Topic: Acer PQSERVICE (OR: how to restore a laptop with the hidden partition)

[devnullius]

On Acer it's called PQSERVICE partition, and NTFS.

I badblocked both System + Data partitions. I left PQSERVICE alone.

You can use it to restore your (Acer) laptop to factory defaults, even without a recovery DVD.

Copy Paste FROM: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/altoswindows-2k3/KLxvtdnTtTY
" how to use and start boot of hidden EISA partition (contains; system factory restore files & drivers)
3 posts by 1 author 



devnullius @ googlewave.com    
2/3/10


Most brand computers, laptops, notebooks & netbooks come with a hidden
partion of an EISA type. Right clicking it in Disk Administrator will
not give an option or possibility to mount the unmounted drive or
assign it a drive letter.
This partition is initially used when you first power up your
computer. You then get an automated installation / image restore that
gives you a fully operating and installed Windows.

If you need to restore your computer to system factory defaults, and
you do not have the original dvd's to help you out, you might  be in
luck when you saved your old EISA partition.

You can, again, boot from this EISA partition and completely restore
your computer. All original data WILL BE LOST.

More on how to do this, here: http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-62937-recovery-disc

Copy-paste here:
" Using a Boot CD like the wonderful Hiren's bootcd, I could see 2
partitions:
- a first 800MB partition that was hidden and contained the recovery
data
- a second partition using the rest of the disk and was the active
partition.

Using any partitioning tool, I did set the first partition (recovery
partition) as the active one, applied the changes and rebooted.

That's it !!! The Laptop rebooted in a recovery mode in which I
followed a wizard and could restore the laptop in its factory settings
within 10 minutes.

No CD or DVD to buy.

Many thanks to Hiren's BootCD creator by the way !!!

Good luck ! "

And also from this page, the following:
" You can use hirens boot cd to boot into a "mini windows xp", there
you go to administrative tools and the "Disk Manager".
Within Disk Manager you can right click on the recovery partition and
"set as active"...

many thanks to zorglups for the tip with setting the recovery
partition active.

i tried to set up a windows xp on a compaq cq60-110EG. But it was very
time-consuming to find the right drivers, and i didn't manage to get a
working sound-driver. therefore i had to recover the vista system
(without a recovery-cd).
and it worked perfectly!

thanks!! "

Hiren's BootCD is a classic. If you have your own boot-warez, use it.
It makes no difference. If you do not have any recovery tool-cd's or
dvd's, install the torrent search program 'Bit Che' (excellent
program!!!).

Search for some Live cd's or Recovery cd's and make your partition
active and bootable... It should work


I still have to test for a way to quicly acces this EISA partition
once Windows is installed. I suppose it also contains drivers for all
the hardware you have. And finding the right drivers... It can be an
ass : )

Special thanks to: zorglups, on Jul 8, 2009 9:46:54 pm BST in
kioskea.net-forum.

Have fun and Peace!

Devvie

~~~ devnullius@googlewave.com ~~~

Cuisvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore persevare
------
All spelling mistakes are my own and may only be distributed under the GNU General Public License! - (© 95-1 by Coredump; 2-10 by DevNullius)

[devnullius]

Copy Pastes from the same threat:

How to explore and acces your hidden files of the EISA partition.
As mentioned, with Disk Administrator you cannot assign a drive letter
to the EISA partition.

I found out why.

Thanks to this page:


Copy-paste:
"Renegade_Warrior   01-10-2010 at 05:09:04 PM

 The recovery partition is known an an EISA Partition or an OEM
Diagnostic Tools Partition.

These partitions are basically a Linux EXT or EXT2 partition

The EISA Partition always needs to be the first partition on your
drive while the Operating System partition needs to be the second
before you install you're OS.

So it would look like this:

Drive 0 Partition 0 Recovery
Drive 0 Partition 1 Operating System

Also, you are allowed to have up to 4 Logical Partitions on a drive.

Do a Google search for OEM Diagnostic Tools Partition will bring
plenty of results on this subject.

A tool I use to access EISA partitions is Ext2 IFS for Windows which
allows you to set a drive letter for Lix partitions or to remove a set
drive letter to keep said partition hidden. To install this tool, you
have to right click on the installer, select properties, then the
Compatibility tab and set it to run in Vista Compatibility Mode and
it'll install with no problem. "

Pretty much says it all

Peace!

Devvie


link: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/3305-63-making-acer-recovery-partition

[devnullius]

Things that can go wrong...

(You have to think / test for your self - I base my conclusions below on 1 Acer laptop... ;p)

After my badblocks -svw /dev/sda2 and 3, the remaining partitions have no filesystem.

Acer restore required:
1 NTFS formatted partition - I made it the same size as it originally was before removal of the partitions by me...

Karma!

devnullius

[Thisper]

Last week I was looking for a new laptop. I just bought this laptop https://productz.com/en/microsoft-surface-laptop-3/p/lEo54 and looking for things to make the data private or to create the partition of my data. I want my data private and it shouldn't be used by anyone at any cost.