Recovering hidden Acer PQSERVICE drive

[jamieh]

Hello
I have an Acer Aspire 5633 laptop and have just mistakenly formatted the hidden partition,wiping the data in the process.
Can anyone either help me to recover the data or assist in providing a copy of the files,which I can then use to restore the hidden partition?
Thanks

 

[frozenlead]

You formatted them - they're gone, for all practical purposes.

Even if someone had the data, I wouldn't use another computer's recovery partition for yours, even if it was the same model. There are too many cards in play that you don't know about.

Did you talk to Acer support? They could help you more than anyone here. It is their software, after all.

Why do you want them back anyway? If the PC is working fine, don't bother.

 

[jamieh]

I called Acer support informing them of the situation and they said that they can reimage the entire disk for a grand total of £70!

I do still have my recovery disks,burned upon purchase

IF I were to use the recovery disks at some future point, would they require the files found in the hidden partition i.e. mbr record, in order to complete a successful recovery?

 

[frozenlead]

I have no idea, it's all based on what Acer uses and how they set it up, but it's worth a shot if your machine dies.

 

[jsebean]

🙁 Didi the same thing to my Acer sadly, did a lot of searching on the web, but then I can across a site talking about a ISO Image that you can download from Acer. This will repartition your drive like when the computer was purchased, including the PQService partition, but if you want to rebuild PQService partition, you will need your Recovery disc (You would have one if you burned it before formatting PQService) if you don't have one though, do a Google search 'Acer RCD' and buy it from Acer (It only costs $19.95 for mine). To get the ISO image to repartition the drive, visit AcerPanAm.com, go to Drivers and Downloads (don't need to select a country), click the link at the top of the Drivers and Downloads Page 'Link to the Old Page', this will open a new window. Enter in your Computer info and at the bottom of the Drivers and Downloads page, you should see "Post Acer Disk Formatter CD ISO Image", download it. This is only 200MB, but remember, you will need your recovery disc for the PQService, because the PQService is like 5GB, and you can't get 5GB out of 200MB. Now i've never tried this, because i've just ordered my Recovery disc from Acer RCD, but I will try it asap, i can't wait, but from what I've read, this should save you that £70 (Whatever that is in $, not sure)

This should fix...
PQService partition
Not D2D system error when installing eRecovery
Format computer with Alt+F10
The "Repair my Computer" option when Pressing F8 while booting up computer

NOTE: This will require you to FORMAT YOUR WHOLE HDD. So backup everything on thumb drive or CD/DVD, don't even backup on your D: drive.

 

[sparky01]

🙁 Didi the same thing to my Acer sadly, did a lot of searching on the web, but then I can across a site talking about a ISO Image that you can download from Acer. This will repartition your drive like when the computer was purchased, including the PQService partition, but if you want to rebuild PQService partition, you will need your Recovery disc (You would have one if you burned it before formatting PQService) if you don't have one though, do a Google search 'Acer RCD' and buy it from Acer (It only costs $19.95 for mine). To get the ISO image to repartition the drive, visit AcerPanAm.com, go to Drivers and Downloads (don't need to select a country), click the link at the top of the Drivers and Downloads Page 'Link to the Old Page', this will open a new window. Enter in your Computer info and at the bottom of the Drivers and Downloads page, you should see "Post Acer Disk Formatter CD ISO Image", download it. This is only 200MB, but remember, you will need your recovery disc for the PQService, because the PQService is like 5GB, and you can't get 5GB out of 200MB. Now i've never tried this, because i've just ordered my Recovery disc from Acer RCD, but I will try it asap, i can't wait, but from what I've read, this should save you that £70 (Whatever that is in $, not sure)

This should fix...
PQService partition
Not D2D system error when installing eRecovery
Format computer with Alt+F10
The "Repair my Computer" option when Pressing F8 while booting up computer

NOTE: This will require you to FORMAT YOUR WHOLE HDD. So backup everything on thumb drive or CD/DVD, don't even backup on your D: drive.

 

[leanne_a82]

Hi,

I have been having issues with my Acer 5101 and as result am replacing my HDD.

Could I use the "Post Acer Disk Formatter CD ISO Image" before using my back up/recovery discs in order to get everything onto my new HDD?? I'm assuming that I wouldn't be able to just use the back up/recovery discs without the PQService partition on the new HDD and therefore, if I used the download mentioned, I could then use the back up/recovery discs.

Cheers,
Leanne

 

[leanne_a82]

The other thing is, as I am replacing my HDD, I decided to upgrade it, so I will be installing a 200GB HDD instead of the 120GB that was originally installed. It is of higher spindle speed with a bigger cache. If the ISO image sets the HDD back to how it was at purchase, will this cause problems?

Cheers

 

[hollywood1]

You don't really need the PQSERVICE files. If you have the recovery disks you burnt when you got the laptop thats all you need for a full recovery. Plus you will free up the storage space used by the hidden partiton.

Replacing the old HDD for a bigger, faster new one will not cause any problems either.