Acer 5672 WMLi restore software questions

The hidden partition, together with the restore disk, is needed if you want to restore your laptop to its default configuration. It doesn't have the playback feature you mentioned. Without this partition, there is no way to restore to your original configuration, even if you have the restore disk.

The Acer Arcade software is part of the restore disk, however, I don't think you can install it independently without doing a full restore.

You can most certainly do a restore without the hidden PQ service partition. I did it just using the DVD created when my machine was new on a wiped drive and a brand new HDD also. I did this just to see if it was possible. I don't remember if Arcade was available on those installs. I only installed to test the DVD then removed and installed my Ghosted XP Pro setup. The hidden partition serves at least two important functions. First it is where your machine gets it's data from to make the factory recovery DVD. You know the one you getted nagged about when machine is new. This uses the NTI software bundled with machine. Second there is a eRestore feature built in to the empowerment software bundled with your machine. This allows you to initiate a factory restore from within windows (the D2D feature must be enabled in the BIOS) for this to work. The DVD is not used for this restore. The PQ service partition is. Without the PQ service partition you can still do a restore with DVD. It actually works quite well. After about an hour and several reboots and input from you you are presented with a factory fresh install. With XP home on one Fat 32 partition and another equal sized Fat 32 Acer data partition. If you explore the DVD you will find many setup files. I don't know if you can run any standalone. Haven't dared to try. A potential problem surfaced while using the DVD. After the first part of the restore is completed the machine automatically reboots. On my machine it also ejects the DVD. Upon restart and resumption of restore process the process tries to install some ATi drivers from the DVD. You have to insert the DVD and point the installer at the correct files. Every other reboot during install the DVD is not ejected and proceeds smoothly. I haven't tried it but I bet if you reinserted DVD at first reboot you wouldn't see this problem.

Thanks for the info Frank. good to know i can still restore to original config using the restore dvd... if i need to. might as well browse the dvd and see whats there

Let us know if you find that you can install any software from it.
Other than a full restore. I suppose I could do an XP Pro install on a spare
HDD and try it myself. May do it someday.

Actually I have the Linux rescue CD and the Ubuntu 6.06 LTS DesktopCD installed on USB flash drives. The Ubuntu 6.06 CD can be run just like a real LiveCD. That is you can run Ubuntu (linux) from memory to make sure your hardware will work with it and you can install to your HDD from it if you like. The Rescue CD offers lots of rescue/repair tools for Linux OS's. The D2D is really part of the eRecovery software that is part of the factory setup. You can access it by pressing alt + F10 from within windows or while bootup. Not sure why or how the PQ service is "hidden" from windows. PQ stands for Power Quest the company that used to own Partition Magic before Symantec bought them out. Someone who knows what they are doing should be able to access. Not me I went ahead and wiped it using Darik's Boot & Nuke along with whole drive then installed retail copy of XP pro without the Acer stuff on a NTFS partition. I did make a DVD first. If I want to sell I can setup to factory.

BTW, there is a BIOS update at Acer
Euro that will make the new 2nd generation Core Duo (Core2Duo or Merom)
compatible. Merom will offer amongst other things 4MB L2 cache per proc
faster clock speeds and other worthwhile features. The new BIOS is designed
to support it. A 2GHz Merom is supposed to retail for around $300.00 US.
Can't wait to get my hands on one. One of of forum members posted a thread about installing a Engineering Sample he got from somewhere with pictures.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread156778.html