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Rummy

I wanna see a hidden partition(plus Acer problems)...

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Ok, this isn't technically my issue, someone I know on tinternets is having a load of trouble with her Acer laptop, Vista installed. It's all broken, Vista won't boot, and she's tried tech support who told her it's got a built in recovery console(press Alt+F10 on boot), it's basically a recovery disc in a hidden partition.

 

The problem? The fucker's password protected. She's tried all her passwords, she's sure she didn't set one. If she didn't set one, this thing might be feeling crazy and so she's basically in a catch 22. However, I've been googling and found out that the pass is in plain text in a file, but the file is on the hidden partition. I'm curious to look at this partition on my own laptop(also an acer) in the event shit like this ever happens(tech support say she'll have to pay £50-£70 to get it sorted cos she doesn't know the pass). They said she'd have set it when she first got the comp, but I think it's possible to have not set it, because I don't recall doing so either.

Anyway, my basic question is that in Vista(my Vista, which works fine) is there any sort of program I could obtain to let me look at a hidden partition? Possibly even edit a file in it, through a plain text editor?

 

Second question, assume I can't get into Vista, is there any sort of boot cd/disc program that could let me do this? I read something about something called the Ultimate Boot CD, though I'd have no idea where I was starting with it. I know exactly where I need to get to on the hidden partition, my only issue is finding a way to see the partition, both through Vista and from outside of it.

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I have an Acer laptop and I have noticed some things. I think the password might be set when you run the Acer eRecovery management for the first time. You can apparently create a recovery cd/dvd with it which restores the laptop to factory defaults. I couldn't do this though because it fails to do anything when I click on "create factory default disk" button. I think that it says in the manual that you should do that when you first boot the laptop. Doesn't really matter when it's done, just do it before the system becomes unbootable. Or in my case before installing other operating systems...

 

I was able to see the contents of the hidden partition from linux (you can see them with any live-cd I think). But I couldn't locate a file that had the password. If you decide to try a live-cd, download the ubuntu live-cd and boot from that and it should allow you to see the contents of your hdd. Note that you don't need to install ubuntu, just boot from the live-cd.

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Oh ok, thanks for that. The file that has the password is apparently called AIMDRS.DAT(I found googling just that has turned up a ton of info now too). I'll try this linux bootup disc thing out on my own comp to see if I can figure what I'm doing, then try and help her fix hers.

 

I actually did make a system restore disc when I got my laptop, but I don't honestly remember setting a pass, hence I'd like to make sure I know it just in case. I only just set one in the Acer eSettings thing yesterday, to 000000, which is apparently the default anyway though some people seem to be reporting otherwise.

 

 

I found this link which describes method 2 as using a linux boot disc(I know nothing at all about linux) and suggests the following;

Method n°2 :

 

With a Linux boot CD make :

 

1. Cd /mnt

 

2. mkdir acer

 

3. mount - T vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/acer

 

4. cat /tools/aimdrs.dat

 

Here is your password.

 

Warning : for more recent laptop with SATA disc replace "hda1" with "sda1".

 

Anyone know if I could easily break things further by typing something wrong there?

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The method 2 is pretty much what I used to check the contents of the hidden partition. I had to use /dev/sda1 on mount though since this laptop has a sata hdd. As long as you don't change anything in the hidden partition you won't mess anything up.

 

I'll explain briefly what the commands so that you can have an idea what they do:

 

1. "cd /mnt" , you change the current directory to /mnt (if you have ever used DOS or the command prompt this should be familiar. The directory structure differs from DOS, there are no c:\ d:\ etc.)

 

2. "mkdir acer" it creates a new directory to /mnt called acer. The path to the directory will be /mnt/acer

 

3. "mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/acer" To be able to read the contents of the disk you need to mount the partition to the file hierarchy. The Unix file hierarchy is different to what you might be used to on windows. If you want to know more you should find some tutorials on linux. Using -t means that you will specify the type of the partition which will be mounted. vfat is the file system type. Then there's the device(/dev/sda1 or /dev/hda1) that is being mounted, and where(/mnt/acer) it will be mounted.

 

4. "cat /tools/aimdrs.dat" Simply put, this prints the contents of the aimdrs.dat file to the screen.

 

On my laptop there wasn't such a file though.

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Oh ok, thanks for that. The file that has the password is apparently called AIMDRS.DAT(I found googling just that has turned up a ton of info now too). I'll try this linux bootup disc thing out on my own comp to see if I can figure what I'm doing, then try and help her fix hers.

 

I actually did make a system restore disc when I got my laptop, but I don't honestly remember setting a pass, hence I'd like to make sure I know it just in case. I only just set one in the Acer eSettings thing yesterday, to 000000, which is apparently the default anyway though some people seem to be reporting otherwise.

 

 

I found this link which describes method 2 as using a linux boot disc(I know nothing at all about linux) and suggests the following;

 

 

Anyone know if I could easily break things further by typing something wrong there?

 

Basically you download something like Ubuntu then go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal and type those commands in. Easy peasy.

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Cheers guys(specially Bogbas, that post helped me understand what the commands are doing better so I feel more at ease I won't rape my comp), I'll try and check it out tonight, I'm at work right now and busy over the next few days, so hopefully I'll be able to try it out by thursday and let you know how it goes. If it works, hopefully I can help my friend fix her laptop!

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