Problems with recovery instructions

The recovery dvd is referred to as a recovery cd in the recovery dvd instruction booklet. How does that make any sense?

Aren't dvds and cds different things? I always thought so.

Then it says to use another computer with an ODD... I guess we are suppose to assume odd means something... maybe optical disk drive?... comes in 3 flavours now... cd, dvd, Blue Ray... Can't we slim down the odds here and be specific like as in what kind of computer maybe??? What kind of OS? What kind of odd?

I don't think OSX likes the CD or dvd or whatever it is because it can't read it and my iBook is a computer too. Windows 98 doesn't like it either and it has a cd drive. But apparently xp understands the 4gb thumb drive and the cd or dvd or whatever that disk is... Hey... a little common sense in knowing how to make instructions would really come in handy as would a course on what is a cd and what is a dvd!

So then I had to go to my wife's laptop to try and figure it out because it has a dvd/cd drive so maybe one out of the two will work to make a recovery thingy on a 4gb thumb drive. You can't get into the bios in that computer because it has icons on the screen and you use the arrow keys to select cd/dvd to boot from or whatever....

First time I got the cd or dvd whatever it is booting it went right past the make a recovery usb drive control screen. So control, alt, delete, reboot. Select cd again. This time it lets me select usb and says on the screen to select the usb. Well, there was only one there and you can't select it. So I clicked on the right arrow (there is no continue button as per instructions). Then it goes to the recovery menu and I have a heart attack because it seems like it may be recovering to my wife's xp disk. I check the lights... no. Just the usb light is flickering and the cd/dvd drive.

I hold my breath for about 6 minutes and I'm still waiting for something to happen because the counter has been at zero for a long time. Finally I get confirmation that it made a recovery usb and my computer can't read it either so hopefully it is good.

I get really ticked off at people who have no idea how to write instructions with any degree of clarity... like Apple and Microsoft... I especially get ticked off considering the crap I'd get into if it wrote all over my wife's xp drive....

OH... the Aspire has finally finished updating its files... Let's go setup mail and stuff... Chow!

 

Hi Aspiration,

Not sure which instructions you used, but sounds like all was OK in the end. As a hint the following thread shows how I created mtyrescue stick and the only real difference was I used an 8GB USB stick .
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7412

There is also another recovery method here that will restore your Acer + all the added applications you have loaded.

 

Thanks Barrie.
I haven't yet figured :shock: out how to make a bootable backup of my linux on my 8gb kingston memory stick now that I have linpus set up with email and skype etc. Its probably on the forum here somewhere. :roll:
Tried that 10 things to do with a new aspire with linpus on the forum which made it a snap to get some stuff setup on it. The linpus seems to be a pretty good system so far. Email and chat stuff got set up very quickly with no problems. Took me a while to set up adium on my mac so I used that as a guide to setup on the aspire. Next step will be to test out the email accounts because I've had problems before where some accounts would receive but not send email.
Letting the battery charge up for 24 hours before I unplug it. Its suppose to have that 7 hour battery in it. Sweet.

 

Do you mean that you think Apple and Microsoft write clear instructions? I'll accept that Apple (and to a lesser degree, Microsoft) generally write better documentation than Taiwanese engineers, but none of this stuff qualifies as literature.

I gave up and borrowed a USB ODD to create my recovery USB. Thank goodness the AA1 has three USB ports, because I needed all three of them (2 for the ODD, 1 for the flash drive).

Creating a backup USB (using instructions from the macles* site was much easier, and works flawlessly. To my mind, macles* provides good backup instructions that worked for me on the first try. http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/12/acer-aspire-one-aa1backup.html

The two things I most desire from a backup/restore utility are reliability and simplicity -- if it's too much trouble, I won't do regular backups; when I have done something incredibly stupid and need to restore, the last thing I want to do is think, The aa1backup utility passes these tests with flying colors. I think I'll do a backup now -- I have procrastinated too much.

By the way, goodbye in Italian is "Ciao" not "Chow."

 

Hi Aspiration,

In the link I gave redtree also gave a link to a Macles instructional blog that as I said will restore your Acer but with your added app`s still loaded, I have made this USB backup also but not tried this, will do if I need to next time.
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/12/acer ... ackup.html

Can`t answer about your battery, I have a three cell and charges in about 45 mins then gives about two and a half hours work time but this is with USB peripherals connected. I suspect by the sounds of it you have a six cell.

 

Thanks will try to remember that.
I finally tried the aa1blinux backup. It was difficult to understand how the program worked so here's the short version for those who haven't tried it.
Plug in one usb flashdrive. Run the program aa1blinux. In a tab at the bottom of the window select the usb drive (use one so its easier to determine which is the right usb flashdrive). The software will install on the flashdrive. Then you reboot and select the flashdrive to boot off of. Make sure your flashdrive is at least 8gb. aa1blinux with then backup and verify the internal 8GB SSD to the flashdrive. I also removed my 16GB SDHC expansion card just to make sure it didn't try to copy that as well because there wouldn't be enough space on my 8gb flashdrive.