Recently I tried out the Windows 7 beta on my Acer Aspire One netbook (it worked great, by the way – in some ways faster even than XP). I figured I could always revert to the factory-default Windows XP image stored on the mystical “hidden partition” that PC makers are so fond of using. However, Windows 7 is apparently too intimidating for the poor little Acer eRecovery Management software. It simply doesn’t know what to do with itself when confronted with a Windows 7 partition.
ARM: What is thy bidding my Master?
You: It’s Windows 7 we’re after.
ARM: I’m sorry, did you just say Windows 7?
You: You got a problem with that?
ARM: Actually, I, uh…
You: ARM? Are you OK?
ARM: My mind is going…cannot format..failed to format…partition not found…
Let’s face it: Acer eRecovery Management needs a little love to get through this. Here’s what you need to do:
- Create a System Rescue USB drive (Note: An alternative to the spyware-laden Daemon-tools for mounting the ISO file as a virtual CD-ROM is Virtual CloneDrive). If you have trouble with the System Rescue CD, you can try some other distros.
- Reboot the netbook and go into the Acer BIOS settings. Change the boot settings to check USB first. Plug in your System Rescue stick, and restart the netbook.
- Run “wizard”, and launch gtparted (icon towards the lower-left of the screen).
- Delete partition 2, create a new one, then reformat it as NTFS
- Mark partition 1 as bootable (right-click, edit flags). Remove USB drive.
- Reboot into the Acer System Restore software. Choose to restore the system.
- Plug the System Rescue USB drive back into the Acer netbook.
- Reboot into the System Rescue CD/USB, go back into gparted, and flag the restored partition 2 as bootable.
- Remove USB flash drive and reboot.
You rock! My netbook is restoring as I type this. Thanks for the help.
hit a snag while trying to setup the sys resc on a thumbdrive; isn’t there something I can just download and paste directly into the USB drive without jumping through hoops of fire; my bad i suppose, dabbled in Win7 not knowing the shite i might have to walk through
What was the snag? I might be able to help.
I’ve done a bit of digging and found a way to make USB drives bootable via the following link:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839&lang=en&cc=us&idx=1&mode=4&
that’s basically the HP Drive Key Boot Utility; gonna try and tag it with either System Rescue or Rescue Kit Express 9.0 (got that from http://www.download.com); running through the whole dribble with minGW (got nothing against it, it’s just that I’m a bit of a linux-noob)
Currently waiting for the usb key boot utility to finish, will post progress updates when I get them
well, the problem was getting the thumbdrive to become bootable (I’m sure you peeps can get it done without breaking a sweat but I’m a layman over here ._.); meh, I borrowed a friend’s ext drive and err.. problem solved think (that’s step 1 out of 9)
*crosses fingers*
yay, it’s all good! *sigh of relief*
Random,
You are the man.
I got my AOA 150 and it would just hang at the Enter your time zone screen. I couldn’t get past it.
I installed a copy of XP Home that I had and I was able to use it, but didn’t want to use my product key on this system, when I already paid for one with the system.
Thanks for your help! All is well. I have an external DVD-RW Drive that’s USB and was able to boot to that and run GParted from the menu, and I’m good now.
Thanks again
Stormin Norman
Help! Uncle gave me AOA150. Has xp sticker on bottom. I think he reformatted and did away with restore partition. He put Vista on it. I want to get xphome back on it and use the key that came with. I am not sure where to start. No recovery CD’s
Lost. End User
The first thing to check is that the restore partition is indeed missing. You should be able to see that by right-clicking on “computer” in the start menu, then clicking on “Disk Management.” Alternatively, you can use GTParted by booting from a System Rescue CD/USB drive.
If the restore partition really is gone, you might try finding a spare Windows XP installation CD (it will need to be the same version of XP, including service pack, that is listed on the XP license sticker). If you go that route, you may need to install the ethernet/wifi drivers from a USB stick to get your networking up and running.
Alternatively, you can pay a few dollars to order a restore CD, or possibly download an ISO. Of course, that will only work if you have an external CD-ROM drive you can use.
WOW !. I had vista installed and I had a surprise when trying to restore XP in my acerone and..gone!!.
I booted from a CD with a usb cdrom drive and worked like a charm!!.
Thanks!.
Hi there,
Thanks for posting your very clear instructions Random. Just want to check… I have an AA0 D250 and installed Ubuntu overwriting the Windows partition (but I DO still have the recovery partition).
I presumed at any point I could just boot from the recovery partition and get back to out of the box state – How wrong I was!
Do you think the instructions will work for me to re-install XP?
Many thanks in advance,
Alex.
You should be able to use steps similar to those I posted above. The main trick is setting the restore partition to be active and bootable, so that your BIOS will find it and load up the restore software.
This is all very well and good but when I came to run the restore I got an
Error: Restore failed!
Reason: 0xf0000006
It is failing on second source file 60EA1000.002 when restoring path \Acernb\AS.exe. Anyone willing to post MD5 checksums for the D2D image files so I can check whether mine are corrupt?
Awesome guide! Works like a charm, only hick-up I encountered during the procedure was the hassle of making the USB device bootable.
Thanks for this guide…never count “Bing” out
Anyways…I was looking all over for some way to put XP back on this.
Your guide was excellect…although not for newbies…but if you know what you are doing, it works like a charm.
