Acer Disk to Disk (D2D) Recovery Broken
Disclaimer: Some of the information contained within this blog post is technically advanced and may cause unrecoverable changes to your system. Ensure you have a backup of your system, including disk images and any data you cannot live without! Any damage or changes you make to your system is your own responsibility.
The procedure listed here was performed on an Acer Aspire 5630 laptop running Windows XP 2005 MCE. There is no guarantee that other Acer model will work the same way so take care and work things out for yourself using this information as guidance only!
Many Acer systems come with the ability to press ALT+F10 to kick off the Acer Recovery applications from a special hidden recovery partition. Sometimes this won’t work and there can be a number of reasons.
1. D2D Recovery is “Disabled” in the BIOS (Main menu).
FIX: Enabled it and try pressing ALT+F10 again as the computer boots.
2. The Acer hidden recovery partition (PQSERVICE) has been removed or damaged. If the disk drive is a replacement drive then you won’t have this partition.
FIX: Unless you have previously imaged the PQSERVICE partition it will not be possible to use D2D recovery. You will need to restore from the Acer Recovery CD/DVD.
3. You have converted the FAT32 partition on the hard drives into NTFS. Acer D2D recovery won’t be available if you perform this conversion. Ironic that NTFS is a more desirable disk format to use but Acer won’t support this in their systems!
FIX: Restore your system from the recovery CD/DVD media.
4. The special Acer Master Boot Record (MBR) has become corrupt or has been overwritten with an non Acer MBR. As long as the PQSERVICE partition is there or you can get your hands on a couple of Acer service files for your model, then you can remake the special Acer MBR. Let’s cover how this is done.
- Disable D2D recovery in the BIOS. Can be found in the “Main” menu section. Save the BIOS settings and exit.
- Log into Windows with an “administrator” level account.
- Download ParTEDIT32.ZIP (registration required for download).
- Extract PTEDIT32.EXE from the zip archive and run it.
- Identify the PQSERVICE partition by its type or size. It is likely to be 12 or another custom value and is likely to be reasonably small in comparison to the other normal partitions – see the example below from a working factory default Acer. Click to see the image full size.
Change the type to “07″ (Installable File System NTFS, HPFS) and “Save Changes”. - Reboot the computer and login with an “administrator” level account.
- You should then be able to open up a command prompt and navigate to the PQSERVICE drive.
- Enter the following command at the command prompt:
mbrwrdos.exe install rtmbr.bin
- You may have to search for these files and change into the relevant directory.
Note: This step writes the Acer MBR, with mbrwrdos.exe and rtmbr.bin being the special service files. - Close the command prompt window and reboot.
- Go into the BIOS again and enable D2D Recovery. Save the BIOS settings and exit.
- ALT+F10 should now start Acer Recovery as the computer starts.
- The Acer MBR ensures the PQSERVICE partition is hidden therefore there is no need to reset the partition type back to 07 – well there shouldn’t be if all has gone well. If you need to manually reset it then run PTEDIT32.EXE again, set the partition to 12, or whatever the original value was, and save the changes to complete the process. Reboot and it should now be hidden.
If Windows is unbootable, due to whatever issue, you can always use the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win) along with a copy of PTEDIT32.EXE to achieve the same results. Likewise, use UBCD4Win along with PTEDIT32.EXE if the PQSERVICE partition is being changed back to a hidden one by the existing MBR. We’ll leave that as an exercise for those who need to do it! It has been pointed out in the comments that UBCD4Win already has an application that will do partition maintenance, so checkout TestDisc if you go down that road.
If this is a new drive or someone has completely wiped the drive, including the hidden partitions, it may be necessary to use partitioning software to recreate the partitions that the Acer Recovery system is expecting! You’ll also need to restore an image of the recovery partition from a previously made backup, so it is worth making that backup image straight away while the laptop is still new and shiny, and certainly well in advance of any problem.
