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Resolved Question

Backup a OEM restore partition?

Nov 2, 2011 2:00PM PDT

I have an old Acer Aspire 5517 laptop that has a Windows 7 Home x64 restore partition that you can use from F10 at BIOS startup to reinstall W7. I want to use DBAN or another low level tool to wipe the 160GB drive in it, and later rewrite that partition reserving the license etc..

How can I do this? I basically want to reinstall W7 after the wipe using that OEM license and don't have disks. Thanks

Discussion is locked

3oij has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Why not make the restore media now?
Nov 2, 2011 2:13PM PDT

You can use the Acer eRecovery to do this now.

As to backup. I use CLONEZILLA but make NO MISTAKE. I back the entire 160GB image.
Bob

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CloneZilla
Nov 2, 2011 3:14PM PDT

Yeah I want to sale it though and want to secure-wipe the drive, and there is no utility that wipes a single partition.

Can CloneZilla clone and write a partition?

Example:
-Clone OEM restore partition to a flash drive file
-Wipe HDD using DBAN or S.M.A.R.T tool
-Use boot utility or live cd to write partition

I'm not sure what can do that.

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It's unsupported. Except
Nov 3, 2011 2:24AM PDT

If we create the restore media, wipe the drive then use the restore media.

Can you explain why you are not using the supported methods?
Bob

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no security
Nov 3, 2011 3:24AM PDT

supported methods?

I just need to be able to write that partition back to the drive after I wipe it. I'm selling the laptop and don't want private data on it, and want to keep the licensed install of W7 too.

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Then the supported method will do fine.
Nov 3, 2011 3:29AM PDT
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too high level
Nov 3, 2011 3:42AM PDT

that's a byte sweep through atapi,sys, it can be recovered. I'm using S.M.A.R.T or DBAN passes on the drive cause I don't won't work information leaked.

I'm not interested in methods that can be compromised by end-user recovery softwares,

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Then what's left?
Nov 3, 2011 3:49AM PDT

You seem determined to do what does not work. Best of luck!

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better the right way than the lazy way..
Nov 3, 2011 4:13AM PDT

Just using restore leaves the data there to be stolen even with ccleaner free space wipe..but yeah,,thanks. I was hoping some more-educated people were around to answer. I'm not interested in getting my data stolen by using the lazy answer methods.. I'll find it out on my own as usual.

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This is no lazy answer.
Nov 3, 2011 4:16AM PDT

We know we can create the restore media, wipe the drive and be done. CHECK!

We know we can backup and restore the restore partition. CHECK.

What is not supported and there is no tool is to restore the boot manager. That's where your goals are not met and I will share how to get around it.
Bob

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wrong
Nov 3, 2011 4:16AM PDT

Your method gets my data stolen cause DOD on freespace doesn't erase data from an old partition which has a different offset..

I'll use clonezilla or similiar and do it the right way..I'm sure you're intelligent though..

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So how will you get the F10 to function again?
Nov 3, 2011 4:17AM PDT

I know that many folk will want to know this!

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Answer
BACKUP and RESTORE the OEM PARTION = DONE
Nov 3, 2011 3:54AM PDT

CLONEZILLA does that for free. But you are missing the boot loader to use that partition.

Fix? Make the restore media then wipe the drive. Use the restore media and we are done.

I think this must be your first time at this and why you didn't understand the issues.
Bob

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4uy
Nov 3, 2011 4:18AM PDT

OEM restore partitions, or at least the Acer one use an offset not in MBR but BIOS, the trick is getting the right offset which is simple on a blank disk.

I've figured it out. I was just depending on a community for an answer for a change.

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That's untrue.
Nov 3, 2011 4:25AM PDT

Fortunately those restore partitions are not position dependent as a few think. While I've done this dozens of times, just last week I used Acronis to move an entire system from a 500GB to a 750GB drive and keep the restore partition and feature.

If this was truly a "right offset" issue then the restore feature would have failed.

Again, the boot manager/loader is where the OEM partition is called up.
Bob