Thanks again!
Followed the above to the letter. Bootable USB, gpart, set restore as active, loaded xp files, reset SDA2 as bootable,and nadda. When final reboot back to the 144g drive, it sit’s at a cursor.
Idea’s?
I’ve seen mine do that but it happens before I even get into Windows. If you quickly hit the power button two times, it usually boots correctly. I think there is an issue with the BIOS or I/O controller that causes the Acer to occasionally fizz out while trying to access the HDD.
got a aspire one with broken screen can’t boot or get it to read external screen help
This guide is amazing! I screwed my AAO up when I tried Windows 7, and I have been trying to for over a week to get Windows XP on a flash drive, but I just could not get it to work. Thank you so much!
I was wondering if there was any other way for me to restore my Acer Aspire One.
The ALT+F10 trick doesn’t work, nor do I have the Acer ePowering Technology stuff.
And this is just too complex for me to try and run through.
You can try contacting Acer support. If you have an external CD-ROM, you can order a restore CD that should do the trick.
Just found this guide after ubuntu messing up my MBR. This is by far the easiest method to restoring the acer one.
Thanks!
awesome guide. although i found it a little late but o well it did the trick
back to “default settings”
I had similar problem if anyone is having, I installed Windows 7 and needed to revert back to Windows XP. I downloaded a utility called MBRWIZ and simply set the acer partition to active. I was then able to restore. Didn’t even need to hit alt-f10.
Thanks for the tip!
Thanks a bunch. Had success on the first try using a usb flash drive! Thanks Again!!
heiyyaa..nice tips man ;D
another question here,,, how to make a partition in aspire one? i mean,,the “safe” way to create partition by using windows installation console and not by using 3rd pary software? cuz i’ve tried the acer recovery console and none of the menus show “create partition”, it only ends in creating C partition drive only…
sorry for my bad english
As far as I know, there isn’t a way to re-create the system partition from within the recovery console. It assumes that you already have one setup. I’ve never had a problem with gparted – you can use it to safely create the partition as I described.
Thank you very much, kurt!
Thank you very much for this… it was a lifesaver!
We installed tiny windows 7 and want to go back to xp on our AOA. We have the system cd and the xp cd that came with the aoa and we have an external cdrom. When we insert the xp cd, it get’s to 5% and stops. We don’t know if we need to follow the instructions above or what to do. Any help would be great. Thank you
I had a similar problem. The issue was that the XP installer doesn’t understand the Windows 7 partition. If you have an external CD-ROM drive, you can simply burn the system rescue CD image to a disc and boot from it, then follow the rest of the steps outlined in my post. To burn images to disc, I recommend ISO recorder.
Well a simple way for the Acer Aspire One AOA150 netbook to be Booted if there is an error in start up and cannot be booted is…
*It has a recovery program on a different partion and can be accessed without even loading windows…
*As soon as you push the ” POWER ON ” button hold Alt and F10 keys down and push up and down a few times and this will send the aspire straight to recovery mode..
* I suggest before anything ever happens like this “ALWAYS” create a a recovery disc yourself as you go a long over the years.. >> PROGROMS YOU LIKE , MUSIC, PIC’S AND THE LIKE.. to reinstall after recovery..
BECAUSE RECOVERY IN THIS MODE WILL FORMAT BACK TO FACTORY SETTING LIKE BRAND NEW..
* Just follow the promp’s and your away..
Hope this helps at least someone out there….
This was very helpful – just what I needed —Thank YOU!!!
WOW! It was not running from safe mode or from the start menu, but that F-ing worked!! just pushing buttons!! THANK YOU SHOTTIE!!!
my acer one notebook once had virus,whenever i switch it off it keeps on shutting down after 10 seconds,,,
i thought of having my acer reformatted,, so surf the net,, still no luck,,, one time i just played the keyboard while turning on the system, and kept tapping alt+f10 until it finally booted up and luck! no more automatic shut downs… well i’m still wondering if alt+f10 is a system restore key.. anyway it worked on mine,, if that is a restore key i maybe turned on automatic restore point,,,
You must excuse my bad english…
Hello everyone
For days i’m searching the net for the solution of my question, I think,finally I will be right here:
I bought a brandnew Acer Asp One D250,no recovery discs with it, nor CD drive,nor external CD burner. Before I use it,I’d like to do a Recovery USB Stick (bootable). But I’ve really no idea, if this is possible and when Yes, I need a step-by-step instruction. Please help me- thanks in advance. Greetings from the cold Switzerland
hey Kurt!
man, that was a thing of beauty!!! I think of myself as fairly computer savy, but didn’t have a clue how to get my xp back on my acer aspire one! I had also installed windows 7 ultimate rc to try it out, (it actually runs fairly well on this little machine), but wanted to get the xp back on especially before june 1st the cutoff date. Your advice is the only advice I’ve found out there that clearly spells out what to do. Granted you have to have faith especially when deleting the 2nd partition and hoping that the first partition is still valid, (it did have all kinds of warnings on it saying that parts of it couldn’t be read), but sure enough after having done everything, unplugging my ext cd rom drive and hitting alt/f10 on the reboot the familiar acer windows xp recovery screen showed up. Thanks soooo much for your totally unsolicited and goodness of your own heart for the help that you offer.