A final word or two of caution: take great caution when playing around with partitions on an Acer system… you have been warned… and remember to make the backup media disks as soon as you fire the computer up for the first time!
Technorati Tags: Acer, D2D recovery, master boot record, MBR, mbrwsdos.exe, ParTEDIT32, ParTEDIT32.ZIP, PQSERVICE, PTEDIT32.EXE, Ultimate Boot CD for Windows, UBCD4Win
October 26th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Hey i doing that i write all in my table http://www.roundtripsolutions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/AcerDiskRecoveryBroken_F031/hidden.jpg absolutly same , and i restart my pc and my windows won`t load somebody can help
October 27th, 2007 at 12:27 am
We put a special warning on this blog post due to the dangerous nature of the information. You really shouldn’t have used it without fully understanding this information and what changes should have been made to adjust things for your system.
We take it that English isn’t your first language? Perhaps this has contributed to you misunderstanding the information presented here.You should only have changed the recovery partition information and you needed to double check that there was a recovery partition in the first place. This procedure was based on using a particular model running Windows XP. What model of Acer do you own? What OS?
You will need to do one of these:
1. Mount the drive in another system and try to use PtEdit32.exe to fix what you’ve broken.
2. Create an Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. Put PtEdit32.exe on a memory stick or on the UBCD4Win when you’re building it as you’ll need to use it once you’ve booted your system.
Good luck.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Hi thank you Weblog for this great article I’d like to say that with the ultimate boot Cd it’s no need to use partedit32. Yancho have first to use TestDisc who can fix restore and repair partition and it have and integrated partition type editor.
You can also find many more disc utility at http://laptop-support.net .
October 27th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Hey Laptop Support, we ended up using UBCD4Win and PartEdit32 together to fix the problem on the Acer that was in for repair, so a big thanks for providing such a great tool (partedit32) to the community. It was a really simple fix.
Will try your tip the next time we have a similar occurence and see how that goes. Hopefully it will do the trick to fix yancho’s problem. There are so many tools on the UBCD that it is hard to know which ones are best for which purpose when you’re only using the disk a few times a year! Must build a new disk to see what new toys have been added recently. The disk we’re using currently is a little old
.
October 28th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Thanks for this brilliant solution to my problem. I was unhappy with Vista on my new laptop, and by reinstalling XP on it I was unable to use the recovery process as the reinstall had completely re-wrote my MBR.
Thanks to this article I have sucessfully managed to restore my laptop back it’s original state.
Thanks again!
October 28th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Really glad the solutions helped you out so much. It is so sad that people are finding Vista to be less desirable than XP! Would you like to share your experiences of Vista on this blog post:
http://www.roundtripsolutions.com/blog/2007/10/14/296/vista-sucks-so-says-milan/
We’ll be compiling all the feedback and user experiences to send off to Microsoft.
November 3rd, 2007 at 5:50 pm
This is the best content about the subject one can find.
Thanks a lot for the post!
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Thank you for the kind words by way of feedback. We’re just glad people find the information useful.
December 1st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Hello,
Before applying this procedure I like to know whether this will work also with Windows Vista. I have an Acer Aspire 7720G laptop with Vista Home Premium. I did an upgrade to Vista Ultimate and choose a complete reinstall. But now most of my drivers are not available (Nvidia, bluetooth, acer tools, etc…). I want to reset to factory default and then choose ‘upgrade to Ultimate’ instead of a full install so all my drivers will be available. But Alt-F10 doesn’t work anymore, probably because the MBR is overwritten. Do you think I can safely apply your procedure with partedit32? Thank you for answering.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
We’ve only tried it on Windows XP so far. However, we imagine that it should be possible to do somewthing similar under Vista.
Have you got a copy of the Acer Recovery Disk on CD? Good to have that before you try anything out!
Sorry we can’t be more helpful or sure of what may or may not work under Vista systems.
December 1st, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Thank you for your quick answer! (what a contrast with Acer support from whom I didn’t hear anything for a whole week).
One more question before I try it out (I have the Windows upgrade DVD in case something goes wrong).
