how is this accomplished? it's got to be on the hard drive somewhere ready to be burned or written to a cd or pen-drive; right? any help will be appreciated.
You can get to Acer eRecovery system by Pressing ALT+F10 when booting the system(when you see the acer logo)
that will bring you to the restore section. It only allows you to Restore the system or Reinstall the Programs/drivers.