Create Factory Restore Disk for Acer Aspire D250

I have an Acer Aspire One D250 netbook, who originaly comes with Windows XP.

I will install Windows 7 on it, but before I like do create the Factory Recover Disk.

The netbook don't have CD drive and, the Acer program used to make the disks, called Acer eRecovery Management, only can create the its using a external CD/DVD Writer. The program message is Unable to detect a writable optical drive.

I dont't have an external CD drive and don't have Acer support in my country to ask for the disks. I think the best solution is make the Acer program write the disk on HD as a CD/DVD image so I can copy it to my desktop and burn it.

Someone has any idea on how I can create these Factory Recover disks?

Roberto Barros

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation: 231

Answers

Acer eRecovery doesn't work with mapped drives.

REDWARst

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation:

Foregoing the optical disk route, you might try getting an external hard drive that connects via USB. No need to get fancy - you can use a naked drive with a $20 adapter. Then, get a hard drive cloning program - I personally like Acronis True Image. This will allow you to clone your existing drive to the other drive, or store an image of the existing drive, that you can use the software to restore later.

As an aside: Are you sure the netbook has the required power to run Windows 7?

CoffeeBean

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation: 187

I'm rather fond of linux (I use the System Rescue CD, which can be setup to boot from a USB stick). I then use 'dd' to create a complete image of the working HD. – Michael Kohne – 2009-08-20T02:58:23.857

I realy would like to get only the restore disk, not a copy of the current HD. I don't know if the netbook will run well with Windows 7 and that is the principal reason to make the Recovery Disk :-) – Roberto Barros – 2009-08-20T03:28:03.890

My mother owns that netbook. I'll try to reproduce the recovery partition and let you know what I come up with. – CoffeeBean – 2009-08-20T04:02:36.580

If you had an external usb drive you could try creating a virtual CD on the usb drive and create the system restore disk that way then use another PC to copy it onto actual media.

Col

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation: 6 995

That´s my idea too. But how I can make de usb drive looks like a writable optical drive? – Roberto Barros – 2009-08-20T16:34:56.703

I know that nero allows you to create a virtual writable drive I'm not sure what other software might allow you do it. So essentially you get a piece of software that pretends to be a CD drive but actually will create an iso file on the USB drive. – Col – 2009-08-21T10:29:14.527

1I've had a hunt around and there also seems to be some freeware called totalmounter available that does what you need – Col – 2009-08-21T10:32:36.190

Took me a while to find a suitable tool, but I did find one in the end: Virtual CD. It's made by H+H Software GmbH.

http://www.virtualcd-online.com/

Windows sees it as a BluRay-RW drive and you can configure the software to 'insert' a virtual blank disk (you get the choice of basically every type of disk, eg. CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/BluRay-R/etc.) the software then pumps out anything sent to it into an ISO.

The personal version comes with a 30-day free demo which seems fully functional and does the trick.

Alan Isherwood

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation: 142

I had the same requirement so I could burn the Acer backup recovery disc's on a netbook that was failing in recognising nay external burners.

The program that worked like a charm was http://www.phantom-drive.com/en/default.htm

I hope this helps other out as I took ages to find it.

OZSlayer

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation: 11

Try conecting your desktop/laptop DVD unit as a network DVD in the Acer Netbook (Map the drive). Then run the Acer Recovery Management utility again.

David

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation:

Use a DVD writer emulator.

Using Google, I found one that was free. It emulates a DVD burner and makes an ISO.

Plug in a USB key and copy the .isos (there are 2 ISOs), then make a bootable USB key (8GB) and put these ISOs on it.

Use a manual to integrate. I've found some to make a boot USB pendrive with ISOs booteable to recover.

antonio perez

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation: 11

Your best bet is to try http://www.user-guides.co.uk or http://restoredisks.com/.

They seem to have thousands of disks on their websites, as far as I can see it should do a complete factory restore?

jamez

Posted 2009-08-20T00:40:56.093

Reputation: