Having already done a clean install of Vista Ultimate, and thoroughly configuring my system away from the Acer factory default, and having burned both Acer and my own recovery disks (the latter using Complete PC Backup right after the clean install), do I really need the PQSERVICE partition anymore?
If not, I'll make sure to delete it next time I clean install - when I get my new T8300 in a few weeks.
I recently bought an Acer 5610z from a family member that didn't need it anymore and it didn't come with any documentation or software save for the Vista OEM DVD. I proceeded to immediately wipe the HD and make a new install with Vista on a 20 GB partition and my remaining space reserved for programs and the like.
About 2 days later I realized I was missing space on my HD and realized there was a hidden partition for recovery called PQSERVICE. This is my first notebook and I had no idea how hard it is to find drivers and was having a hard time finding all the drivers and programs I needed (even from the manufacturer most of the drivers/utilities are for win XP).
I didn't make the recovery DVD's so I thought it might be possible to find the utilities or drivers on the hidden partition. I've unhidden it but I'm at a loss as to where to find them or if any drivers or utilities are even on it.
At this point do I even need the partition or can I delete it? I'd love to find someone with a copy of the DVD's at factory default settings but...
My problems lies with the PQSERVICE partition. It is still there and I can see it with Ubuntu. When I attempt start up, I get the message c:ootcd and an error status message. I also have recovery cds that I have tried to to use but I am not able to boot up from them or get any sort of indication that they work , only a blinking cursor then back to the c:ootcd error. My question is if I just completely delete and reformat my entire hard drive, pay that "lovely" $20 fee for new recovery cds from Acer as I'm out of warranty, would it work?
View 10 Replies View RelatedIm interested in an alternate use of PQSERVICE and the ALT-F11 D2D Trigger. I would like to put something else other than recovery software on the PQSERVICE partition, specifically a secondary OS. One that can be launched secretly by holding the D2D key combo on startup.
As far as i know, the only limitations are that PQSERVICE has to be named that, be the first partition on disk, be smaller than 5 gigs, be of partition type, be FAT32, and has to have Acer's special mbr.
So, knowing those facts, how can i get something else other than the winPE recovery software to boot when holding down alt-f11? What file does the BIOS D2D functionality look for, is it just NTLDR?
If this is the case, i should just be able to install windows on that partition, restore acer's mbr, reset the partition type to 12, and have it work as long as i keep the other parameters the same. Hypothetically, windows would boot
Does deleting the recovery partition and the original OS void your warranty? Only software support?
View 10 Replies View RelatedI have a clean HDD(without pqservice) and pqservice backup in acronis on usb HDD. i try to restore pqservice with acronis boot disc, everyting goes fine, then i restore mdr with the same acronis image of pqservice. everyting work fine, with acronis disc director i can see, that i have hidden pqservice as primary, next comes NTFS partition as primary, active. but alt+f10 does not want to work... d2d in bios is enabled. how can i restore everything in order to use normal factory defaults using alt+f10?
View 11 Replies View RelatedI've recently offered to help out a friend who's Acer aspire has stopped working.
It won't book into windows, but she is keen to keep her old files.
I installed a 2nd version of windows onto the machine to basically back up the whole disk using acronis true image. I've now got that image storage remotley on my own machine.
I think she bought the computer 2nd hand and never got a burned copy of the recovery disks and for some reason the Alt-F10 thing doesn't work to get into the recovery stuff (I've checked in the Bios for D2D)
I've managed to make the PQService partition visible and was wondering what was the best way to restore the machine to factory defaults. I created a CD from the STCDBOOT.ISO file, which allows me to book into the recovery manager, but all it does is prompts for the first disk/system disk.
I'm guessing that all the data required is held in the PQService partition, but I'm not sure how to create the backup DVD's that should have been done when the machine was first used.
I would image that the data is held in the 92EPIXIE.nnn files in the D2D/images directory of the PQService.
started with USB thumb drives not showing in MY Computer but visible every where else, getting a drive letter etc. After abunch of investigation I finally seemed to isolate the problem to some Apple Itunes related software. I used MSCONFIG to shut off the apple updater and some other Apple Ipod related startup software. THe USB problem went away.
