Information about using usb recovery drives.

Is a usb recovery drive made through the Acer utilities a more complete recovery of hard drive as originally configured by Acer than one made through Windows? I want to set up a dual boot with Linux Mint and I wonder if, after doing so, could the Acer version of the usb recovery drive be used to set it back to the original configuration, removing the Linux partitions and reestablishing a controlling Windows boot partition? I noticed in Acer's instructional video on how on reset with the usb drive, it suggested not choosing the format option. If a usb recovery drive can set it back to the orginal partitions, would choosing that format option be what is necessary to do so?

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IronFly

The recovery USB flash drive done by Acer or Windows is the same thing (if the option to include the system files was ticked), so you will be able to restore back to factory your PC even after installing a Linux distro.

a good thing during installation is to wipe completly the HDD/SSD before installing windows:

once at language/keyboard selection, press shift+F10, a command prompt will open
type
Diskpart
list disk
select disk x (x is the number of your HDD)
clean

once done you can close the command prompt and continue with windows installation.

ascertain

Thanks ACE Trailblazer IronFly. That's good news. Linux seems to run fine off a usb but if it doesn't after an install, I want to take the computer back and wanted to restore it to how it came.

So if they are the same, does the Acer usb option, when system file is checked, simply use the tool that's in Windows? Is the recovery usb process a disk imaging tool? What would the Acer tool do if the system files option wasn't checked?

IronFly

yes, the Acer too simply triggers the windows tool.

no, is not a disk imaging too, if you want to do a complete image, you need to use the Backup and restore (windows 7) tool.

tap on windows logo key and type

backup

click on Backup settings

click on Go to Backup and restore

then on the left side click on Create a System image

this will create a system image of your HDD or what you choose and the system image can be loaded during windows installation.

The Acer tool/windows tool for recovery, will create a factory image, so it will install a clean windows OS.

if you untick the system file, it will create a recovery only enviroment, not a full factory image.

ascertain

Thanks so much. That was really helpful information.

padgett

Windows 10 is a little different. To create a backup of the current condition with updates you want to create a System Image. Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\File History and in the lower left is System Image Backup. You will need to connect a NTFS formatted drive that is larger than the used space on your C: drive. You will have a choice between a System Image disk (not bootable) and a System Repair disk which is. Best to have both.

A large disk can have multiple system images from different computers but each different OS will need its own repair disk.

The USB from Acer has the "as built" OS with no updates or personalizations. a System Image is exactly as it was when the image was taken.

I seperate my machines into a system drive (C Smiley Happy and a data drive (D & have a system image of C: and a flat backup (XXCOPY) of the drive.

ascertain

I was initially concerned about restoring to the original state in case I wanted to return the computer, which I still might. I installed Linux Mint. It works pretty well although it hasn’t come back from suspend several times, even though it mostly does so. The time was off in Windows and so I checked it in the bios and it was off there. I corrected it but then it changed to being off again, corrected it a second time and it went off once again. I have no idea why that would happen. Can the operating systems change the time in the bios?

I have the original bios listed on the ACER website and the third later version just showed up. I wasn’t sure about updating and I posted a question about that here: Bios update information wanted Spin 5 SP513-51 - Acer Community – 526279

The partition Windows is on is about a 140 gb, set by the Linux Mint installer. If I were to shrink that for the OS only and create a separate data partition, how big should the OS partition be? Should I use Windows own disk tools to do it? Should the data partition be NTFS or Fat32?

Thanks again for your help.

padgett

In Windows 10 they moved System Image to the File History page (control panel>file history on the left side toward bottom).

Also for me/Windows 10, 64GB is the minimum I would use for a system disk.

I suspect your problem with a Linux install is the BIOS defaults to UEFI for booting a fixed disk. If not the disk will not be recognised as bootable.

NTFS can handle files larger than 4GB. A system image usually is.

ascertain

I just mounted the ACER Windows partition from Linux and it’s 55 gb. The Windows folder was 32 gb. So 64gb does seem like a minimum. The reason I asked about using Windows disk tools to shrink the Windows partition is that I thought it might be optimized to protect the Windows installation by providing the right size. When that’s done, does the disk space left over unallocated or another NTFS partion?