Acer e-recovery

Acer has a built in backup/recovery tool. This system launches while pressing keys ALT+F10 simultaneously during startup.

Only drawback: you need to define a password when making your first backup, and by the time you do a restore, you may have forgotten it.

Luckily, the password is stored in plain text on a hidden partition in the file: AIMDRS.DAT.

This file can be located in the root of the hidden partition or in the “Tools” folder.

Content of AIMDRS.dat file:

[MyData] PD=PASSWORD

 HT=

The hidden partition can easily be mounted with any linux live cd or partition magic or using TrueImage to create an image and then restoring the appropriate file.