The partition type for the recovery partition is actually set to 27. This type doesn’t occur in the listbox of ptedit32. Also strange: I have 2 physical hard disk drives, one has 2 virtual partitions, C and D, the other has 1 (E). The partition type of drive C is set to 06, which means FAT16B?? The 2 others are set to 07 (installable file system). Do you think I can safely modify the partition type of the recovery partition to type 07? Shall I leave the type for the C drive to 06?
Thank you!
December 1st, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Leave everything alone except the recovery partition. All you need to get working again is the recovery partition and to restore the custom Acer MBR.
Acers are cheap so don’t blame them for having “cheap” support.
December 1st, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Hello, I’ve been trying it out. Unfortunately mbrwrdos.exe does not exist, probably Windows Vista is different than Windows XP. I’ve found mbrwrwin.exe, and also the following bin files: mbr.bin (twice but with different dates), rtmbr.bin and rtmbr2.bin (also different dates). I’ve send a support request to acer to find out which one I should use. Unless you have a suggestion?
December 1st, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Not really sure but an educated guess would be to use:
mbrwrwin.exe install rtmbr.bin
If the program reports it needs Windows to run then you’ll need to issue the command from a command prompt window from within Windows. You may even have to boot using something like UBCDWin if this application isn’t Vista compatible.
Let’s reiterate again, this is unchartered territory for us hence do at your own risk! Let us know the outcome so we can modify the blog post to take into account your findings – appropriate attribution will be provided.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Actually Roger, after re-reading your initial comment, it is worth pointing out that you will need to download Vista drivers for your system from the Acer website. Windows XP drivers won’t work in Vista.
Not sure from that initial post if you had done that or not.
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
About your remark: I work only with Vista on this laptop, so I have the correct Vista drivers. Concerning the MBR, I realize it’s very dangerous, so I decided to wait a few days for the Acer support reply to be sure which BIN file I have to use (there are 3 mbr-bin files in the same folder where mbrwrwin.exe is). I definitely let you know what the outcome is.
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Is there anyway (I already have pqservice unhidden) to just add the software back like nti cd & dvd maker by using that partition
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:13 am
This is from memory, as we don’t use Acers, it is our belief that the PQSERVICE partition mainly hold a disk image. If this is the case then there is no way to just reinstall individual applications.
Packard Bell have a special function in their smart restore system that allows individual applications to be installed and uninstalled. Not sure if Acer has something similar or not, but this would be the only way that it would work.
December 9th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Hi, I’ve succeeded! After having heard nothing from Acer support for a week, I decided to go along with it myself. My first 3 attempts were not successful because I executed mbrwrwin.exe from within the command prompt (DOS window) with 3 different bin files (rtmbr, rtmbr2 and mbr which I copied from the RYTOOLS subfolder to the root). Wrong! mbrwrwin must be executed from the Run command in Windows! The action took a millisecond or so and was not confirmed but after reboot Alt-F10 was functional again, so I could install the factory operating system again. To be honoust, I’m not sure whether I used mbr.bin, rtmbr or rtmbr2 in my final attempt! (pity)
Thanks for your valuable assistance, the information on this site was very helpful!
December 9th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Thanks Roger for taking the time to tell us your solution.
Are you really that surprised that Acer has been silent?
Shame you don’t know the exact command that made things work, but your comments will assist the next person and they will be able to tell us their experience. We’ll eventually get at the truth, at which point this blog post will be modified to take this new information into account
.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Well written tutorial and spot on.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:19 am
hi. I have a problem with my acer laptop. I have tried to unpartition my drive and I think i have accidentally deleted away the partition with the hidden partition. My windows refuse to boot up. What can I do? Thanks.
December 15th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
This article is for guidance only. Have you asked Acer for support? We’re not a replacement for them!!!
