I had to install vista when my win 7 disks failed to do a recovery, when i partitioned my hdd i noticed i still have the hidden partition where the recovery/restore files are for win7; my question is, am i able to retrieve the o/s from the hidden partition and restore win7 even though i overwrote win7 with vista? i tried the ALT+F10 before installing vista and got nowhere with it.
Go to Windows.old, look the program, Acer Empowering Technology > Acer eRecovery Management.
Manual how to use Acer eRecovery Management here:
ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/empowering_technology/NB%20ET2%20user's%20guide/Acer%20eRecovery%20Management%20English.pdf
Have you tried pressing <Alt+F10> at boot up, to goto the Acer eRecovery Management.
Acer Support: Frequently Asked Questions list for How to use Acer eRecovery
You can Order Acer recovery disks from here:
https://secure.tx.acer.com/RCDB/Main.aspx?brand=acer
Another option is to download a win7 iso or borrow a disk from a friend, install the same edition as came preinstalled, then activate with the sticker key.
There are ways to use the restore partition, most notably those using ptedit. It may also be possible to locate the .wim or .swm files in the hidden partition, if they're there you can try applying them with imagex. But these are not one click methods, best is to use theog's suggestions or clean install as I suggested. After that image the install and keep it handy for a restore if required.
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