wyantm06 Posted July 28, 2009 CID Share Posted July 28, 2009 Hello all! I have a quick question if anyone wouldn't mind helping me out with. I am trying to reformat a Acer 5515 and the eRecovery isn't working. It was deleted, and so was anything else Acer preinstalled on the Laptop. Yepp, it sucks because when I try using a windows vista basic disc it says something about not being able to install the os because of the version of some sort...I donno it's confusing!! How can I format the HDD's (Acer has dual HDD it seems...) and then install vista via disc?? Thanks for any help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starship_troopers Posted July 28, 2009 CID Share Posted July 28, 2009 acer probably doesnt have dual hard drives probably just one disc partitioned into two peices. most laptops do that...there is also a hidden partition probably about 5 gigs or so in size... its a hidden partition so unless you used bot and nuke or went into some great detail to delete every partition (formatting alone wont show it most of the time) its still there. it has all of your recovery information on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommie gorman Posted July 28, 2009 CID Share Posted July 28, 2009 Mine is that way too. I have a 640 GB drive. One is Partition C, one is D Recovery, the other is I data. And I is 298, D is 14.8 GB but only 8 is used for the recovery, and the other 283 is C. Somehow that does not figre up. But thats what it says in computer. emachines and gateway has been that way for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted July 28, 2009 CID Share Posted July 28, 2009 You could try using gparted, download the image (it's a small download), and burn the image, boot with it, and this will allow you to see, edit, and place flags on partitions that are still on the Hdd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shug7272 Posted July 28, 2009 CID Share Posted July 28, 2009 I have an acer laptop, as soon as I got home I made a driver disk, formatted the hard drive and downloaded Windows Vista Lite off of BT. DL the same version of windows you have now, ROM/Retail, and use your windows key that came with your Acer, then activate. It will work fine and you are not doing anything illegal as you are using your legal key on the same version of the software. That is what I would suggest. Sped mine up about 30% too. Vista lite is great, it is only about 300 MB and is fast as shit. I also partitioned my HDD. ] DBAN is free and will format your hard drive for you. Once it does it there is no getting the info back though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gohaun Posted July 29, 2009 CID Share Posted July 29, 2009 I was wondering if there is a way to pull the hidden recovery partition and burn it as an ISO? Have a friend that let some crazy "pc guy" install his own version of xp on his machine. He didnt delete that recovery partition, i was able to find it. But it wont boot into it, and he doesnt have any CDs or DVDs that have anything for the OS. Any help would work. (Also it is an Acer desktop) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coknuck Posted July 29, 2009 CID Share Posted July 29, 2009 Welcome to the forum! You can try ALT+F10 or CTRL+F10 during the initial boot cycle - this will prompt the laptop to access the recovery partition on the hard drive. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gohaun Posted July 29, 2009 CID Share Posted July 29, 2009 I think i did do that, but when i went to recovery the info, it wouldnt install cause the version on the system was newer then the recovery one, which i that was odd. Anything else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted July 29, 2009 CID Share Posted July 29, 2009 If you spend a bit of time on this, I'm sure if the data is valuable, then you'll get it. There's a program called winimage , I used it once to make an ".img" and it worked as it said. It's a trial period, but you have 30 days. Give it a shot, read a little first. Or I have another one you might try, called "DiskImg" , it's as an attachment at the bottom. Always scan for any nasties before opening, I have them stored on a mac HDD, so I can't tell you. I have used it before, and no problems, but be safe anyhow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coknuck Posted July 29, 2009 CID Share Posted July 29, 2009 Scaned it with Nod32 and Malwarebytes and they say its clean! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gohaun Posted July 30, 2009 CID Share Posted July 30, 2009 now i cant seem to even find the "hidden partition" Any ideas on software for that? Thanks again for all the help everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted July 30, 2009 CID Share Posted July 30, 2009 now i cant seem to even find the "hidden partition" Any ideas on software for that? Thanks again for all the help everyone. You could try using gparted , it's a Linux partition manager. Download it, burn it, and boot to it. But be careful, it's a powerful tool, and can, and will, erase, delete any and all data. Simply . Read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra_Pilot Posted July 30, 2009 CID Share Posted July 30, 2009 Why not do this, open the following url and order the recovery disks for your unit? https://secure.tx.acer.com/RCDB/Main.aspx?brand=acer That will get you the OS , programs and all the drivers.and on top of it all you will be legal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gohaun Posted July 30, 2009 CID Share Posted July 30, 2009 Thank you for the programs, and thanks for the link. But i do have a legal copy of vista for it, i just need to get to the erecovery part so i can do a clean install. I was hoping not to pay $20 for something that i should already have access to. Thanks again, ill play around and see if i can find it. Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra_Pilot Posted July 30, 2009 CID Share Posted July 30, 2009 You may of had access to the recovery stuff but you state you can't access it now so that is water under the bridge. Get the recovery disk's and you will have what you need. Some times a few dollars spent is worth a lot of simplicity over looking at just finding the drivers or finding some one who has the recovery disks and will make a copy and then getting them to you. Besides the recovery disk will make the secondary partition and the puter will look like it did when you purchased it. Sure you will need to reload those after purchase programs but that would be needed any way. So cut out coffee , cigarettes or those energy drinks for a couple days and have less grief. Keep life simple Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shug7272 Posted July 30, 2009 CID Share Posted July 30, 2009 Thank you for the programs, and thanks for the link. But i do have a legal copy of vista for it, i just need to get to the erecovery part so i can do a clean install. I was hoping not to pay $20 for something that i should already have access to. Thanks again, ill play around and see if i can find it. Brian As I said before DBAN should do that for you. I used it on my acer and wiped it all out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommie gorman Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 As I said before DBAN should do that for you. I used it on my acer and wiped it all out. If I am not mistaken, he is trying to access it, not erase it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gohaun Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 True i need access to the data on the Erecovery part. Then i could use the DBAN, and that will reinstall the erecovery if im not mistaken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shug7272 Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 I must not understand. I thought he wanted to access the erecovery to erase it and do a clean install. He said he has a copy of Vista to do a clean install with so why the need to access the erecovery? You can get the drivers and anything needed from acer.com so I dont understand what needs to be done in the erecovery partition. If by clean install we are talking about just reinstalling the acer crapware filled OS then I misunderstood. I thought the end desired result was installing a clean, retail version of windows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gohaun Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 My main objection at this time is to get to the erecovery partition so that i can reinstall it on the machine. Right now i dont have money for the CD or I would just buy that and get it over with. So i need a program that can see the hidden partition, and then make a backup of it (ISO or RAR) whatever will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coknuck Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 Give this a try it might help you. I used it when I installed Windows 7 so I would have the utility's. http://support.acer-euro.com/empowering_technology/utility2.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diehard Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 Have you got a FD ? or a friend with an external one if so create a bootable floppy disk (or download a win98 version boot disk, works the best) boot into that and use FDISK, this will show all partions and you can delete them it will also format your HD from a RAW format into FAT 32 then use the Vista disk this will then format it again into NTFS and should install But remember that it will NOT install all Hardware you will probably need to go the the ACER web site to download the drivers for your machine to get it fully working Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gohaun Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 Awesome idea on the utility stuff. But i still need a program that will see the hidden partition and let me copy it. I have a win98 startup disk, but i need to copy the partition with the recovery info on it first so i have it before i "Fdisk" it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 Awesome idea on the utility stuff. But i still need a program that will see the hidden partition and let me copy it. I have a win98 startup disk, but i need to copy the partition with the recovery info on it first so i have it before i "Fdisk" it. I find it intriguing that gparted doesn't see it. Iv'e never had it NOT see any partition. from my experience, if gparted doesn't see it, it's not there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coknuck Posted July 31, 2009 CID Share Posted July 31, 2009 Go to the page I gave you ( http://support.acer-euro.com/empowering_technology/utility2.html ) download this and install it first then the erecovery and it should let you make a recovery disk with all the drivers and it will be stock just like when you bought it. First: Acer Empowering Technology Framework Version 2.03.2015 (install this utility first) Second:Acer eRecovery Management Version 2.0.2021 Edit: If the recovery partition is still there this should work!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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