You need to tell us EXACTLY what you’ve done for us to even have a chance of helping you!!! What were you trying to do when the “accident” happened? What application / tools did you use during your “accident”? What OS are you using? Have you tried Laptop Support’s comment above about using TestDisc to restore missing partitions? When did the computer become unbootable? Did it become unbootable after you played about with the partitions? Etc, etc?
You can always run the restore CD through the system, but remember this may destroy your user data and files. A replacement set can be ordered from Acer if you cannot locate the restore media.
Since this is a technical article and subject, we’re only able to do so much without proper technical answers from you. If you cannot understand or follow this article then we suggest you find a computer shop or IT professional who knows what they are doing and pay to get it fixed professionally.
December 16th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
I can verify that mbrwrwin.exe install rtmbr.bin has just worked using the run command on my Acer Aspire 9500. Thanks for the info I would have been lost without it!
December 16th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I know this might not be the place for this (please point me in the right direction if you can).
The Acer Aspire 9500 I am trying to fix for someone will not boot into Windows XP. It goes past the initial loading screen and then just goes black and stays that way.
I have tried the Acer backup disks – no change
Tried a different copy of Windows XP – works fine
Restored the mbr as above and used the D2D restore and now I am back to the same black screen.
I have also tried an external monitor but still black.
Does anyone have any ideas as I have completly run out now! Thanks for any help.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:32 am
If you mean the initial screen as in the boot screen then it sounds like you need to make your C: the active partition.
If you are getting the initial Windows XP loading screen before it goes blank then try booting into Safe Mode and see what happens from there.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:41 am
It gets past the first boot screen with the logo and blue moving line and then goes black. It will not boot into safe mode either sadly.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Very strange that D2D recovery doesn’t allow it to boot.
Most Acers have a C: and D: partition. Has the D: partition been removed? You may have to set-up the partitions again to be as Windows and D2D is expecting.
Advise you speak to Acer support before going much further. Maybe they will have seen this before and be able to provide an answer!!! But don’t hold your breath
.
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:22 am
Guys,
I fixed the MBR issue on my Aspire 5520-5334 which has Windows Vista Home. Purchased on 12/21 , means all latest options…
[A]
I unhide the first partition with PtEdit32.exe (execute with “Run as Administrator” option).. made it of type 07.
[B[
I disabled "D2D recovery" option in the BIOS, and boot my laptop in Safe Mode.
[C]
Started Disk Manager panel and assigned Drive letter to the PQSERVICE partition and start “Command Prompt” also with “Run As Administrator” option
[D]
Navigate to the directory RYTOOLS in the PQSERVICE drive.
[E]
Run the command,
mbrwrwin.exe install rtmbr2.bin
It shows successfully applied MBR. Now , remove the drive letter via Disk Manager and start PTEDIT32.exe again in Admin mode and put the original partition type (27) in my case back.
[F]
Now restart your laptop and activate D2D Recovery in BIOS. In POST phase, press Alt+F10 and booooooom, ACER recovery process kicks off
Hope this helps others and gives confidence
Thanks
Yatin Bhatt
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:27 am
!!!!!!!!! HOLD ON !!!!!!!!!!!!
READ THIS BEFORE APPLYING MY ABOVE SOLUTION….
The recovery partition worked fine. now by disk does not boot with working Vista from so called C: drive now
I will post updates once I am successful
December 24th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
A quick way is use windows me or windows 98 boot cd
and fdisk to set active d2d partition reboot from the harddrive the recovery will start when finish it will reboot
make sure the boot cd in and fdisk set active the c:drive
January 1st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
[...] you don’t miss out on all the information, news, tips and tricks. Thanks for visiting!Recently, the Acer D2D Recovery process was explored by us, with repair instructions provided for certain setups. Dell also have a similar system, Dell [...]
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
it does not work in Aspire 7520G.
i tried PTEDIT, but the number 07 was’nt right one.
I identified the PQSERVICE line at the image. The image was almost same as yours in the example.
the PQSERVICE part don’t came visible.
“# Change the type to “07″ (Installable File System NTFS, HPFS) and “Save Changes”.
