recovery discs to usb

[mjf]

Download Partition Wizard miniTool (PW is used a lot here) and use the "Explore Partition" option. You can look at all the contents of your recovery partition.

 

[maxseven]

Download Partition Wizard miniTool (PW is used a lot here) and use the "Explore Partition" option. You can look at all the contents of your recovery partition.

Thanks for the tip, I will try it!

 

[j0E]

Hi, Acer has acquired Gateway couple years ago, and in my limited experienceI noticed they share parts (laptop builds) and software.
My Gateway Notebook (just bought it used from ebay and fixed it) has the same equivalent RP as Acer brand with almost the same looks and parts but with different branding and name.

The Recovery Discs has an " ACER" folder to them (located in the PATCH folder)
the FOLDER/File structure of the the RECOVERY DVDS build through gateway recovery tool [available only through laptop original working windows environment] show almost the same redundant structure and they are easily " gatherable"- in my limited experience- into one bootable media ( DVD or USB) [details available on request].

The issue I came across is that when the proprietary MBR is messed up, even though access to RP is granted by making it active ( minitool or active part recovery or acronis disk manager...), it doesn't allow creating rescue media, and it is not able to ACHIEVE a system recovery ( i/O error) = USELESS [because of the OEM MBR destroyed during cloning process)

REgarding accessing the RP : you could use minitool or active recovery partition or many other tools( bootable cd or dvd dongles)[liked active recovery partition windows PE style rescue media], some brands have their RP unhidden and browsable by default through the laptop windows, and you can see all those " image files" and work with them, might be possible to unhide the RP too[ although in my case I couldn't find the attribute Hidden to the RP anywhere with the 2 disk managing software I used].

 

[maxseven]

The issue I came across is that when the proprietary MBR is messed up, even though access to RP is granted by making it active ( minitool or active part recovery or acronis disk manager...), it doesn't allow creating rescue media, and it is not able to ACHIEVE a system recovery ( i/O error) = USELESS [because of the OEM MBR destroyed during cloning process)

I'm not sure what you're saying here, j0E, but I'm not interested in fiddling with the RP already on my Acer--I'm only curious that it's likely to look exactly as my consolidated discs-to-harddrive.

If I want to sell this netbook at some point in the future, recovering to factory default should be as easy as invoking the eRecovery Mgmt option for that, and it will I presume get everything it needs from the RP and I'm done; a factory-fresh Acer Netbook.

But if I have a catastrophic hard disk failure, and want to repair the netbook and then get rid of it i.e. plunk-in a new harddrive and restore to factory defaults, well that is where (I thought) the Recovery Disks came-in, that I would use them (or now my consolidated files an a USB drive) to restore everything lock/stock/barrel including the RP, boot partition, and system partition (C: drive). Do you not think I can do this with disks/consolidatedUSB?

 

[mjf]

One of my PCs is an Acer Aspire X1800.
I've been through the MBR and don't see anything unusual but haven't disassembled the code section and don't see any reason why there should be anything unusual. Other ACERs may be different.
When I have reimaged to a new HDD I "copy" the MBR as well as the Recovery Partition. The MBR is copied with the imaging programs I am aware of.

When you boot the Hirens CD towards the end of the options you can perform
1) An MBR boot
BIOS->(Hirens)->MBR->Active Partion (bootmgr, BCD)->winload.exe
In a normal boot Hirens isn't in the loop.
2) A Partition boot
BIOS->(Hirens+MBR partition table)->Nominated partition (bootmgr, BCD)

In option 2) the MBR partition table is probably used.
With my ACER I get into complete recover mode with option 2.

It is a good idea to store away store away a copy of your MBR.
Can use MBRBackup.

