Apricot Recovery CD

If for any reason you need to restore your hard disk's contents to its original out-of-the-box configuration, you should use your Recovery CD.

Warning : Use of the Recovery CD will completely destroy the contents of your hard disk. For machines where the hard drive was supplied split into 2 drives, C: and D:, both drives will be Formatted. Unless you have a backup of your personal files, these will be lost. It is highly recommended that you backup your personal files regularly to avoid loss.

To Start the Recovery Process

Important : Do not interrupt the process once it has started.

With the system switched on, open the CD drive and insert the Recovery CD into the tray. Close the CD tray and then turn OFF the computer.

Take the floppy disk labelled "Recovery CD Setup Disk" or "Recovery CD Boot Disk", check that the write-protect tab is set to write enabled, and insert it into the floppy drive, then turn the computer on.

When the "Apricot Recovery Utility" appears on the screen, you will be asked to confirm that you want to continue. Use the left or right arrow keys on your keyboard to select a choice, and press Enter to continue.

Leave all disks in the machine and follow the instructions on the screen.

Your hard disk will then be prepared, and the computer will be re-booted, automatically.

The software will then examine your computer to find out what hardware has been installed. Once this is complete, the recovery process will begin.

The recovery process will be shown graphically in Percentage Files Recovered on the screen. The process can take upto 2 hours to complete, please be patient - interrupting the process once started could damage your hard disk.

If the computer stops responding or reports an error, the process must be restarted from the beginning.

When the system tells you - remove the CD and floppy disk, and press the Enter key to reboot your computer.

When the computer restarts, you may see a Configuration Error and the system may go into its Setup program. This is due to the reconfiguration and is because Boot Sector Virus Detection has been enabled. Confirm that this change is expected by pressing the Enter key on your keyboard.

After successful recovery, your computer will contain the original software that was pre-loaded at our factory.

Troubleshooting

MS 660 Recovery CD

If you get a problem with the Recovery CD crashing, go into the BIOS, and in the Start Options section, disable the virus checker. Save and exit and the Recovery CD should run through with no problem.

This Recovery CD Only Supports Apricot MS Range

When running the recovery procedure on an Apricot MS series PC you may get the above message. Before the Recovery CD runs, it does 3 basic checks,

• Checks Modem
• Checks Video
• Checks that the front panel ribbon is connected

If any of these have been changed, ie different modem, or on-board graphics disabled, it could cause the error message.

If the above doesn't work, then you could have the wrong version of the boot disk. If your Apricot is fitted with a Hard disk drive larger than 2GB, and your machine is running Windows 95 version 4.00.950 (type VER at an MSDOS prompt), then the disk needs replacing.

Setup [CAB] File Error ... Could not decode this file

This error occurs after going through the recovery procedure, and starting Starting Windows 95 for the first time. This happens because the BIOS isn't allocating any IRQ's to the PCI devices, therefore copying files fails. Go into the BIOS and make a note of the settings in the Plug & Play section. Then reset the BIOS back to the original settings, and Save and Exit. If you get the message

Go back into the BIOS and in the Plug & Play section, if any settings have changed alter them back, then Save & Exit. It should now copy the necessary files.

Recovery CD Locks Up

When you run the Recovery Process (in this case on an MS540) it gets as far as the "Checking Your Computer's Hardware" screen and locks up. Check to see if the floppy disk is write protected. If so, Write Enable the disk (move the slider so it is covering the hole), and then reboot the computer and the recovery process should run through with no problem.

Phoenix BIOS and Recovery Media

Some of the Apricots with the Phoenix BIOS actually have a Recovery CD that is bootable. Sometimes this CD will not boot, the problem lies in the boot sequence in the Bios which is often set incorrectly. Check that the boot sequence (press F2 at boot) is set as 1) Diskette 2) Removable Device 3) ATAPI cd rom 4) HDD 5) Network.