Acer Aspire 5741ZG Recovery without Disks

[b4u]

Hi,

I have an Acer Aspire 5741ZG Notebook that has Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit installed.

The machine is not mine, but I was asked to solve a problem with it, by reverting back to the factory settings. The user did not create the recovery disks, and at this time, I successfully made a backup of personal data and documents, with a little help of a linux boot disk and some handy usb pen . So everything is ready to clean it to it's original state.

At this time, I cannot start the machine, it seems to freeze on windows startup, and my intention is to recover it to the factory settings.

The disk contains a partition which I believe contains the recovery image, but I need to execute Acer's eRecovery to make it recover ... so I'm stuck!

Is it possible to do a hard recovery? Some key combination at power-on that will force the Acer into a recovery?

Does Acer support provides eRecovery at their site for download, so that it can be run to recover the system? I can't seem to find it on Acer site ... and since I have the partitions intact, I was trying to avoid the possibility of buying recovery disks from Acer ...

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

 

[lxskllr]

Probably easier to just get the .iso, and do a new install. Get it all updated, then image it for future use, and put it on a separate partition.

 

[Steltek]

I assume it won't start in safe mode?

If not, most Acers use ALT-F10 when the machine starts to trigger the beginning of the restore process. If it asks you for a security code, try 000000 (six zeros).

Once you get it re-imaged, you should be able to create a set of recovery discs.

 

[b4u]

Probably easier to just get the .iso, and do a new install. Get it all updated, then image it for future use, and put it on a separate partition.

What you mean get the iso? Buy it from Acer? Is it on the hidden partition?

I assume it won't start in safe mode?

If not, most Acers use ALT-F10 when the machine starts to trigger the beginning of the restore process. If it asks you for a security code, try 000000 (six zeros).

Once you get it re-imaged, you should be able to create a set of recovery discs.

Unfortunately it doesn't start in any mode. I'll try that ALT-F10 trick and see if it works. If it does, I'll create the recovery disks.


Thanks. I'll post the results as I come home and try it.

 

[lxskllr]

What you mean get the iso? Buy it from Acer? Is it on the hidden partition?

Use a copy you, or a friend have. Alternatively, download it from DigitalRiver...

http://techdows.com/2011/07/downloa...h-sp1-iso-official-direct-download-links.html

Steltek's advice is more elegant if it works, but the above should work ok if that fails.

 

[b4u]

Oh! I did it!

I connected the laptop to the power socket, then started in safe mode ... in about 1 hour, the safe-mode appeared ... I immediately executed the recovery software from Acer, and after some time, the system was clean!

First thing was to create the recovery disks

Now a quick question ... having the recovery disks, can I just replace the disk with a new one, and recover the system there? I mean, to a disk that has no hidden partition with the image? The image should be on the 3 DVD disks, right?

Thanks

 

[Matt1970]

You "should" be ok but the recovery disls may or may not ask you to put in a cd key. If it does you need to be able to read it off the bottom.

PS: Everyone should write down the CD off the bottom of your laptops before it gets rubbed off and you have to rely on a recovery partition as your only option.