I decided to then do a little cleanup and get rid of some software installs, I remove Apple Mobile Device support and Apple updater as well as US service. This seemed to go well but I got a software may not work right with out a reboot so I did. On reboot I again got a software needs a reboot I did it again. Now the wierdness starts, my USB problem is gone but I now have a visible F: drive called PQSERVICE, checking with disk managment in system tools I see all my partitions but in Disk MAnagement none of them show a drive letter but all are visible in My Computer and in programs with their correct drive letters. THe machine boots fine and all files are there. I used PTEDIT and see the PQSERVICE partion has a type of 12 which from what I can find should be hidden. My Alt F10 seems to take me to the partition even though it is visble, I did not choose to restore as I really want to figure this out before I re-format this laptop. My concern is why can't I hide PQSERVICE and why are there no drive letters showing in Disk Management? I know most people want to make PQSERVICE visible but I want it to go back to the way it was. Also the PQSERVICE shows a EISA Configuration Healthy in disk Management and therefore I can't do anything to it.
I have an Acer Travelmate 6460 with Windows XP on it. I want to format my harddisk and put a Vista Business on it (no OEM).
With that format I mean complete one, including the PQService partition from Acer.
Basically I want to have an 'Acer clean' laptop in the end (I only want the drivers for the hardware, and the downloads to make the soft keys working).
Now first of all i can not delete the PQService partition (not in Windows, not in the Vista installation program after booting from dvd). That made me curious and searched the internet.
Now I've read that it is possible that after deleting the PQservice partition, you loose the MBR and can not boot anymore. I don't want to take that risk because I do not want to loose many time during working hours.
I'm a software developer, knows a fair bit of hardware but I really like some advice of some 'manual' of what to do to accomplish what I want. (If that is possible).
This guide is made based on an Acer Aspire 5315, but will probably work on other machines with a hidden eisa rescue partition.
This is for everyone who has got problems unhiding and accessing the hidden rescue partition, and have tried all the methods with d2d disabling and changing partition type, perhaps with partedit32 or ptedit32, only to find out that nothing has happened after rebooting.
Download and install "Diskpart" from Microsoft, a small but powerful textbased utility, the link below is a direct download:
[url]
Here's the step by step to succeed...
Press "win + r" to bring up the run window
Type: "cmd", to bring up the command window
Type: "diskpart", a new command window pops up with a "Diskpart >" prompt
Type: "rescan", a configuration check runs
Type: "list disk", a list of the availible disks appears
Type: "select disk 0", if your hidden partition resides on that disk of course
Type: "list partition", to find out with partition is your hidden one (probably about 10 gb and without name).......................
my Acer Extensa 4420. A few days ago while on my laptop the BSOD suddenly popped up and my laptop shut down. A restarted it and while it did log in, I got notices saying a lot of stuff was corrupt. I ran chkdsk to see if i could diagnose the issue, and it stated the system volume was corrupt. As time went by using windows became erratic. I decided to try to restore my acer back to factory settings using the eRecovery program. This program would stop working every time right before the process began. Eventually windows stopped booting up at all. leaving my at a boot screen the endlessly looped. I installed Ubuntu shortly after, and managed to get my PQSERVICE partition recognized by the GRUB bootloader and Ubuntu itself (as a mounted drive). The problem is that whenever I do boot to the PQSERVICE partition and look through the options in the recovery center, there is no restore to factory default settings.
View 8 Replies View Relatedmanaged to overwrite the PQService on my Acer Aspire E380. Acer very promptly sent me recovery DVDs for my model, one System DVD and one Recovery DVD. Some of what I've read here confuses me a bit, however, and makes me afraid to use these discs if I should ever need to.
To sum up my question as succinctly as I can: if PQService has been deleted/overwritten, will system/recovery DVDs issued by Acer itself (sent from the company) still function, or will they do me no good? I'm asking you guys because, frankly, my experiences with Acer's support have been less than stellar.
I have 4 partitions on my disk as shown in Disk Management. I don't use hibernation, so I want to reclaim the 8GB partition for use as storage. I have a few questions regarding this.
1) What will I compromise if I remove the 8GB partition, other than hibernation?
2) I right-clicked on the OS partition and selected "Shrink Volume". I received the popup shown in the attached image below. It doesn't reflect anything about returning the 8GB partition to the OS partition. In fact, shrinking goes against my intention of expanding the OS partition to include the 8GB. Right-clicking on the 8GB partition only brings up "Help" in the context menu and is not shrinkable.
3) Can I do this any time after having used the laptop for a while, with data and programs already installed? Does the process affect existing files and installations?
while my HP laptop was being repaired at Best Buy, I needed a computer. Best Buy luckily has a program where you can buy an "open box" computer and return it with no restocking fees, etc. while yours is being repaired. I was fortunate enough to find an Acer 4730Z for under $300, which was great for a "temporary" fix. I fully intended to take it back after mine came home.
But, as I've used it, I've liked it, and my DH's laptop is slowly dying, so for that price, we think we are going to go ahead and keep this Acer for him.
My problem is this: the hard drive came divided into two equal drives, C and D, both with roughly 111 GBs. The main software seems to be on the C - there's only 73 GBs free there, where D is completely empty.
I know we could adjust, but everything document, picture, and music-wise wants to save to C, but obviously D is the more free space.
Can I unpartition this drive, or, at the very least, make D smaller so that there's more room on C, or switch the OS stuff to D and make C bigger?
This is weird. Previously I have two active partitions on my acer 8930G-7665.
Drive C: is 250GB and Drive D: is 250GB
Currently Drive D: is missing. I went to the disk management under WIN7 to mount or even assigned a drive letter to my inaccessible partition.
Disk Management can see the inaccessible partion but the problem is that the program wont give me any option to play with when I right click it. Please see attachment ...
I have a 3690-2970.Everything is on the C partition of my hard drive and I can't get anything to write to the D partition.The C partition became full.This caused an error in Vista that required a clean reinstall of Vista.How can I get files to write onto the D partition of my hard drive?
View 6 Replies View RelatedOn my Acer 9410 laptop I have a 150Gb disk that I divided into 2 partitions, each one 75Gb. After having installed a program my 2nd partition appeared completely empty (Windows XP with all updates). It did not even let me re-format it. I ran into UBCDWin and I tried it. From UBCDwin the partitions are ok, all the files are there and I backed up both partitions to an external disk. I used UBCDwin because trying to repair my partition my laptop went into a continous restart loop and other errors, so it was the only way to restart it (apart from Windows install cd). What can be the cause ? Is here a way to rebuild my directories ? I did all the usual (ad unusual) troubleshooting... that is:
my laptop is (or was...) using XP and it had all the drivers rigorously updated, as well as XP itself. The program I was installing was Mediachance Edit Studio 6. After rebooting, as I mentioned, my "D" partition was 100% free, as if all my 50Gb of data had disappeared. It also had no name (it had a generic "Local disk" label, while before it was labeled as "Acerdata"). Also, this partition "could not be formatted" from XP. First thing I tried was to get to a previous restore point, but Windows warned me that since there was no more D partition it could not recover it, so I did not do it. Then I did my scans with Avast, Eusing Registry Cleaner, CCleaner, Advanced System Care, and then chkdsk, RAM check, etc. with no results. At a certain point I managed to copy part of the D partition on the C drive (I can't remember how), but I think there was little space left on it (the C drive), so my laptop entered into the restart loop (BSOD) with the CONFIG_LIST_FAILED error, probably due to the lack of space for the paging file. Then I managed to stop the auto restart (from the Control Panel, ecc) and it showed me the STOP 0x00000073 (0x00000001, 0xC00017D, 0x000000002, 0xF6818BB8) error. It did not boot in safe mode and/or last known working configuration. With another computer I downloaded and made cds of BART Avast and UBCDWin, I tried many of the utilities in these with no result. Last thing, using UBCDWin (from which all my files were there and the D partition was ok and has its original name), I managed to copy both my original partitions, C and D, on an external USB 2 drive, so I probably would be able to recover all my data if I'll reinstall Windows and format disks from scratch, but before doing this I'd like to see if there's some other option...
I'm planning to kick my Aspire 5024 laptop back to the factory settings, but wanted to put one uncertainty to rest.
I understand C partition will be restored to out-of-box condition and it no longer contains anything important, all is backed up. However, I have run out of storage space with backing up the D-partition. The partitions are as they were when machine was bought.
Will Acer eRecovery touch the D: (DATA) partition if I instruct it to restore the factory setup? I have found multiple references saying both yes and no. Part of it is due to ambiguous language ("all files will be wiped" "the HDD will be in the condition you bought it" vs. assurances that D: is safe)
I have this hidden partition on my notebook (aspire 6920G) and I have no idea what is it used for. I know that PQService is recovery partition but I've never heard of this. By googling I've found that HP's used to use Compaq Setup partition to boot bios (?), but this is acer. I would really like to get rid of it (because now I can't create another primary partition).
View 6 Replies View RelatedSome time ago i install W7 and come here to ask for drivers, well, today mi brother hung up all the programs and W7 goes black. Now when I restart the computer I have a black window and nothing more.
Well finally i can put to work my Restore DVDs and go back to the original set up with windows vista with all working.
But i have a old problem, when i create a new partition at vista (and the partition i make with W7) when i restart that partition transform automatically in a Healthy(EISA configuration) partition type.
Would an 18 month old Acer 3690 that shipped with VISTA have the option in ERecovery to reinstall the whole OS from the hidden service partition. I know XP versions do, what about Vista ?
haven't got the notebook here... when I upgraded XP to Vista I remember that ERecovery at the time wasn't supported... wouldn't work with NFTS or something according to Acer.
I have had to recover my Acer Aspire 5103 laptop twice now and on both occasions the Recovery (Alt + F10 at the acer logo) did not work.
I have now reinstalled Windows Vista after formatting and partitioning my hard drive into 3 equal partitions with C and D in NTFS format using Paragon Partition Manager.
That is 112Gb of 120Gb because the recovery software is on the 8Gb hidden partition and I intend to install Linux on the 3rd partition.
how to unhide the hidden partition so that I can format it and merge it with the C drive.
I have downloaded all Vista and Acer drivers and programs so the hidden partition is surplus to my requirements.
Booted up my 6920 this evening and I don't have a drive D: anymore! I checked the disk management utility and it's showing the drive as an healthy OEM partition, with no drive letter. Right clicking the drive only gives me the Help option for the DMU, so I can't assign a letter or do anything with the drive - even format it!
I don't actually want to format it, of course. I want the drive letter back.
So far, I've tried a Windows System Restore to a checkpoint yesterday (when I last accessed the drive), but that's not sorted it.
For reasons that are too long to explain, I managed to destroy this partition on the hard drive of my Acer 4539G laptop. So no PQservice partition and the original Acer MBR is gone too. All I have left is a couple of FAT32 partitions.
I do have the contents of the PQservice partition on a USB stick.
Is there a way to recreate the PQservice partition, so that Acer's eRecovery would work again?
how to retrieve acer hidden partition.i accedentally delete ie.dont have backup for it,have a backup the acer factory setting but but didnt recover the hidden partition.
View 10 Replies View Relatedhow to partition my hdd?
(using Acer Recovery CD to install Win XP)
I have an Acer Ferrari 3000Lmi notebook.
I just replaced the hdd with a new one.
it's 80GB 5400 rpm, IDE
It's not formatted and it's not partitioned.
My notebook is an old model,
so I don't think there's a recovery partition and it doesn't have an e-empowering acer button, etc.
It only comes with Acer recovery CD's.
when I put the new hdd in, it's detected in bios,
so I installed Win XP Home using the Acer Recovery CD.
and it didn't have option to format or to partition my hdd there.
everything just ran automatically.
and now I have one C: drive.
Can anyone help me on how to partition my hdd ?
I prefer not to use partition magic/other programs to partition my hdd.
I don't know if I have DOS.
I don't mind installing XP all over again, I just don't know how to format/partition the hdd before using the recovery CD.
I have an aspire 4930 laptop which came with Vista pre-installed. To cut a long story short I installed windows xp to replace this which has been a total disaster (although the system is still working). I would like to start afresh with vista so need to do a factory reset. I have no recovery CDs.
I can confirm that the hidden partition PQSERVICE is intact. I cannot however run the erecovery software from windows because it was lost along with Vista and as far as I am aware I cannot download a windows xp compatible version.
WinXP over-wrote the ACER MBR so the Alt-F10 command stopped working however I have used a live CD version of GRUB to boot to the recovery partition, sidestepping the need to restore the Acer MBR. When the vista partition boots up Acer eRecovery Management loads, however the "restore system from factory default" and "restore system from user's backup" options are both greyed out.
I want to reimage my laptop back to the original manufacturers install when you get it new. The only problem is i didn't get any cd and i don't know which button to press. I can see the partition with the original image on it.
View 5 Replies View Relatedi have an acer aspire 5100 and i have formatted the hidden partition pqservise which contains drivers and application of acer.how can i find those file can some upload this files.i don't have any recovery cd.i have searched for napp cd but i haven't find anythink.can someone upload the recovery cd to rapidshare or similar http?
View 6 Replies View RelatedI have an acer aspire 7520 with a 80GB hard disc.the problem is it is split in two partitions of 40GB and I wonder if I can have it as just one drive of 80GB.I have tried programmes such as partition magic and windows disc manager but I can't seem to change anything,
View 4 Replies View Related