Recovery environment winXP

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matt.huck

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Hi all,

Like an idiot I have had my One less than 3 hours before stuffing it up.

I installed Vista on it (worked well) as a trial before I really go about putting data etc on teh device for real. Was also gonna try out osx.

However, when I then went to do the Acer recovery (Alt and F10), I have overwritten the MBR and it wont boot.

Anyone know how to copy an MBR from an A1 and post it here and explain how I can restore it on to my machine and get teh recovery environment working again. Other alternative fixes also gratefully received!!

Cheers

Matt
 
What exactly were you attempting to do with the "acer recovery"? I'm not sure what that is meant for... especially depending on what kind of OS your One came with. The MBR really just holds partition and boot information(at least that's my hack way of thinking about it). Boot from a usb device(HP USB boot thing or a live CD) and format it to whatever you're liking is. FAT32 I suppose, if you're aiming at XP install.
 
Thanks for reply

My A1 came with XP sp3 preinstalled - it is the HDD 120gb machine.

I was playing around with other OS thinking that once I finished I could use the erecovery to set machine back to factory default install (the XP setup)

You are supposed to be able to get the recovery to start by holding Alt F10 during POST. However, this seems to rely on the hidden poartition with the recovery files being booted?? I am assuming the direction of this is stored in some files on the main partition or in teh MBR as it doesn't work now (after teh Vista install)

Any ideas?
 
hmm. So when you did the XP install do you know if it messed with the recovery partition(like took over the whole 120GB disk)? Once, some time ago, I worked on a computer that after it got past the bios screen claimed that the MBR was bad...... I booted a standard XP install CD and made it to the first screen where it asked about the "recovery mode/option" ... something of that sort, where it then put me at some limited command prompt. One of the things I searched for and found(using the 'dir/p' command) a "mbrtool" or something “fixboot”... yeah, maybe that. Anyhow, without having to reformat or re-install, the non-working machine was afterwards working as if it never had the little problem. Just my two cents at this point without any idea as to whether you have an xp cd or anything... I hope it goes well for you.
 
solved it :)

Messed around on net and found some good pages on how to do it - involved using PTedit32

quote"

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!
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."

This was by a site - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthr ... =erecovery

seemed to get the access back to the alt-f10 command on boot. Note - to recover using the built in recovery partition - the main disk needs to be in its orinal partition form (excluding teh recovery one)(so only 1 partition in my case - not the two I had split it to)

Hope that helps someone else sometime - saved me $139 to get Acer support to reformat the drive!
 
I know its an old thread, but i just had to reformat my acer from serious OS problems. This Guide works 100%. saved me big time!
 
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