 

[j0E]

Hi everyone, while searching for a totally different topic about bios DMI info recovery I came across this article couple days ago regarding How to Repair the Acer D2D Recovery with a tool called ParTEDIT32 and thought you guys might find it useful (recovering access to OEM recovery partition after boot repair or disk cloning)
Haven't tested it myself yet but sure will in a near future.
here is the link for the article:
How to Repair the Acer D2D Recovery Quickly and Easily
Forgotten to mention this article too :
Partition recovery after recovering whole HDD

link: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/17793

 

[mjf]

The rtmbr.bin file referred to in the links above does not exist in every ACER PQService. (eg. it's not in my Acer Aspire X1800 desktop). Part of the process described is setting the PQservice partion MBR partition table entries from hidden primary (0x27) to primary (0x7). Partition Wizard can do this as well if you like. (Partition>Modify>Change Partition Type ID)

But it is always useful to keep a copy of your MBR (for the partition table alone!). A useful little program for this is in the free program listing, MBR Backup. It will produce a little MBR copy file like MBR_2011-10-22.bin which can be restored - it's saved me a lot of effort before.

 

[j0E]

Thanks MJF for the comment, and for the MBR tool, very handy. I need to take a look sometimes at those partition markers (0x7 and 0x27) coz they sound like chinese to me, excuse my ignorance; but I definitely use partition tools with decent ease and play with partition characteristic sometimes.
The first link was treating of specifik issue with acer, gateway insydeh2o bios D2D option linking to the recovery partition boot and also F8 repair option link to recovery partition repair: mostly bios and F8 menu links repair.
My gateway laptop has some issues so I can't test all this untill I get a HDD new connector.
Thanks again for sharing.

 

[mjf]

You're welcome Joe. It looks like different recover procedures for different ACER models.
Here's a description of partition identifiers if you're interested
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html

 

[j0E]

Thanks mate, really nice of you to follow up with all these useful and instructive details, appreciated it.
Just got a new cable connector for my gateway laptop harddrive, and just learned that the RECOVERY USB or DVD I built earlier DOESN'T WORK on a hard drive THAT doesn't have the OEM PARTITION CONFIGURATION ! what a bad surprise, as I had formatted the original hard drive and used the cloned one(that has a clone of the partition configuration)for a different laptop, I was laughing at myself yesterday... to be continued.

 

[jbarrington]

Thanks to Joe, he provided me plenty of potential clues on how to possibly combine the 4 Toshiba laptop recovery discs that I have. The laptop is one of my oldest computers that I owned, and I wanted to attempt to combine all 4 discs and create a USB recovery.

First of all, I want to say that I only experimented on COPIES of my iso files. This way if I messed anything up, I still had my originals. Please, never tinker and modify any original iso images. Only play around with copies of them.

Second, I used the software called "WinISO" to extract any files for modification, moving, or to insert the files into the first disc.

I realize that Joe pointed his modification clues towards a different PC manufacturer, and what he needed to alter, than the type that I own with the Toshiba. With the Toshiba, the first three discs each had a DATA.INI, and inside of each of those files, it showed roughly a "1 of 4", "2 or 4", and so forth type of scenario. I took and made a change where DATA.INI said that it was a "1 of 1." I did that within the first disc iso.

Another thing that it had in three of the four discs was "ZZImages", and each disc continued forward with additional files. I combined together all of those files within those various ZZimage folders under one roof of the first disc iso.

The fourth (last) disc was the smallest in capacity of all four discs, and it basically seemed to have one quater of the same files of the first disc, except for one file, so I copied that onto the first iso disc file.

After I completed everything, I saved the new and larger iso file, and it appears to be under 12gb large, so I should be able to easily be able to burn the iso file onto a 16gb USB.

I have not attempted to create a bootable USB drive yet, nor do I think that I will be able to test out if what I did worked or not yet. If that day comes to where I will need a recovery, I will try out the USB first. If it doesn't work, then I still have my four recovery discs to fall back on. Also, if that day comes in the future and I need a recovery and the USB fails to work, I will attempt to immediately figure out what went wrong and start over again, while the recovered laptop is fresh again.

Anyway, I figured that I would post what I know, for anyone that has a Toshiba laptop. However, it's always possible that newer (or different) Toshiba models might have done things differently and not used DATA.INI files.