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    Recovering many Averatec's supplied with no recovery CDs

    Discussion in 'Other Manufacturers' started by rskowron, Apr 30, 2008.

  1. rskowron

    rskowron Notebook Guru

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    I'll stick this here since it directly impacts most of the Averatecs with the hidden partition backup for recovery. The software they use is Phoenix Firstware Recover Pro. You do not need to go into Windows to do a restore from a non-boot situation. Here is the instructions with a link to the Phoenix User Manual.

    Hope this helps some folks in this situation:

    Phoenix Firstware
    Phoenix Firstware is used to store a factory image of your hard drive in an inaccessible area of the drive. By changing the reported size of the disk drive, the Firstware area is hidden so other activity on the disk (including full formats) does not remove it. By tapping the F4 or Alt keys when booting, you will see the option to recover your hard drive from this original image. For more information, reference your Phoenix's user manual. http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/7961AFF0-F6A9-43B8-8C90-8B47B4099D9E/0/RProUGe.pdf Page 11.

    Rick
     
    rskowron, Apr 30, 2008
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  2. rskowron

    rskowron Notebook Guru

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    I just want to add a few caveats to this method. You need to know that if you do restore from the hidden partition, you will probably go back to what the laptop was when you first bought it. No programs, updates, etc., except what Averatec gave you. This is really a fall back if pretty much all else fails. Hopefully, you have a good backup to restore to once the Op. Sys and all is re-running. However, there are a wealth of things to try before going this route. (Thanks to the reminder from Jim at Serenity Consulting).

    The Phoenix recover pro can also store more current backup info so it might be important to read the manual and use it (if you don't have any other backup means) before you need it. Personally, I use Norton Ghost and rely on it 100% for disk image backups.

    Rick
     
    rskowron, May 5, 2008
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