Disable Acer eRecovery system

Question

I'm trying to put some time-consumed database operations into the background thread with the help of AsyncTask. In order to handle the possible device rotation, I save my AsyncTask instance in onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() and reuse them in onCreate(). So far so good...

However since the Activity is recreated after device rotation, I must update all Activity references in my AsyncTask to the new created one. The problem is that, the SQLiteOpenHelper inside the AsyncTask also has a context instance which is passed through its constructor and I just passed the old Activity instance before, now how can I update it to the new Activity?

I have tested, It seems work even I don't update the context of SQLiteOpenHelper. But I'm still not sure if it is OK.

Thanks

Solution 1

Try using fdisk to set the partition as unbootable. That doesn't work on some of those recovery partitions, but it might in your case. This would be reversible from a full-boot of windows AND from a recovery boot (install disk) if you had to. Otherwise, I would pull one or two of the drives for safekeeping and rebuild those machines without a recovery partition. Then I'd go through and delete or wipe that partition on the remainder.

I'd also see if in your BIOS you can remove the menu option from the bootup display -- on HPs the button still works, but the vast majority of people don't have the keystrokes memorized.

(As for not being able to image them--if that is because of cost, get Clonezilla. It works great and is FOSS. ANYTIME you have a lab you almost HAVE to figure a way to image them these days. If you're using a domain, don't forget to newsid.exe them before joining up.)

Solution 2

Out of the box idea: How about a physical disabling of the recovery switch? If you can't press it you can't trigger it.

Edit to add: Maybe you could disconnect the wiring instead of clogging the hole?

Comments

[cregox]

Cool question! But I don't really understand why you don't want to wipe that Acer recovery partition. If you're already using DeepFreeze, what would it be good for?

[cregox]

But if that happens, isn't it better just using a disk or pen drive? Usually the HD itself breaks before anything else anyway! Plus, that recovery partition tool is meant for single computer and user with no recovery disk.

[cregox]

That's one thing I was going to suggest! :P Quite good that SU warned me about your answer before I posted mine.

[Joel Coehoorn]

fdisk is a good idea - I'll have to test it. I can't pull the drives. These are ultra small form factor machines with no access to the internals. Part of the problem with imaging is some additional software our students use, but I suppose I could image everything before installing that software.

[Joel Coehoorn]

It's just a pinhole, but I think I might be able to get some glue or something in there. If I have to permanently break it I will, but I'd rather avoid that.

[Joel Coehoorn]

While an interesting idea, we eventually determined that a bug in the Acer firmware was causing the resets, with no student involvement. We ultimately solved the problem by using CloneZilla to take an image of the recovery partition (so we had it if we needed it), and then wiping the partition completely.