that on the recovery screen it said it was writing on Partition 1. I then realized that my PQSERVICE was partition1! I went and used the Ubuntu Live CD and checked my partitions, and sure enough, it erased the PQ! I then erased all the partitions and started over. I was going to talk to you all to find out the true order of the partition. (eg "C: then D: then PQ") So it would boot normally. Also, do i have to set the C: to boot? I need a reply ASAP please! Im going to start the eRecovery setup(which takes almost 1hour and 30 minutes!!) and i want to make sure that its correct!