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OS, backup, and install review

The Acer D2D Erecovery 101

Written by Alan Bradock

Wednesday, 07 May 2008 14:43

Disclaimer: First of all backup your system before launching you in any hazardous operation, some of the operations to come can cause data loss. Any modification and/or damage done on your laptop will be under your responsibility.

As you know now the Acer laptops and those of other manufacturers are now delivered with a restoration system installed in a hidden partition (PQservice for Acer)on your hard disk. Normally this system launches out while pressing simultaneously keys ALT+F10, but sometimes that does not function.

What's the problem?

There are many possible causes, but most common are:

A The function D2D was disabled in the bios.

Solution : Enable the function by pressing F2 during the boot to access the bios menu and change the setting, then reboot and press keys ALT+F10 during the starting of the laptop.

Note : For all the following solutions take into account the Max advice, I quote Max now, a contributor in my site «But I want to mention the way I sorted out the thing, because it's very rarely mentioned on the web.

All the methods to repair the D2D Alt+f10 issue are knowledgeable and smart but all of them forget to say a fundamental thing:

first of all you have to rebuild with a partition soft the D:Acerdata FAT32 empty partition that almost everybody deletes cause is usually empty. Simply doing it, everything turned fine and the recovery worked perfectly. »

Yes much of attempts to restore fail because of this condition.

B An other common problem the Acer Master Boot Record (MBR)is damaged, or replaced by the MBR of another system. You can reinstall the Acer MBR if the partition PQservice is present or if you can have access to the necessary files.

Solutions :

FIRST

On a functional FAT32 Windows system the partition table values are OC or OB for installable FAT32 system files and 12 or 1B for Hidden FAT32 partition, for a NTFS system the known partition table values are O7 for installable NTFS files system and 27 for Acer custom hidden NTFS partition:

1/ Go in the bios and disable the D2D recovery option.

2/ Download partedit32.

3/ Identify the PQservice partition by its size (there is an information box at the bottom of the partedit window) it is the small sized partition approximately 4 to 9 Go.Once made change the type of your partition into 0C(FAT32) or 07(NTFS) and save. Reboot and now you should be able to navigate inside the PQservice partition.

Search for these two files:

mbrwrdos.exe

rtmbr.bin

(The name of these two files can be different sometimes)

When localized open a command prompt windows as an administrator and enter this command "mbrwrdos.exe install rtmbr.bin", to install the Acer MBR. Close the command prompt, reboot again your laptop, reactivate the D2D recovery in the bios. Now ALT+F10 should work and run the Acer Erecovery when the laptop start.

SECOND

Somebody who tried to follow the first method but did not succeed to find the 2 files found another solution to restore the partition.

Use partedit32(available at http://laptop-support.net) to locate the partition pqservice(on aspire 5920g,its the larger 9 gb partition)

Change the partition type to 07(Installable NTFS),reboot.

After reboot,go to the windows computer management and mark the PQservice partition as active then reboot again.

Voila!! You can now proceed to the road to recovery

THIRD

On a nonfunctional Windows system.

Download the Ultimate Boot CD(UBCD) run it choose in the menu:

-Filesystem Tools

-Boot Managers

-For me GAG functioned well, but you can choose any of the other boot loader, you will recognize the PQservice by it type(hidden).

Just install any boot loader and use it to boot into the PQservice to start the Erecovery restoring process.

C The last problem: You replaced your hard disc( in this case PQservice is not present any more) or your partition was erased or damaged.

Solution : I hope that you burned the Acer restoration CD/DVD when it had been asked to you at the time of the first use, cause if you did not previously make a backup of your laptop by making a disc image, it will not be possible to use the Acer Erecovery.

Let us give the last words to Max:

«Problem Sorted Alan.

And you're right that an external drive for data backup it's all important. Yes I have it and backed-up my data before starting messing up... »

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Two new simple methods, to retrieve your eRecovery password.

Written by Alan Bradock

Sunday, 13 January 2008 13:54

Two new simple methods, to retrieve your eRecovery password.

Like many others, the first time that you launch eRecovery on your portable laptop you have use a password,

then the months the years passed, and you need eRecovery, but now you forgot the password...

Note : The method can be very different with your model, but the principle remains the same one,

there must be a file which stores your password, and it must be in one of the most recent files since you changed your password.

Note 2: Vista compatibility

This problem is solved very easily, makes a right click on the partedit32 icon, goes in properties,

clicks on the tab compatibility and set the compatibility on winxp or win98.

For Vista and Xp add run as an administrator.

Method n°1 :

Download Partedit32 launch the program and change the type of the partition pqservice from 27 to 7.

Restart the computer press F2 on boot to enter the bios, and then disable the option (d2drecovery).

Restart and press F8 several times until you reach the Windows recovery menu, choose the option : command prompt.

The windows open and now there is a letter for a new drive, x for example.

Type "dir" and seek the file "aimdrs.dat". Then type this command at the prompt : "Copy aimdrs.dat C:"

Restart your computer normally, open a notepad browse for your file open it and recover your password.

Do not forget to restore your partition pqservice in its initial state with partedit32,

and to reactivate the D2D recovery option in the bios.

method 2 :

With a Linux boot CD:

Make :

Cd /mnt

mkdir acer

mount - T vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/acer

cat /tools/aimdrs.dat

Here is your password.

Warning : for more recent laptop with disc SATA disc replace "hda1" with "sda1".

The PARTEDIT32 software is available for download at Laptop Support Community after a free registration.

