Acer TC-885-UR16. Recovery backup I made

mikejw

I just made a Recovery backup. Now the question----how to I use it if the computer crashes ??  Thanks, Mike

brummyfan2

Hi,
Could you please post the full model name of the laptop and the  method you used to backup.

mikejw

Thanks brummyfan2 for the reply.  The desktop computer is an Acer TC-885-UR16.  I used the recovery method at ACER, ACER CARE CENTER, RECOVERY MANAGEMENT, CREATE FACTORY BACKUP. I would prefer to make a CURRENT backup of the computer, but do not know how to do that.

mikejw

Additional info. about the computer

brummyfan2

Hi,
No problem, I would suggest you to use Macrium Reflect free program to backup, create a Recovery USB.
1.Download and install Macrium Reflect Home edition.
2. Connect an external HDD with a USB to SATA cable.
3.Backup the image of the HDD to external HDD.
4. Create a bootable USB disk by choosing other tasks in the left pane.
Recovering the image you have created earlier, in case of any probem:
1. Insert the Recovery USB disk and go to BIOS, move to Boot tab and make the USB disk as your first boot device.
2. Connect the external HDD where you have the backup.
3.Browse for the image and recover the image on to the HDD/SSD in your PC.
These are the short explanation, please read the tutorial in the link below for more details.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-reflect-is-a-free-and-easy-to-use-backup-utility/

mikejw

Hello again, the problem is that the computer will ONLY boot to hard drive, or Windows Boot Manager. I was on this site about two months ago, as well as other help sites. I went into the BIOS, and changed the boot sequence to the CD / DVD device as well as the third boot device which I think was the USB device. Tried several times, I do know how to change the boot sequence, Nothing worked. The one fellow on this site had me try at least ten other things in the bios, to change the boot order. Some of his suggestions I was able to change, others were grayed out, and I could not change. I called Acer because the computer was still under warranty at that time. They gave me another number to call, but that was a third party meaning it would cost me. I called Acer again and said there must be something wrong with the motherboard. They said I could send it away to Texas, I believe. At that point I just gave up. Now, on a montly basis I copy all my documents, pictures, music etc to a external hard drive. That way I can recopy them back if needed. However if the computer crashes, I have no way to reinstall Windows 10, because no one gives you discs anymore.  Very frustrated with Acer. Thanks for listening,  Mike

billsey

You should be able to boot a TC-885 off a signed UEFI flash drive with the Windows image on it. That allows to get Windows reinstalled after a drive replacement and from there you can use the same software you used for the backup to do a restore. When you were going through that process of trying to boot, what image were you using on the flash drive and how was the drive created?

Windows comes with the Windows 7 version of Backup and Restore which supports a whole system backup on a schedule. It also has File History which does backups of your user data on a more constant basis.

mikejw

Hi Billsey, thanks for the reply. What do you mean by a "signed UEFI flash drive" ??

I know I should be able to boot to some other device other than the hard drive. About two months ago,  EGYDIOCOELHO   suggested I try about 10 different things as I mentioned in a prior post. None worked.

I have used Paragon Backup and Recovery, Macrium Reflect, and Easeus ToDo  to make different backups. The computer will not boot to the CD /DVD rom or the USB device. I even tried disconnecting the hard drive hoping that it would force the computer to another boot device. All I got was a message that it could not find a boot device, reboot your computer and try again. Or something like that. Someone mentioned that it might have something to do with the UEFI Legacy system. I believe I already tried making a change there, but forgot what the outcome was.

billsey

Windows 8 and later use UEFI instead of Legacy for the boot process. In order for a device to be bootable and show up as such when you bring up the boot menu each device has to meet the security specs for the underlying BIOS to UEFI. By default you typically have Secure Boot enabled which means the device has to not only be setup as UEFI/GPT but the UEFI image has to be digitally signed. That's easy of the image is directly from Microsoft, but many flavors of Linux aren't signed. When you turn off Secure Boot it's supposed to allow loading unsigned images, but they still need to be UEFI compliant, so an MBR image won't show up. What images were you trying with?

mikejw

Hi, not sure what you mean when you ask "what images were you trying with" 

mikejw

See my earlier post, where I said I used the program in Acer to create a Recovery disc. Start, Acer, Acer Care center, Recovery Management, Create Factory Default Backup.  I just did this again. I have the computer's FIRST boot device set to Removabe Disc, which I believe is the USB drive. Nothing, the computer starts as usual, from the "C" drive. 

billsey

OK, plug your recovery USB in and fire up Disk Management. Do a screen capture and share it here like this:

mikejw

Billsey, here is a snippit. Hope that is OK

billsey

OK, right click on the gray box at left for Disk 1 and choose properties, then select the Volumes tab and capture that for us.

mikejw

OK, here it is. I hope 

mikejw

Here is a screenshot of the BOOT screen is a screenshot of the Bios / BOOT Screen

mikejw

I thought maybe a bios update would help, so I went into Acer, got the latest update for my Aspire, by stating  the serial number etc. it found an update as of March 9th. UPGRADE MCU TO C6 AND ME TO V12.0.45.1509 TO SUPPORT 19H2. I downloaded the update but nothing happens. I will attach the downloaded files. Do I need to click on one of these files ?? 

mikejw

Here are the files I see that were downloaded.

mikejw

This will be the last Acer computer I ever buy.  1)There seems to be no solution to my being able to boot to anything but the hard drive. 2). I thought maybe if I update the bios, that would help. No luck. It downloads but does NOTHING. I tried three times.3). I thought maybe if I updated that Acer Care Center it might help. Now that does not even work. Same thing with Acer Recovery Management. That does not open anymore. I had bought Dell computers for the last 20 years, but got a good deal on this Acer. Well, I should have known you get what you pay for.  Total piece of JUNK. Mike Wargo 

billsey

The recovery drive was created as a legacy boot drive, see the MBR partition style? To be bootable it's going to need to be GPT and UEFI. Check with the backup software to see if it was a configuration entry missed or if you need to use something different. For the BIOS upgrade, there should be a .bat file in the WIN folder that installs for you. I'd skip the BIOS upgrade for now and focus on the backup/recovery issue.

Do a directory of the recovery flash drive like you did for the BIOS update and show it to me, maybe I can see if it just needs the MBR converted to GPT...

mikejw

Here is a directory of the USB flashdrive.