Help! recovery issue in my new Aspire 5920G

[numen]

I just got a new Aspire 5920G yesterday. Before I go anyfurther, I planed to make a set of recovery DVDs using Acer's eRecovery Management utility. But when I tried to burn the factory default into DVD, I was prompted an error, which said something like "please insert a blank CD/DVD into ...". The disks are good, so is the DVD writer (already tried it before making the recovery DVDs). Anyone has idea what this problem is?

Then I want to try the Alt+F10 feature to restore the system, but it didn't work either. Now the situation is I can use the machine, but once I need to restore the system, I have no way to do it.

My hidden partition is still there intact. I remembered (not sure) that someone here once said this Alt+F10 can be recovered by using some files in this hidden partition. Could anyone give me some help here?

Thanks!
Numen

[Threader]

Alt-F10 didn't work for me either.

Boot into Vista and use the Acer widgets "Acer Erecovery Management"

This worked for me. I chose restore to factory defaults and then the laptop restarted and restored itself. Fixed my software HD-DVD player issue I had.

[bigspin]

Originally Posted by numen

I just got a new Aspire 5920G yesterday. Before I go anyfurther, I planed to make a set of recovery DVDs using Acer's eRecovery Management utility. But when I tried to burn the factory default into DVD, I was prompted an error, which said something like "please insert a blank CD/DVD into ...". The disks are good, so is the DVD writer (already tried it before making the recovery DVDs). Anyone has idea what this problem is?

Then I want to try the Alt+F10 feature to restore the system, but it didn't work either. Now the situation is I can use the machine, but once I need to restore the system, I have no way to do it.

My hidden partition is still there intact. I remembered (not sure) that someone here once said this Alt+F10 can be recovered by using some files in this hidden partition. Could anyone give me some help here?

Thanks!
Numen

Are you sure u didn't delete anything To use D2D Recovery you need to enable it from Bios first

[numen]

Originally Posted by bigspin

Are you sure u didn't delete anything To use D2D Recovery you need to enable it from Bios first

When I first started my machine, I went to disk management, and found that other than the expected hiddend partition (about 10G), C and D drive, there is one volumn about 1.3G without any use, I delete the volumn and merge it into D drive. Is this action related to the lost Alt+F10 effect?

I can confirm that the bios option regarding d2d recovery is enabled. Also I also tried to recover using eRecovery, aftering giving the password, the machine restarts to vista as normal rather than restore the machine.

Does anyone know why I got the error when I try to burn the factory default to DVDs? I tried to reinstall eRecovery to solve this, but cannot eRecovery from Acer's ftp download place for 5920. And the eRecovery install application feature doesn't contain eRecovery as well (contains other acer softwares though).

Thanks!

[bigspin]

Originally Posted by numen

When I first started my machine, I went to disk management, and found that other than the expected hiddend partition (about 10G), C and D drive, there is one volumn about 1.3G without any use, I delete the volumn and merge it into D drive. Is this action related to the lost Alt+F10 effect?

I can confirm that the bios option regarding d2d recovery is enabled. Also I also tried to recover using eRecovery, aftering giving the password, the machine restarts to vista as normal rather than restore the machine.

Does anyone know why I got the error when I try to burn the factory default to DVDs? I tried to reinstall eRecovery to solve this, but cannot eRecovery from Acer's ftp download place for 5920. And the eRecovery install application feature doesn't contain eRecovery as well (contains other acer softwares though).

Thanks!

Go to C Drive and see ACER Folder It Contain E recovery Copy I think (You need to uninstall empower tools b4 u re install recovery software.

[numen]

I managed to recover my machine by using the following steps.

1. Run MBRwrWin.exe from C:\Acer\Empowering Technology\eRecovery in command line with flag -unhide 0 to make the hidden recovery partition visible.

mbrwrwin -unhide 0

2. Go to disk management to make the recovery partition active.

3. Restart the machine and the recovery session automatically starts.

4. After the recovery, eRecovery can create factory default DVDs (still don't know why it didn't work before).

Now, the Alt+F10 still doesn't work on my machine, but at least I have a set of recovery DVDs so that I can do the recovery when needed.

Thanks for the advice from bigspin and Threader anyway.

[davidb4775]

Had the similar problem and found the fix for my machine. My Acer came with a unlettered, unnamed partition (presumably for restoring), a C drive and a D drive (60gig). Didn't want the D, so I zapped it in vistas disk manager and did a restore. Vista reloaded but the machine would hang when it attempted to reload the Acer software. Mine would hang in the eRecovery module, the 8th of 10 modules.

I recreated a 10g D drive, called it "DATA" (its original name) and did the restore. Worked fine and everything loaded. It seems that the Acer utility software looks for information on the D drive during the install process. Hope that helps.

[hardtackle]

I had the same issues. The laptop went back for a replacement HD-DVD drive problem solvled.

The alt-F10 issue, well it seems its tricky but just keep tapping the keys and eventaully it will work.

[dannywanny]

I'm also thinking about recovering / reformatting, whatever you want to call it - basically just do a clean wipe and restore it to factory default.

I only see C and D drives - so not sure whether I even have a hidden partition?! So what do I need to do in order to restore to factory default... With old desktops I have always just pressed f10 or f11 (something like that) when the computer is first booting up - will this work? I want it to install Windows Vista again as well as the Acer software which is bundled with the laptop when you get it new.

Has anyone tried / successfully restored to factory default in this way? I just think my laptop has got some real junk on it at the moment, probably bad registry slowing it down, and I fancy a clean start!

[Ilker Ustuner]

Here's the solution I could find for my Acer 5920G to go back to first day status, after trying couple of different methods:

Case: Notebook had initially Windows Vista Home premium. While trying to install another operating system, notebook happened to be not booting, ALT+F10 was not working, harddisk was not formatted therefore recovery partitions still exist.

Step 1: Go to http://gparted-livecd.tuxfamily.org/ and download live CD and write iso to cd. This will create a bootable disk with own operating system (Fluxbox) and partitioning software (Gparted)

Step 2: Go to BIOS of notebook (F2 at startup) and disable D2D recovery (I'm not sure if this is necessary but I did so)

Step 3: Change boot order in BIOS to make CD-ROM as first boot device.

Step 4: Insert your cd and boot the notebook using the CD. A partitioning program will appear when the CD runs properly.

Step 5: Identify your recovery partition (about 9Gb in size and mostly full), use change flags and mark as "boot". Some methods suggest to "unhide" the partition but this software does not show the recovery partition as hidden, I didn't change it but just marked "boot".

Step 6: Shutdown the application, remove the CD and boot.

Step 7: Since you have choosen recovery partition as boot partition the Acer recovery system will start and ask if you would like to return to factory defaults. By doing so, you'll have a clean installation of the original operating system you've received (Windows Vista Home Premium for my case).

Step 8 (Optional): After the recovery is complete, system automatically sets new Vista installation as boot partition, therefore you don't need to change it again. Optionally you may enter to BIOS and change boot sequence to make harddisk as first priority instead of CD-ROM.

Step 9: Enjoy (hopefully) your working notebook and plan about creating recovery CDs sometime (I'm not sure how the recovery CDs will work as I've seen many people complaining about them).

Regards,
Ilker Ustuner