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How to Repair the Acer D2D Recovery

Written by Alan Bradock

Tuesday, 23 October 2007 10:05

This tutorial can also help to do it on other computer brands

Disclaimer : First of all you must be aware that some of the operations to come can cause irreversible change on your hard disk, I recommend to you and I will never make it enough make a backup of your system before launching you in any hazardous operation. Any damage and/or modification done on your system will be under your whole responsibility. The following procedures were done on a Acer Aspire 5102wlmi and some also functioned on a Dell Inspiron 9400/1705.

As you know, the Acer computers and those of other manufacturers are now delivered with a system of restoration installed in a hidden partition of your hard disk. This system launches out while pressing keys ALT+F10 simultaneously. And sometimes for various reasons this system ceases functioning.

The first cause often comes owing to the fact that function D2D Recovery is disable in the bios (menu principal).

The solution : enable the function and try to press keys ALT+F10 during the starting of the computer.

The second cause : in this case hidden partition PQSERVICE was erased or damaged, or you replaced the disc and in this case it is not present.

The solution : If you did not previously make a backup of your system by making an image disc. It will not be possible to use the D2D recovery. Your only hope will be to have in your possession Acer Recovery CD/DVD.

And the third causes : the Acer Master Boot Record (MBR)was damaged or replaced by non-Acer MBR. As long as partition PQSERVICE is present or that you can put the hand on the necessary Acer files you can reinstall the MBR of Acer.

The solution :

First method : on a functional Windows system:

1 disable the D2D recovery option of the bios.

2 open a Windows session with an account administrator.

3 Download, unzip and launch partedit32(registration required for download).

4 Identify the Pqservice partition by its size (at the bottom of the partedit window there is a partition information box) it is a small sized partition approximately 2 to 6 Go.Once made change the type of your partition into 0C and save. Restart and open a session with an administrator account, you should be able to navigate to the PQservice partition. Seek these two files mbrwrdos.exe and rtmbr.bin once localised open a command prompt and launch this command mbrwrdos.exe install rtmbr.bin, this will install the Acer MBR. Close the command prompt window restart again Windows go into the bios and reactivate the D2D recovery. Now ALT+F10 should launch Acer recovery at the starting of the computer.

Second method : On a nonfunctional Windows system.

For that you must use a Linux distribution (for me Mandriva provided all the tools necessary).

1 Boot on the Mandriva install CD/DVD the boot menu will give you the possibility to repair or to restore the Windows boot loader.

2 If that is not enough launch an installation of linux(this will be an occasion to test this terrible OS) and choose LILO as boot loader(a boot menu that allow you to choose between several operating systems) once finished the installation. Restart your computer in the boot loader menu system you will have at least 2 Windows options the first generally point to PQservice choose it and you will boot directly into acer D2D recovery.

The last solution is the simplest one, just note that during the Linux installation you will have to resize your Windows partition to create a place for a new Linux partition it is the most perilous part because irreversible, therefore take your precautions at this time.

To download partedit32 visit The Laptop Support Community, You can also find there How To retrieve the Acer Erecovery Password and many other useful articles.

Comments (19)

Hide your data

Written by Victor P

Sunday, 20 May 2007 17:23

This article is to help those whom need to hide and protect their data from virus, hackers, and other problems. The idea is simple since that manufacturers are using hidden partitions to secures sensible data like the operating system recovery, drivers and utility, why not use a hidden partition to store personal data and protect them from virus and hackers.

This process Will protect your data from a lot of things, but not from format or failure of your hard-drive, and also it is free and easy to use, for this operation you will need :

a partitioning software, Partedit32

OK let's go with the partitioning software create a new hard drive and define its size, when ready run partedit32, choose one of the partition by selecting the column type I suggest that you remember the exact size of your partition to recognize her, the partedit program display information about the partition in a small window named partition information.

Now that you have retrieve the drive that you just create go to the column "type" note the actual type of your drive (generally 07 for NTFS and 0C OR 0B for fat32) and change it by 12 or 1B for FAT32 or 17 for NTFS then save and restart.

After restart go to "my computer" and you will see that your new drive have disappear, to make it appear again you just have to launch partedit32, and set back the type to its original status.

Partedit32 is available as a free download at laptop-support.net in the members download area after free registration. (partedit32 is not compatible with vista)

After my first article on the hidden partition I realized that the solution that I brought was rather difficult for the newbies, I thus sought and tried out various solutions and programs until I find this terrible little software, I named PARTEDIT32.

This small freeware software will allow you to make visible your partition in some clicks of mouse and on the fly under Windows XP.

Just unzip and launch Partedit32 the user interface opens, simple but effective if you have more than one hard disk, choose the hard disk where your hidden partition is in the Hard Disk menu, then look in your partitions table at the column TYPE , Partedit32 has a list of the various types of partition, you can reach it by clicking the button SET TYPE.

In this example with a Acer laptop the name of the partition is pqservice and its type is 12, changes it by type 07, and save.

Now you just have to restart your computer, enter into "my computer" you have done it, now you can see the hidden partition pqservice. If you do not see the hidden partition repeat the operation but disable before the D2D recovery software into the bios menu. To open the bios hit the F2 key during the boot (note this is for Phoenix Bios check your user manual for other bios). Go to the main menu set the D2D recovery to disable, save the change restart and you have done it.

The PARTEDIT32 software is available for download at laptop support after a free registration.

After that you just have to reverse the operation to hide the pqservice partition. Note that if you want to secure documents or software you can create a partition, save your goods into and hide this partition by using partedit32.