# Reboot the computer and login with an “administrator” level account.
# You should then be able to open up a command prompt and navigate to the PQSERVICE drive. “
January 10th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Hi, I have a new 150 Gig hard drive for my Acer Aspire 1640z, I installed xp on the new HD using the recovery DVD that you make when you 1st get the laptop, then gave my old laptop to my brother (who has since re portioned it and is using it on his laptop) my problem is this…
I want to reset my laptop to default setup again BUT, pressing the Erecovery button returns the following message: Acer erecovery not available.
when i boot the recovery DVD nothing happens, I put the DVD in another computer and it comes up as unreadable! (in windows explorer) I only made the one copy and it seems to be damaged! I emailed Acer a couple of times but have had no reply to date
does anyone have any advice please?
Thank you for this page & your time
Ds.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
eRecovery won’t work since your new drive doesn’t have the special Acer recovery partition or Acer D2D MBR. It was on the old harddrive. It may still be there unless your Brother has removed the Acer recovery partition, which it does sound like he has done.
You don’t have much option but to get a recovery disk set from Acer or another user of that laptop series. Expect to pay Acer some money to get the required disks. There may also be some applications that are only available on the factory image, so you may have to acquire those application through other means over and above the recovery disk.
January 11th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I agree with Weblog.
For your satisfaction, ask your brother to check whether the PQSERVICE partition still exist.
Otherwise purchase set of Recovery DVD from Acer and get going.
January 12th, 2008 at 2:52 am
ooops …spot the error…! i didnt give him the laptop! I gave him the HD, lol…but i guess you worked that out!..silly me
I would just like to thank you both for taking the time to help me. My brother said he has re-portioned the HD and is not gonna be any help to me, hes getting all cagy like he thinks im gonna take it back from him! (oh well) looks like Acer are about to make a few quid from me
BUT, many thanks for your help once again… your both stars
January 12th, 2008 at 3:35 am
You’re welcome.
Yip! Spotted the hard drive – laptop mix up.
You’ve got one more option if you have a Windows XP disk and that is to install XP, download the drivers and Acer applications and install them, and install any other 3rd party apps you may require.
Getting the recovery disks from Acer is certainly the simple and sensible option.
January 12th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Thanx, that thought did cross my mind but im unsure, If i borrow a friends windows cd and install it using the key under my own laptop (my key), does that mean its a leagl copy still.. after all, the laptop comes with xp and if i am still using xp with same key code… isnt that ok! how do i know which version of xp to install so that it accepts my key as genuine? I even have a proper xp disk and cd key (completely legal) but its scratched beyond use) …?
sorry to drag this one out btw, and many thanks
January 12th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
The product key sticker will tell you the version of XP you need to use, just remember you will need to use the OEM version if using that key.
Yes, it would be legal to do that since you’d be using a legal disk and a legal key.However, some manufacturers put on stickers with keys that don’t work. Not sure if Acer is one of those manufacturers.
The recovery disks is certainly the easiest and most pain free way to do it
.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
I have an acer 4520G, before i downgraded to xp i created 2 dvd’s backup, now i want to go back to vista, but the dvd cannot be read seems to stop at 39%, so i tried the procedure to restore the ALT-F10 and was able to install the rtmbr.bin mbr, enabled d2d on bios, and restarted, now the laptop wont boot, it just restarts instantly no messages or what.
I borred a vista dvd and installed it, but i want to be able to use the preloaded software and license
any tips to restore ALT-F10
thanks
–
[A]
I unhide the first partition with PtEdit32.exe (execute with “Run as Administrator” option).. made it of type 07.
[B[
I disabled “D2D recovery” option in the BIOS, and boot my laptop in Safe Mode.
[C]
Started Disk Manager panel and assigned Drive letter to the PQSERVICE partition and start “Command Prompt” also with “Run As Administrator” option
[D]
Navigate to the directory RYTOOLS in the PQSERVICE drive.
