Install Factory default, eRecovery

[pupples]

This is a guide for those lost souls who have problems booting their eRecovery Partition with the factory installation image. It does not matter what the factory defaul OS is, as this only starts the recovery, and the recovery reinstalls everything.

What you need:
- Have the hidden partition previously unspoiled, at least working. It is usually called "PQSERVICE" without this you cannot use this guide
- os needed: Windows XP(should work with vista to) on a partition C:/ . c:/ also needs to have enough harddisk space to install your particular OS, for vista i suggest at least 10+ gig, xp 5gig+ (to be safe)
- I would think that PTEDIT32 is not supported by 64bit os's but if you find a similar program, please reply
- look through replies to this post for more tips!

[B]Supported by models:
- Aspire 5610 default os: Vista
- Acer 5101 with Win XP home.
- Look through other peoples postings for models supported.

1. Download: ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/PTEDIT32.zip

2. Launch PTEDIT in WIN XP and change the partition that has a 12 in it's boot to 07. Save and exit. Restart PC

3. Search for mbrwrwin and rtmbr.bin and find them on F: (or at least i did, it is the hidden partition's driveletter. Copy both to c:\

4. run cmd(command) and go to c:\ (use cd\)

5. type this: mbrwrwin install rtmbr.bin

6. press enter, and let it do its stuff(this installs the alt+f10 option)

7. restart PC and press alt+f10 at post screen, or if you like me do not know what postscreen is, just press alt+f10 continuously from the first booting you see. If it don't work, make sure d2d recovery is enabled in bios

Factory recovery should begin and work perfectly. For me it installed Windows Vista HP with all the "goodies" that came with it. (oh sorrow!)

But this proves that you can install a different OS on the computer and still get it back to factorydefault. My warranty says that the warranty gets broken if you install a different OS on the acer computer. But this installs all back to normal.

If you looked for a way to delete the partition, i guess the easiest way is to pop inn a windows XP installation cd and delete it from the XP setup.


I like to thank Creatz for making his post containing this guide in a much more hairyer way.

Please Feedback on what acer computers this works on, so i can make a list.

[Sybarite]

well man....if u hav a xp installed...then u just download Partion Magic 7.0 and make the recovery partition active...system will reboot and no need for alt+f10...the system itself boots into factory partition and starts installation !!!

I have done dis on my Acer 5674..it works perfectly..

[Incursis]

Does this method really work? I have tried it on two laptops and I get errors before and after the recovery process:
* Selecting target partition gives some Media Error then I get prompts for Abort, Retry and Fail.
* Post-restore file copying gets stuck at 40%
* None of the Acer programs (ePowerManagement, GridVista, etc) get installed after recovery. Seems like that custom setup launcher thats supposed to automatically launch doesn't launch at all.

[pupples]

well man....if u hav a xp installed...then u just download Partion Magic 7.0 and make the recovery partition active...system will reboot and no need for alt+f10...the system itself boots into factory partition and starts installation !!!

I have done dis on my Acer 5674..it works perfectly..

I tried that, didnt work. It failed on 0% recovery. I tried my method, worked flawlessly

Does this method really work? I have tried it on two laptops and I get errors before and after the recovery process:
* Selecting target partition gives some Media Error then I get prompts for Abort, Retry and Fail.
* Post-restore file copying gets stuck at 40%
* None of the Acer programs (ePowerManagement, GridVista, etc) get installed after recovery. Seems like that custom setup launcher thats supposed to automatically launch doesn't launch at all.

It works, this method makes alt+f10 work at startup, and it boots it from the right partition. but like i stated, make sure this is the factory default partition, not something you have tampered with, or if you made your own d2d image?

[pellpel]

What you need:
- Have the hidden partition previously unspoiled, at least working. without this you cannot use this guide

Ok, I've installed XP and I deleted my C:/ drive. Bassically creating new partition C:/ and installed XP. So does this mean that my hidden partition is spoiled can not be done? I want my Vista back..

- have the rest of the harddrive devided into to partitions, equally sized and formated in the NTFS format(c:\ and notF:\ )

How many partitions should I create? 2, 3, 4?

[pupples]

Ok, I've installed XP and I deleted my C:/ drive. Bassically creating new partition C:/ and installed XP. So does this mean that my hidden partition is spoiled can not be done? I want my Vista back..

That depends. go to control panel->administrative tools->computer managment->Disk Managment and look for the hidden partition. It will not be named, and be EISA configured. If you still have it. the guide should work

How many partitions should I create? 2, 3, 4?

I used 2, Because the "recovery" stuff in vista acer OEM needs 2 partitions.
so: 1hidden partition(Which we dont touch), and 2 NTFS partitions(C: and Somethingelse

[ruisu]

Thank you, I don't know what I would have done without this!

[hkeyzer]

Works on Acer 5101 with Win XP home.

[iska]

Hi there, very good thread here. I bought (unfortunately) Acer Aspire 5315, and first thing I did was to nuke vista and install xp... I've had sooo many problems with XP, but have solved almost all of them... Last thing I messed up was the touchpad... doesnt work at all anymore, so I thought I'll try to recover to the factory state (I saw the hidden partition and started snooping around)... So far I havent been able to recover... I followed these instructions, but when I Alt+F10 during boot, the computer starts beeping like mad, so I have to kill it asap I have once got to the "rescue boot mode" by activating to PQSERVICE partition from partitionmagic, but then I got a weird message saying:
Cannot find file c:\D2D\Images\*.WSI when try to determine UI
language (and I couldnt do anything, there was Okay button or something, but pad nor keyboard didnt work...) Any ideas what to do? I'm sad my 14-day return-warranty is gone already :/

edit:
btw, I havent touched the PQSERVICE partition sofar, only set it once to active and once from 12 to 07 with the PTEDIT32...

[hkeyzer]

Touch pad not working - tried "Fn" - "F7" ? - enables/disables touch pad.

Also since you're using partition magic, look through pqservice partition and you should find a file "stcdboot" - a bootable image file which you can use partition magics file browser to copy to a non hidden partition and then burn using magiciso to a disc, gicing you a bootable disc.