problem with eRecovery restore on aod255e

new to the forums. hey! anyways...
when i click to use the restore function on the erecovery manager to reinstall windows 7 starter on this netbook everything seems to work fine, asks if i am sure i want to run, then asks to restart the computer, OK. it restarts and loads up fine but sends me right back to my login screen.. i have used it once before and everything went okay but this time it seems during the restart, forgets that it even ran it in the first place.

Acer Aspire One AOD255E 1gig ram, 1.6 intel atom.. any help on how to fix this or to help me bypass the recovery management entirely to reinstall would be awesome.

probably already know but this netbook has no cd drive...

im pulling my hair out with this one! please HELP me!

 

Have you tried the Alt+F10 (at bootup) method of accessing eRecovery, rather than accessing it from the GUI ?

see here:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5827957_use-erecovery-acer-aspire-one.html

 

i didn't even know about that, awesome thank you

 

You're more than welcome

If you think about it, there would need to be a way to access eRecovery if Windows was unbootable

Good luck.

 

i tried it but all i got was a black screen with a flashing _ ?????????

 

OK, D2D (disk-to-disk) Recovery may not be enabled in your BIOS

Here's the relevant section from the user guide

So turn on your Aspire One, and when you see the Acer logo, hit F2 to enter the BIOS.

Once in the BIOS, use the right arrow key to select the "Main" page (at the top)

Use the down arrow to select D2D Recovery, and change it to "Enabled"

Exit the BIOS saving the changes

When the system restarts, and you see the Acer logo again, hit Alt+F10 (at the same time) to start eRecovery.

 

the d2d was already enabled blahhh could it be anything else?

 

Either your PQSERVICE (hidden recovery) partition is screwed, or you're not doing it right.

Turn on the PC .. as soon as you see the Acer logo screen, hold the Alt key, and keep pressing the F10 key

It can be quite fiddly sometimes to get the timing correct.

 

say my pqservice is screwed what does that entail on fixing it?

 

Getting a recovery CD from Acer .. or having them re-image the drive .. or getting hold of a Win7 Disk and license .. or installing Linux.

Those are the "proper" options, but leave it with me and I'll see if I can find another way to access/boot the PQSERVICE partition.

It would however be nice to know if the PQSERVICE partition actually exists .. do you know how to create a Linux LiveUSB stick ?

 

that i do not.. and i dont have a usb stick at the moment

 

Let me get back to you tomorrow .. I've a couple of ideas I want to research.

Did this PC come with the current OS installed .. or has someone installed it later .. this is important, as they may have overwritten the PQSERVICE partition ?

 

for sure! thank you

 

it came with the OS on it, but we had to run the erecovery once before

 

Seems it's possible (if the PQSERVICE partition still exists) to create a linux LiveUSB, then use Gparted to change the boot flag to the PQSERVICE partition, then just reboot, and eRecovery will start.

But I want to research this further before telling you how .. and look for other solutions.

[EDIT]

That's fine .. eRecovery *shouldn't* have damaged the PQSERVICE partition, so hopefully it's still there .. just not bootable for some reason

I'll get back to you tomorrow

 

Hmm .. Without knowing the PQSERVICE partition is present and undamaged, anything I tell you to do from this point would risk leaving you with an unbootable PC.

I can only point out what I've already mentioned.

a) A Linux LiveUSB would be handy to check the PQSERVICE partition actually exists.

b) There is a "chance" (but I cannot confirm this works) that using gparted from the Linux LiveUSB to move the boot flag from the C:/ partition to the PQSERVICE partition .. then rebooting .. may cause the pqservice (eRecovery) to start.

You may also want to take a look at this page:
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/the-impo...-pqservice-partition-and-mbr-on-a-new-laptop/
(including the comments)

But I cannot advise further unless you FULLY understand the risks of breaking the Windows 7 installation that is currently there.

 

hummm.. do you think their is any way to make a recovery disk using daemon and mount it as a disc image, then running the recovery threw that?

 

AFAIK, there is no way to manualy make a recovery disk from the PQSERVICE partition.

Is there not an option in eRecovery (in Windows) to create a "Recovery" DVD(s) ?

Be aware .. the option to create recovery disks is usually a 1 time only affair.

[EDIT]

If you have an external USB HDD, you could use something like Clonezilla to create an image of your HDD in its current state .. so if anything you tried made things worse .. you could always get back to where you are now .. that would give you the freedom to experiment.

May I ask why you need to use eRecovery in the first place, if Win7 is working ?

 

First see my response above.

OK, remember what I said about using gparted from a Linux LiveUSB to move the boot flag (which is the same as setting a partition as "active") .. well see the third posting of this topic:
http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/279477-acer-recovery-disc.html
where someone suggests using this free application (bootable CD)
http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html
to set the PQSERVICE partition as "active", then reboot .. which should start the eRecovery wizard.
You then may have to use it again to make the C:/ partition "active" after the restore.

But I must point out .. YOU TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK .. personally I'd get an external USB HDD and use Clonezilla to create an image of your internal HDD, and save it on the external HDD, just in case.

But unless you know that the PQSERVICE partition actually exists, this may all be academic.

[EDIT]

It *may* be that a SuperGrub 2 disk may be able to find and boot the PQSERVICE recovery partition .. but I can find no info on this, so don't know one way or the other .. and it would still be "at your own risk"
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/

There are any number of things you could "try" (as long as the recovery partition still exists) .. but if I were you I'd be happier with an image of the HDD "as it is now" before trying them

 

it was just time to do a clean, just running slowly and what not. hahah well i figured it out.. i just used f8 at post, it had an option called "repair windows" and after it loaded that the menu had 7 or 8 options, memory dig, erecovery, restore ect... lol thanks for your help man.. super appreciated can i +rep you or something?