[E]
Run the command,
mbrwrwin.exe install rtmbr2.bin
It shows successfully applied MBR. Now , remove the drive letter via Disk Manager and start PTEDIT32.exe again in Admin mode and put the original partition type (27) in my case back.
[F]
Now restart your laptop and activate D2D Recovery in BIOS.
January 28th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Hello sir
Iam having Acer aspire 5520-5334 its new one ,It has windows wista premium installed and works nicely,But i try to installed windows xp and i lost all my previous programs ,and nothing working now ,can it possible to get me the all original things that when windows wista premium installed .or an new one
plese give your valuable comments to sort my Laptop problems
January 28th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Folks,
Please note we’ve yet to see an Acer Vista system in real life so we don’t have any answers for Acer D2D recovery on their Vista based laptops.
The best we can do is to point you at other people’s comments that highlight what they’ve done under these circumstances.
The only advice we can give Acer Vista users is to recover your system using the recovery disks that you should have made. If you didn’t make them then purchase a set from Acer.
The blog post would be edited by now if we knew how to deal with Windows Vista and Acer D2D!
January 29th, 2008 at 6:29 am
i personaly own a acer aspire 5520. i hated vista so i downgraded to windows xp. i found all the drivers and everything was well until i realize i installed the wrong windows cd (home edition) i had to get a new copy of windows so i decided to upgrade back to vista. i read through this site and i got the notebook back to factory setting. to get started first download and run ptedit.exe (make sure u have administrative rights)
(1) run ptedit and change the value in partion one from 27 to 07.
(2) restart the computer go to the bios menu turn d2d off (disable) an then start in safe mode.
(3) when u are in safe mode navigate to the hidden drive (note) (i didnt have to assign a drive letter it was assign one automatically) click start, my computer and it should be a new10 gig drive. open it and click in the RYTOOLS and then double click on mbrwrwin.exe (.exe might be visible) then after that is done. the cmd should open and close for a split second.
(4) restart the computer and open ptedit again change the 07 back to 27 save then restart again
(5) go to the bios set up and enable d2d (acer dick to disk) save changes and exit now at the splash screen press alt and f10 at the same time. now u should be in the recovery menu (d2d)
(6) hit restore to factory setting and your computer will be back to the settings it came with from the day u got it.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Thanks for the procedure to fix D2D on Vista based laptops.
We’ll get that added to the main blog post body ASAP.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
your welcome no problem i tired this out a few times. i also made a recovery cd with the erecovery utility. i would advise this be done before downgrading. its good to have backups
February 5th, 2008 at 10:45 am
i have read all the blogs and comments…and find it very informative….but before i try them…i wanted to make sure it will work with mine….i have an acer travelmate 4000….my problem is…..it won’t boot…when i tried doing the alt-F10….the only option available is…install windows xp home edition….left with no choice…i press the enter key….after sometime…an error message pop-up (internal error 8027)….and then for about a second or two…the unit shuts down…of course as expected….when i turn on the laptop again….all i see is the cursor…..will the procedures…mentioned here be of help???….thanks
February 5th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
This procedure isn’t likely to be of help as it sounds like your hard drive or some other hardware has failed!
See http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/408257-system-32-hal-dll-file-2.html
February 28th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Hi this is the most help i been able to find anywhere! I have an acer e380 and vista home premium i can see the PQSERVICE partition that i made visible with PTEDIT32 but i cant see it under my computer as a letter and the ALT F12 wont work and in my bios i don’t know were i can disable or enable the D2D. ANY help would be amazing!
February 28th, 2008 at 1:00 am
This comment may be your best hope of working something out.
We’ve not dealt with an Acer Vista laptop yet so don’t know how things may be different or what alternations may be required to get D2D working. Sorry we can’t offer better advice!
February 28th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Thats okay at least you responded, acer still has not responded my e-mail and all their phone support told me was buy a set of disks. The thing is i cant burn anything cuz i have error 39 in my cd/dvd and it says :”Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)” and the only solution i find online is use erecovery to restore to factory settings. I see the partition ill try to see what i can do with all this stuff. Thank you very much anyhow, ill post if i find a solid way!
February 28th, 2008 at 7:13 am
this is probably the most relevant information i have ever found on such topic…..
February 29th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I DID IT, i cant burn a recovery disk thou it says there is not enough memory on D: drive???, any who I have an acer aspire e380 desktop with vista home premium, i used the PTEDIT32.exe to locate my partition then set it to seven, rebooted it and then in the manage options in mycomputer>rightclick>manage>storage i set it to active then i restarted and ALT F12 worked! I worked for me and Everythign is now back to default. The only thing is i still cant burn the recovery disk it say “error there is not enough working space on your D: drive” and the disk ejects, any help with this anyone? ALWAYS make backup disk i learn my lesson the hard way. And yet still all Acer tells me is to buy them.
February 29th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Thank you for sharing your solution.
How much free space do you have on the D drive? You could also look at removing some of the files from the D drive to free up space.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Well thats the thing, i have no D:drive my drive is C: and the dvd is bran new, my C: Drive is completly empty almost 200GB free.Idk what could be the problem any ideas anyone?
March 1st, 2008 at 12:32 am
im a bit confuse on what your trying to do here, are u trying to back it up to your hard drive? or to dvds
March 1st, 2008 at 3:43 pm
@Polo: Did you format your hard drive or something? Usually Acers ship with a C and D partition, along with the secret and hidden PQService. AFAIK, D2D won’t work unless the partitions are there as expected. However, they may have changed this set-up on their Vista models so we’re not sure of what you need to do.
Sounds like the recovery program is also looking for a non-existant D partition, hence the error message you’ve been getting.
Recovery disks are looking more and more like the best solution!
March 1st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
No, but i did combine my partitions a long time ago. That could be it. Well at least everything is back to normal now, could i burn the recovery disks using ALT F12 and going into the secret partition? Or only through erecovery?
Once again i have to say this is the most relevant place i found about this stuff. Thank You so much.
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Please help! I have an Aspire 5100. I messed up my Acer mbr file by trying to restore with regular XP disk instead of my Acer disks. I still have my PQSERVICE partition. However, I can’t start XP. I have accessed my computer by using mandriva. Could you please give me directions to restore my mbr using mandriva? I am a newbie, so please, I need step by step directions. Thank you so much in advance for your assistance, I have been trying to figure this out for days.
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I have an acer 5720g than came with windows vista home premium. I repartitioned my hard drive and delete the hidden partition. After that i install vista ultimate and then try to install acer erecovery but i get the following message: “not d2d system, erecovery cannot install”. I tried to repartition again my hard drive using acronis disk director and create one more partition (hidden) in the begining of my hard drive I thought that this could work and that the erecovery coulb be installed but once again i didn’t make it. Please help me. Thank you
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
@Polo: The instructions we have on this blog post are about as much as we know. We’re not Acer agents and have never supplied such “cheap” system, prefering to go with high quality alternatives.
Combining your C & D partition will result in D2D NOT working. It expects to see a certain partition structure, in fact, the one that it left the factory with!
@Charlotte: You need to boot into a Windows environment, either a fresh install of Windows or the Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows, to run the special Acer MBR creation application as detailed above. It won’t work under Linux AFAIK.
@Panos: You’re probably screwed!!! You’ve deleted the partition with all the eRecovery D2D disk image. It may be possible to use a partition recovery application to restore the partition if it hasn’t been overwritten by what you have done. Having not be in that predicament we can’t help you out any further.
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Sorry folks we cannot keep supporting Acer users with D2D recovery problems for free. That is the job of Acer Support!
We’ve placed as much information as we know and more than enough to fix D2D issues into this blog post with supporting information being in the comments.
If you live in Fife or the surrounding areas of Scotland and wish to pay for support in fixing this issue then feel free to contact us.
Comments on this blog post are now closed.