Can eRecovery be written onto flash disc?

Acer laptop Aspire One D150-1Bb
CPU:Intel Atom processor N280 (1.66 GHz, 667 MHz FSB )
RAM: DDRII 1GB
HDD:160GB(SATA, 5400 rpm)
OS: Windows XP Home Edition sp3

Instead of burning onto DVD's, can this laptop Aspire One write its eRecovery back up on a flash disc and restore the OS to its
factory settings?

Thanks!

 

In theory this could be possible, but a few conditions would have to be met:
1. You must be able to make your flash drive bootable.
2. You would have to be able to copy the entire recovery partition, boot sector, mbr etc to the flash drive so it has something to boot.
3. Your AAO must support booting from USB media (which I'm not sure the older models do)

If you were to use a partition tool, (eg Acronis TrueImage or any other partition backup tool) you should be able to transfer the recovery partition to a flash drive which would then be bootable, but you would still need to be able to boot from USB media.

 

Mr. Swarvey

Thank you!

Would you please give a bit more instructions?

In the boot sector of the BIOS of AAO D150-1Bb,
the following USB items are listed:

USB FDD:
USB HDD:
USB CDROM:

If the eRecovery is transferred to a usb flash, can this setting boot and restore the OS ?

Thanks!

Vicky

 

Personally I've never done it, and I don't think I know of anyone else who has. But this is how I'd try it.
1. Get a USB flash drive that has the capacity, so if the recovery partition is say 16gb, get a 16gb flash drive
2. I already have Acronis TrueImage and It's bootable cd so the next thing would be to boot the TrueImage Cd on the netbook with the USB flash drive plugged in.
3. Tell TrueImage you want to "clone" a partition.
4. Choose the hidden recovery partition as the source partition.
5. Choose the USB flash drive as the destination.
6. Follow the on screen prompts to complete the operation. Make sure that if you're asked what to do with the original partition, that you tell TrueImage to leave it as is. The last thing you want is to accidentally erase it.
7. In half an hour to an hour the operation should be complete. The flash drive should now contain the entire contents of the recovery partition.
8. Optional, but recommended, reboot the AAO but tell the BIOS (or use the F12 button during boot) to boot fron the flash drive. If everything is functional, the recovery should start. If you don't want to complete the recovery just cancel it.

As I've previously said, I've never done it, so I can't guarantee it'll work, but this is at least how I'd attempt it. I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your AAO or the potential loss of data if you make a mistake.

 

Mr. Swarvey

Thank you!
It is very kind of you to provide such a detailed guide.
I shall try it carefully and with precautions.

Thank you!
Vicky

 

With Virtual CD I was able to "burn" two recovery .iso on disk.

 

I may be missing the point here, but if you have a sound running system, and your question is whether or not you can save the recovery partition through Acronis media, then contemplate the fact that you can do one of two things...

first, and realizing it is usually suggested not to flash your BIOS if your BIOS is in working condition,
but.....

if you have an older model that doesn't include booting from an external hard drive,
you can search for newer updated BIOS files from the Acer support site
that may include the fix for that possibly, and re-flash your BIOS with the newer file.

Larger pin/thumb drives may be used for your backup files later for Acronis to save backups to,
but some have troubles and problems formatting larger thumb drives (8G or better) in the often
necessary and required FAT format if the FAT32 doesn't work in diskppart from the cmd prompt solution.
I'm not sure and maybe someone else can comment on whether or not Acronis requires FAT format
versus FAT32 to be bootable. That's part of my question below.

I certainly am not hoping to confuse any points.

It is a cautionary measure to make sure you perform the flash correctly to avoid a total crash.

Always make sure you have created a bootable thumb drive in "diskpart" and be sure to format it in FAT and not FAT32...

be sure to pull the battery, and for extra measures, unplug everything and hold the power button down for 60 seconds just for good measure to reset the present BIOS to factory defaults.

Now plug your prepared thumb drive with the BIOS files into the USB slot then press Fn and Esc AS YOU PLUG IN THE POWER CORD (leave the battery out for overkill),

and keep pressing the Fn/Esc keys as you press the POWER BUTTON,

then keep pressing them not only until you see the power lite on the netbook begin to blink, but also important is to be sure until YOU SEE THE THUMB DRIVE BEGIN TO BLINK, then release the Fn and Esc keys...

leave it alone until the NETBOOK SHUTS DOWN AND REBOOTS INTO THE START UP BIOS POST WINDOW...

as it begins to start-check-and then restart...
press the power off button and shut it down...

remove the thumb drive and replace the battery and then continue your planned OS install procedure
or boot to windows if already installed.

Then in Acronis...

using your newly formatted and loaded Acronis thumb drive and booting into the program successfully

create a cloned backup (as in cloning a total hard drive) if you have a large enough external drive...
this would require you to set the BIOS to boot from a USB hard drive for recovery...or a thumb drive
and this would allow you to restore the netbook to its original saved condition later (date of backup)

or simply create a .tib file backup in Acronis and save it to your thumb/pen drive IF it is large enough to do so...

now for my own question...

I wish to know, if and how to make a working bootable Acronis thumb drive image...

past the point of diskpart in a cmd prompt to create the bootable thumb drive...

are there boot files that must be saved to the thumb drive in order to be able to boot to Acronis...

the Acronis image (.iso) works from a CD or DVD depending on the Acronis image file size...

but if you wish to boot it from a thumb drive or an external hard drive....
and eliminate having to purchase and use an external CD/DVD drive....

(here is th emain pondering point)

Acronis often acts in the arena that you MUST HAVE MULTIPLE DRIVES to clone or clean or backup files...
and if you use a thumb drive or external drive to mount the Acrons program, it will not write back to itself
since it believes it is on a CD or DVD...

thus, do you also have to have an external and/or dual thumb to write an image file to?

what are the steps (step by step walk-through) to insure you can boot to Acronis on a thumb
or external hard drive if you have one...

I'm new to the forum but have several years experience on computers, but limited knowledge in some areas as I newly confront problems in search for solutions and I couldn't help but notice that some replies frequently go unanswered...

I assumed possibly this is because the bewildered and perplexed new members to the forum environ
hadn't searched previous threads and "stickies" and therefore long term 'puter wizard mods
and members simply chose not to repetitiously reply to frequently, previously answered questions....

maybe this will help and further define a solution..

any comments?

I realize that new questions should often be submitted by creating a new thread,
but this thread is fairly recent and my question coincides with the original thread's question...

a little more help naturally goes a long way to refining solutions...

if you've a mind that longs to tackle problems and prevail, this may be fun