Reactivate Acer D2D recovery program after Vista install.

This guide is useful for:

1. Making a backup of your hidden partition.
2. Re-enabling the Acer D2D recovery option after installing Vista or any other operating system that my have wiped out the C: drive.

This was done on my Aspire One 120gb version with windows xp on one partition and with Vista installed on a second partition thus modifying my MBR. This was done within XP but should work within Vista too.

Please note:
During this exercise I noticed that you cannot access the hidden partition if your master boot record is the original. You can change the “Type” but the drive will remain hidden even with D2D disabled. It appears that the original MBR will always hide the partition. So it would be wise to make your backup while your still in the non original version of windows xp or Vista.

1.Disable the D2D recovery option within the bios.
2.Download, unzip and launch partedit32 (http://laptop-support.net/index.php/Dow ... artedit32/) You have to register to the site to download but maybe someone is nice enough to upload for us
3.Identify the Pqservice partition by its size and description. On my Acer Aspire One 120gb XP version it is partition 1 and at the bottom within the partition information box it reads “Compaq diagnostics (Lands), 5992 MB”.
4.Point your mouse cursor over the column “Type” and go down to your partition that was identified above and click in the box occupied by the two digit number (my two digit number is 12 but it could be different on other Aspire Ones). Replace that number with “0C” (that is zero with a capital C and do not add the quotation marks). 0C should be red but click on “Save Changes” at the bottom right. Say yes to the pop up box telling you that your about to make changes to drive one. The “0C” should turn black.
5.Reboot the computer.
6.Open up my computer and you will notice a new drive labeled “PQSERVICE”. This drive has 3.75GB of information occupying it. Might be a good time to make a dvd backup.
7.Locate 2 files, “MBRwrWin.exe and RTMBR.bin”. The case size makes a big difference for step 10.
8.Click “start”, click “Run” and type cmd. Change the drive focus to the letter of your PQSERVICE DRIVE . Type X: and press enter. X is your PQSERVice Drive letter (For me it was the letter E but for others it should be letter D).
9.“WARNING. Only do the next step if your 100% sure you want to reinstall the original operating system or a new one. During my test I discovered that you will screw up the master boot record and not be able to boot back into your operating system due to the original master boot record being copied to the active partition.” You will encounter a black screen telling you that your operating system install is bad”.
10.Now type “MBRwrWin.exe install RTMBR.bin” at the command prompt. (It is very important to observe the case type and do not use the quotation marks).
You should see:
Searching for free space . . . 1 2
Find a free sector at sector 2, move old MBR there.
Moving previous MBR . . . OK
Installing MBR . . . OK
11.Close the command prompt window and restart.
12.Access the bios to reactivate the D2D option. Exit saving changes.
13.Press “Alt key + F10 to access the Acer recovery program and follow the prompts to reload your original operating system image.

I give credit to the following link, http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Repair ... &id=794500. This information was modified to help Aspire one users due to slightly different information. I used 0C instead of 07 for the drive type and this guide has mbrwrdos.exe instead of MBRwrWin.exe which confused the heck out of me.

 

Thanks ALOT! You really saved me :=) Worked like a charm

I'd like to add something though. At least in Windows Vista I had to run CMD as administrator to make it work (when I tried without it gave me an error message)

 

ok, i have vista installed. but that ptedit32 DOES NOT work for me. i have partition magic 8 which seems to be the latest on there websight. but it's a incompatible program. i even installed the program and still can't get ptedit to work. so what's the trick? i've tried to run the icon. and i've tried to make it work through the cmd prompt. i get the same error.

 

nevermind. figured it out. the first step should be to let everyone know that they need to turn user accounts off inside vista. then ptedit will kick in. also. i had partition magic software. i got the ptedit off of that. and it's 490 kbs. all those others i tried to get off the internet were either dead ends. or smaller files that wouldn't work. and as far as the changing types. i couldn't figure out what the previous poster did. but i found another websight. he changed the first type to 07. the second type below was changed to 0C. the first two types can't be the same type or it won't work. you'll be stuck in a bootup loop in erecovery. and only way out is to reinstall vista again and start over.

i've gone through the dead screen experience. reflash the bios. and i've gone through lost recovery experience. i finally have factory OS back. WHAT A PAIN IN THE ARSE just to try vista. let this be a learning experience to us all. never had an acer before but this netbook thing sure don't like to be screwed with. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE.

 

ok, after getting the factory xp reinstalled. i ran the ptedit again. and it's coming up as 12 for the first type and 07 for the second type. so, anyone trying to get there factory OS reinstalled. try those settings. i'm guessing any settings will probably do the trick. as long as they aren't matching settings. as i posted earlier. my first try with matching settings just put me in a continous erecovery loop.

 

Someone post the file to download .. I can't find the register link on that site.

 

Is this really needed? i mean, if I wanted to recover my Windows Vista shouldn't I just use a USB stick like I did ?

It would be good if I could use that 4gb partition for something else.

 

In order to see the recovery partition in windows, just use Paragon Partition Manager to unhide the partition and then assign a letter. Then you will be able to access it.

 

Hi

I installed WinXP from bootable external DVD writer (usb)

Deleted all three partitions

Recreated one new partition of 7 851 installed WinXP SP2

Used Drive Image to make a clone of hdd

How do I now get d2d to work??

Tried to install erecovery told me to go get lost !!!! :x

 

thanks so much op! I installed xp pro, but left the recovery partition. I tried installing the erecovery software, and it didn't help -- following your guide worked perfectly. Thanks!

 

I installed vista but was unhappy with performance, figured I would go back. Realized the MBR issues and followed the steps above to get D2D working. Issue now is that I can get to eRecovery but it says "partition fail to be formatted". Kind of stuck in a loop as vista will not load and erecovery will not work. Any ideas about this issue? I figure worse case I could make a bootable USB as I did back up the partion. Any ideas?

 

travisc77, I found myself in the same situation as you. Hopefully, you found a solution. If not, I'm posting how I got out of it. I downloaded the Unofficial Aspire One recovery disk that another user posted a link to somewhere in this forum and used it to install Windows XP. Once I had Windows XP running, I ran the command “MBRwrWin.exe install RTMBR.bin” that was mentioned in the first post on this thread. I then restarted the Aspire One and pressed Alt-F10 at the boot screen and entered recovery mode. This time the disk format worked and the recovery process continued as normal. I have no idea what prevented the disk formatting from working prior to installing XP but whatever the XP installation did got it to work. Hope this helps.

 

Legend.. After searching the forum for about 15 mins I found your post and its saved my aa1!!

only thing is the link for ptedit is dead so I had to google for it.

If anyone needs it I've uploaded it to rapidshare: http://rapidshare.com/files/218658342/PTEDIT32.zip

 

7.Locate 2 files, “MBRwrWin.exe and RTMBR.bin”. The case size makes a big difference for step 10.

there is no files with this name in my PQSERVICE Partition !!

my netbook AOD150-1Bk

 

I wrote it in another topic, but no answers:

Has there somebody 160 GiB HDD, and solved the problem? I've tried other methods too, but those was unsuccessful... The "o&o" partition sw can't unhide hidden partition, and the "paragon partition manager" is just trial... :roll: