Acer Hidden Recovery Partition

@shelded

You are totally missing the point .

The laptop as portable device will have something to offer , if it stays strictly organized , by having loaded all your extra software , documents - pictures - presentations - email settings - customers contacts .

You are thinking about laptops , by having in mind a gaming desktop.
Thats your major mistake .

The laptop user who will have an bad software incident , far from home , he does not loose money , he looses the world .

ACER offers two clicks recovery , at factory defaults , or at your latest backup .

There is no little utilities , that can do that so hassle free as two clicks.

All major brands have a similar solution for their laptops ....

For my desktop , i had buy recently Ghost 14 , instant recovery no matter what .
Still its less perfect than the ACER recovery , as it needs the extra GHOST bootable media to start the process .

And finally , if you worry about hdd space that much , call ACER to change your drive with an larger one .
10 - 20 GB Loss , its not a worthy reason to mess up the laptop .

If you wish to chat more about the usability of laptops , start a new thread and we will chat in it, for ever .

 

I don't want to chat about laptops, I have no gaming in mind. I asked a question about the eRecovery feature i see people so desperate to restore in this thread. If you don't feel like discussing it, take a pass, after all, your English is coming across to me as bad attitude. Thanks for your attempts.

As someone reading this thread seeking answers, I seriously consider whether this is the minimum necessary to get operating again. Many others posted in this thread with fear... and got no replies, either.

As to whether I'm missing a point, maybe I was: you say this feature can restore a user backup which is also stored on that eRecovery partition? How they gonna shoehorn that in the remaining 2GB on my computer's eRecovery partition? Well, that would be sweet, but is it worth the hassle I see people going through here to recover the eRecovery?

Travelers in this scenario should never depend on one hard drive in a laptop. Airports lose laptops, accidents happen. This again does not seem an appropriate solution for all this effort.

For me, the 10-20GB used by the recovery is not only waste (although small by any modern standards) but it is using two of the four partitions Windows will recognize. So I have fewer partitions available for the other stuff I want to do, although there are workarounds. Someone earlier here, I think, said "It's my computer, not Acer's." This laptop backup process seems so costly no matter whether it is done by the entire industry or not. It seems structured to support the industry's needs instead of the user's.

 

You have the choice to speak Greek with me , you will get better answers .

This thread is based on technically advanced methods ,
here cames !! the knowledge is power !!
healing one advanced system as the erecovery , its not a game for everyone.
Specially not for noobs .

Your theory about travelers , and about the usability of your partitions ,
its not useful in this thread .

Still people like me and many others, we have write guides, that are hanging on our signatures , and the one who wishes to view the complete picture ,
he will find the truth , if he study our findings for a month at list .

erecovery is a complex mechanism ... all the people who just looking for a quick fix , they will not solve the puzzle.

For all of them its best to send the laptop to ACER , and pay the repair .

 

I see language is only part of the problem. Calling people noobs seems to come across clear. So kiriakost chose to pass but used a lot of words to do so. That is so not welcome.

For anyone else with interest in this thread, my question or point still stands; if you have deleted this partition and you think it is necessary to the operation of your computer, what does it do for you that a bootable CD/DVD or flash drive cannot? For instance, I think I could easily relocate this partition to a flash drive and use my boot manager to boot it if I wanted it. Flash drives would even allow some write capability (whch I think the current method does not?) I could sell them (therefore, Acer should sell them). Or, if having it on the hard drive is so important, let's teach people how to erase what's there to put a crapware-free copy there (that's probably already been done).

 

The two clicks restore ... kills your " point " and ego ..

The 90% of people who had delete the partition , had admitted that was an foolish action from their part .

 

kiriakost, I thought I was done with you. I'm not going to debate you, the question still has not been answered, you're just not capable of it. I understand your major objective is to click less. That's good to know. I read people's concerns here to be a bit more significant than that.

Besides, it seems to go something like: Power, Alt-F10, then two clicks. I would get all worn out, I guess, because I would have to insert a flash drive first.

 

Do not overestimate your powers

Do not go there ...

I can not follow , i am not capable ... :wub:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=377458&page=2


.

 

So how long are you two going to do this?

 

Sorry about that; I thought we were already done, before!

I have two Acer laptops which have their recovery partitions intact. If one of those were missing, I would not restore it to the hard drive, I would put it on a flash drive. It would be simpler to do that than the process required in this thread, which costs more time and money than it pays back. BTW, I think Acer agrees with me, in that they never intended anyone to restore that partition's Alt-F10 capability once it was removed. Additionally, the notion of 'user file backup' being stored on the same hard drive is silly, but they may not agree with me there since they enable ppl to do that.

Try this query at eBay:
"Acer Aspire One recovery disk - Win XP USB Flash drive" finds one for $35 with free shipping. I promise, it's not me, but that's my idea. God bless 'em, although I can't see how it is allowed on eBay.

eRecovery partition type on my Aspire One XP Home system is type 12. On my Aspire AS1410 with Windows 7 Home Premium it is type 27, but apparently still is FAT32. If you used Microsoft's RE in the type 27 partition it would be able to be NTFS and then you could keep secure data on it. http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html

 

It looks for ever ... as some people are not capable enough to understand,
that eRecovery is their LEGAL O.S. ( Operating system - aka WINDOWS ) ,
That they have all ready pay for ,
its their ...
its the laptops " rescue partition"...
its the software part of the laptop .....
its tested by ACER for any defects ...
its perfect from any aspect !!

And with the eRecovery active ... they will have it for ever ..



If some one likes , to walk by having a USB stick at hand , its his choice.

And we, that we do not have " luck of knowledge " , will continue to use the advanced methods , that ACER has teach as ..

Simple because its the smartest thing to do .


And no , i am not waste energy because of the light behavior of one member ,
i am clarifying my view , for him and all the others , who will jump in , and act alike .

Still there is hope , when i see such messages ..
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5610516&postcount=54



.

 

The link kiriakost provided shows the highest and best use of the eRecovery. Well, actually, the post two prior shows the objective of the person http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5600740&postcount=52

That person had not deleted the PQservice partition. Just needed help reconnecting to the Alt-f10 function. Didn't have to spend money to do it. I think that's great.

 

Ok I've done my head in reading this thread and the arguments to try and find an answer to my question (Failed).

You all seem to know a lot so maybe help me out. When I do a clean install of Windows 7 on my C drive (only drive) on the aspire 5738 will it delete my recovery partition. I want to both, keep my separate partition for recovery if ever needed and do a clean install.....how?

 

First find the way, and one extra hard drive, so to make an complete copy of the laptop hard drive ... and then you do any further moves .

 

To enable Alt + F10 (D2D) try F12 to enter boot menu then choose PCI RealTek option (LAN) once that has completed with No OS found reboot with Ctrl + Alt + Del. This may enable D2D if nothing major has happened to your disk.

 

6930G with 2 Hidden Partitions - 4 Partitions in Total

YOU NEED TO CHECK THE STRUCTURE OF YOUR HARDDISK FIRST (since 6930G has 2 Hidden Recovery Partitions)

Anyway for reference for anyone that is interested:

Full Clean Install (with format) of C Drive - Windows 7-64bit

I did a full clean install (with format) on Drive C with Windows 7-64bit (note - formatted Drive C only). Both hidden partitions remained in tack and Windows 7 worked fine. To be safe though, I took an Image of my complete Harddisk PLUS I also additionally imaged ALL the separate 4 partitions (including both Acer Recovery Hidden Partitions). PLUS I made ALL the acer recovery CDs.

Acer Recovery back to Vista

As a test I used my Acer Recovery CD (used CD because I don't trust Recovery Partition in case of virus infection of this partition) and returned to Vista SP1. As a further test I then used my Drve C image and returned to Vista SP2. Everything worked fine. All Acer Recovery Partitions were fine and Vista worked fine.

Paragon 10 Drive Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition - to Image harddisk

I used Paragon 10 Drive Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition to image my harddisk (using Cold Backup option DOS - without windows even started). Works with Vista & Windows 7 (two versions for 32 and 64 bit) - http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

 

Thanks kindly. from reading further forums and your answer I think I finally have an answer. It certainly appears that you can format the C Drive and complete a clean install of W7 (as you have done) As long as you do not delete all the partitions and format the entire HDD the recovery partition (which I see is unnamed in disk management and that's all that is visible in disk management apart from the C (main) drive - 455GB) should be ok.

Thanks I have burned discs of the factory restore and the drivers/applications from Acer e-recovery on the laptop.

Thanks for your help.

 

Easy questions ... easy answers ... No one ever learn from all this pages ,
to save the ACER boot record too ..

Any way .... the slow learners will learn in time ...

 

The Acer Boot Record or MBR is included in my Cold Image of my C Drive (and again in my Harddisk image) using Paragon 10 Drive Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition. If the boot record ever goes corrupt Paragon can rewrite it OR just restore your C Drive image. However if you use a Hot Image using Paragon then you can also backup the MBR/First Track separately. However this means you have to have windows running and Paragon installed. I only ever use Cold Backups from Dos or Linux (Paragon Recovery Environment).

I do have a copy of MBR/First track separately though - I only ever installed Paragon once to make the DOS/LINUX Paragon Recovery CD Environment and to copy MBR. Then to get rid of Paragon from Windows I used Factory Acer Recovery CD to start again with clean build. Then used DOS/LINUX Paragon CD Recovery Environment to make my images as a Cold Image (from DOS/Linux Boot without Windows being started). That way I always have CLEAN Build with NO JUNK stored as an initial start image (completely free from viruses). However none of this is necessary if you don't mind having Paragon always installed - I just don't like having unnecessary software installed on windows. Actually I 'think' there might actually be an option to build the Paragon Recovery environment without installing in this new version (I did mine ages ago).

Could also use the BCD editor.

My advice is to image for free with Paragon. - http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

 

Your welcome. Paragon Identified a 2nd Acer Hidden Partition that Windows Disk Manager could not see (for my 6930G). Hence I have 2 acer partitions (10GB and 3.5GB).

 

I checked with a couple of software products including paragon and altho they highlighted more detail about both partitions (C drive and recovery partition) they showed no more partitions so I'm more than happy that the Acer 5738 has only 1 protected/hidden partition

 

The most are ( it called simplicity )

 

This link wants a usernamer and password

 

I have recently purchased a new Acer 1410. It come with Win7. I found this machine has 3 partitions. 2 of them is PQSER and system reserv partition I believe is hiden and no drive letter assigned. System reseerved partition is set as active, and Win7 partition is C drive.

I would like to install a Winxp to this PC (ie dual boot). How can I do it? It seem that this PC boot from the reserved partition which is something like a boot manager.

 

Yes, someone wrote a username and pass (if you read back you can find) but it isn't working...

If somebody knows a working username and pass to that site, please let us know, thx!.

 

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone.
I want to post my fix just in case anyone else cant load there boot partition

I burnt bart pe to a disk
copied the files from the recovery partition to the c:\recovery\
start bart pe and typed the commands in the command promt as stated before.
After i got into the recovery wizard it asked for a password (AIM1R8) witch i found on another forum. from there it installed.

The reason i had to do it this way was windows was unbootable. I could not get it to run the files needed. by using bart pe i could load into a windows enviroment and install the files that were needed.

Thanks to everyone for this awesome forum and everyones great posts. i also wanted to show some of you "Wiser" people this site which gave me an idea. I was able to access the backup partition, decompress the backup and make a bootable disk. This should help everyone.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/615151-anyone-know-what-program-opens-dsi-and-wsi-files/

Thanks again, Azid

 

I have been working to restore a friend's Aspire One (D250) for three days with no success. After many attempts at various solutions, I am concluding that there are damaged sectors that compromise the system restore ("PQSERVICE") partition of this netbook's hard drive. D2D will not finish what it starts. HDTune notes five damaged blocks within the first 25GB of the drive. I cannot chkdsk /f the partition or even copy the partition.

The netbook is about one month old. Should I just encourage him to send it in for a hard drive replacement? Or will the CDs (he'll need to buy them because he did not burn them) recover the netbook's hard drive? Or is the disk too damaged to try to recover?

Frustrating little netbook at the moment...

Jeremy

 

Run the disk manufacturer tool (DOS Mode) to remap the bad sectors.

 

Thanks, weinter. I tried that (WD, in this case), but the manufacturer's tool does not see the disk. CRAZY!

 

Its not "CRAZY", as there is no drivers loaded for the specific Hard disk controller.

Most of those generic tools, works on desktops , that use basic compatibility,
as the classic "INTEL" IDE-ATA or SATA interface.

There is on ebay , one set of erecovery disks.
Just have a look, if some one is interested.
You can even study those files , or even convert them to work for you.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ACER-recovery-NAPP-TravelMate-8000-6000-and-others_W0QQitemZ130370034062

 

Thanks for commenting, kiriakost. However, I was using WD's diagnostic tool, Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows, after successfully booting into Windows 7 Starter with the faulty hard disk.

This is why I wrote CRAZY.

Jeremy

 

i'm working on updating the hidden partition with windows7 so when i hit Alt+F10 it will install windows seven instead of vista that came originally. I have succeed but i have a problem that i cannot make to work to install drivers and other software due to not knowing what are this *.enc files. I can now recover to windows 7 but cannot create the drivers disc with erecovery.

 

a user in the Aspire 1410 thread told me I should post this info here:

:GEEK: that program is not necessary. I don't like using auto configurators because I like to have control and mod abilities for when I need unique/altered configs or require slightly different processing. Like the makebootfat program can make a usb flash drive compatible with all 3 USB types (USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-HDD) simultaneously so it will always boot regardless of what usb types a system supports.

I used a program called BootMyISO.exe it sets up your usb to boot any ISO you want and comes with Memtest86 v4 ISO and FreeDOS. It boots with a menu to select which option to run FreeDOS prompt or Memtest86 and there's instructions for adding ISO menu items or to replace the ones already included. The program lets you chose if you want to format the flash drive or not. It only lets you format to FAT32 and I assume it can install without formatting on any FAT. I havn't tried exFAT with it yet and I do know it makes an error if you try to install it on an NTFS file system. I tried both erasing the BootMyISO files and copying over the Acer Recovery discs as well as tried re-formatting with windows to remove the BootMyISO files and then copying over the Acer Recovery discs. Both of those booted fine.

So to summarize I succesfully get both the SD card and the Corsair Flash Voyager usb drive to boot. The Acer eRecovery Management Tool boots up on FAT32 and NTFS file systems but it can only start if the FAT32 is using an allocation unit size of 32KB (32768 Bytes) or less and for NTFS an allocation unit size of 4KB (4096 Bytes) or less. So far I cannot get either devices to boot on an exFAT file system.

I can't say for sure if the " bootsect.exe /NT60 driveletter:" command (program found on retail Vista/Win7 install discs) made any benefit as initially it made no difference but after running the program " BootMyISO.exe" and then rerunning the bootsect.exe program/command it has not prevented my 2 storage devices from booting.

I tested out load speeds using different size allocation units on each file system. NTFS was the slowest and the larger the allocation unit size the faster the Acer Recovery program loads. 32KB FAT32 loaded almost exactlly 5 seconds faster than 4KB NTFS on the Corsair Flash Voyager. The Corsair Flash Voyager also loads 5 seconds faster than my Class 10 A-DATA SDHC card in this Netbook's built-in card reader and 10 seconds faster than the same SDHC card in a Lexar USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader P/N# RW022 Rev.B. The Corsiar and the SDHC were using 32KB FAT32.

Now I'm double checking load times of FAT32 on the Corsair with smaller allocation unit sizes.

EDIT: smaller allocation units on FAT32 produced longer load times but not as big a difference as I expected. I saw maybe up to 3 seconds longer load difference when I tried 8KB and 4KB FAT32 allocation units. I know the 512Bytes allocation unit size was a great deal longer loading but I can't remember exact timing for that test.

and here's an interesting discovery I made trying to regain access to the hidden recovery partition on an Aspire 5050-5278 http://www.briteccomputers.co.uk/fo...re-access-to-acer-hidden-hard-drive-recovery/

EDIT Mar 23rd 3:55PM EST:
I just discovered this, might be a way to edit OEM recovery discs to add menus or options to select from OEM recovery or retail windows install. It has to do with editing/combining .wim files found on the OEM recovery disc/partition with retail vista/win7 .wim files. See my post http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=6053934&postcount=3325.
EDIT Mar 24th 1:24AM EST:
:GEEK: I succeeded and updated that linked post summarizing my results!

 

Code:

Besides, it seems to go something like: Power, Alt-F10, then two clicks. I would get all worn out, I guess, because I would have to insert a flash drive first.

Sorry for joining this intense debate about pros and cons of the Acer erecovery,
but even after reading the whole 44 pages of this thred, not to mention Acer Handbooks etc., I still don't get what happens if you do the Alt-F10 Restore. on my 3810, the hidden partition is intact but I missed to create backup CDs when I first got the Laptop.
So I wonder if I can restore the System as it was when delivered and THEN create the recovery disks?
Also, I wonder what happens to the partition structure, e.g., I have a large D: Data partition and not enough space to backup all the stuff, so will only the c: Windows Partition be restored or will Everything be deleted?
And finally, I would like to install Linux but read that it destroys the possibility of recovery via the hidden partition unles some Super Grub etc. effort, not sure yet if it is worth it then. But hopefuilly would be able just in case to install a non-OEM windows 7 version without hassle, but there are horrifying stories out there that you have to send your machine back to Acer etc.

But selling or buying Acer Recovery Disks on ebay is just

 

if you system is in warranty then Acer Recovery discs are sent to you free if you ask for the discs. That's what I did right away with my 1410. My mother had to pay for her Aspire 5050 discs because she ordered them maybe a year after her warranty expired. $20-$50 for the set of discs.

Pressing Alt-F10 lauches an Acer custom WinPE/RE that gives you the options of 1) do a full erase and factory restore of just the C: (first primary partition so becareful if your first primary partition is not your C: drive). All other drives are left untouched. Or 2) A partial system/factory restore that simply reinstalls all the factory delivered device drivers and software without deleting any data on the C: so all your user files/data are left in tact. Like if you manually reinstalled all your old drivers and bundled software.

Now what I need: is for someone to find a way to tell the Acer eRecovery Management Tool to look on my usb flash drive (that it's actually running from) for the hard drive images files it's trying to install instead of asking me to insert the "Recovery CD 1" into the CD-ROM drive!

If you have the time could you possibly post your steps to doing this? I'm curious if I can learn anything to help with my current issue. Also only time I've ever seen *.enc files were codecs, maybe the .enc means "Encoder"?

 

I have found a way (thanks to a russian site) to open Hidden partition
You will need mbrwrwin and a cmd called for example mount

inside the cmd you type this

save with extension cmd on same folder where is mbrwrwin (prefereble create a folder on c:\ name it mount).
double click on it and you will now see the pqservice partition, and can copy all is content.

For convenience here is a executable that will do it automatically here

 

I have an Acer aspire 5732z whit which i got MyWinlocker Installed, two days ago while trying to install Linux on my system my windows could not boot so i had to format my system and recovered it using acer recovery disks, Now my Data in YoSafe is also lost but i recovered a file named MWL_PSD_drive.vmdf which was my Yosafe partition using EASEUS Data Recovery.
Now when i right click on this file and select decrypt and enter my previous password it gives an error stating "password processing failure encountered" as shown in image2.jpeg file attached. Now if i click retry it gives a different error stating "File access error" as shown in image3.jpeg file attached.
Please help me recover my files, i will be really thankful to you.

 

Been following this for a while. Interesting technical exercise but beyond that I am not sure why to bother with F10 recovery.

F10 recovery assumes that the reason you are reloading you software is not a failed or corrupt disk. If it is you you are in loads of trouble

If you have (As I had) a corrupt W7 100MB partition and a corrupt Media Player partition F10 will do nothing whatsoever for you.

If you want a good recovery solution get a small USB hard drive and make a full disk image on it. Clean install after doing all backups etc if you please See 'Stage 2 and 3' of http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/487245-what-do-when-your-new-acer-arrives.html#post6295157 for detailled approach.

A CD/USB of disk image software plus a small USB HDD will not take much storage space but will be able to get you going again in all the above situations. If you work on a rig/submarine for months at a time and/or space is at a total premium get a second drive, clone the current one and slip the cloned drive in an anti static bag inthe laptop case

 

that's my question, since almost every recovery partition I've ever looked at came fragmented I wanted to improve the recovery time/performance this way. I know in my specific case the recovery partition is type 27 aka "Hidden NTFS".

 

anyone qualified to answer this question? thanks in advance

 

Hi george_l,

Thanks for providing the link, however it is asking for username and password when I try to access it. Any chance you can let me know how I can access information?

Many thanks
Houman

 

Do you remember how long it took the first time when the factory preinstall initialized? You may gain one minute perhaps. Not even enough time to get a beer or some coffee
I wouldn't touch that partition at all. And I don't mind if I am called a coward for that

Michael

 

You say no point but I want to know if there is a risk of harm, it is NTFS. If it's safe to defrag it I'll find out for myself if it helps recovery time. So once again is it safe?

 

You must have a boring life, I would rather be watching the football

You can defrag it if you like. There is the usual .1% chance defrag messes up but I guess you can stand that.

Unless you believe everything the defrag vendors say and little the OS makers say there is no reason to believe that defragging will achieve a whole lot in the scheme of things as you are doing a disk to same disk managed copy operation which is pretty slow anyway, and I seriously doubt that the image is hugely fragmented inthe first place. Big fragments are not usually a huge performance problem.

However:
To feed your paranoia having defragged it and then copied the defragged files in default order to the c drive who says that that layout on c is the optimum layout for windows loading etc. Shouldnt you be optimising C and defragging THAT then writing that back to the hidden partition as an image .

Except that you should actually be optimising c and patching it - presumably your first job after restoration - before saving that image back to the hidden partition. Otherwise the patching almost guarantees fragmentation of OS files however speedily you just recovered them . . .

I'm not being negative

Far too many years of experience tell me the fastest way to recover your laptop system is to get it all working all apps installed, all patches done all virus checkers updated etc and then copy a complete disk or partition image to an external HDD. This will
a) Be a full 1 click recovery to a fully usable system
b) Be some use if the HDD fails or is suspect
c) Be faster than a Disk to same disk different partition copy
d) Support easy upgrading of HDD's
e) A full HDD image allows the making of a cloned HDD to take on long trips etc which provides total recovery - even from huge virus/trojan infections in under 60 seconds when the spare in your carry case is swapped into the laptop



Anyway . .

 

yup I'm completely aware of your recommendations and I pretty much agree. However attempting to defrag the recovery partition is all for experimental knowledge and to improve the recovery time, the process of extracting the image and copying files to the C: drive is very long/slow and I find the performance is different from system to system. My Acer Aspire 1410 SU3500 laptop does it way faster than my Aspire 5050 Turion64x2 TL-50 laptop. The latter is a dual core 200MHz faster frequency and they both are using 5400RPM SATA2 drives.

As for defragging C: yes I always do that when using the system anyway. Couple weeks ago I reorganized Boot files, directories, modified in <8 days, modified in >8 and <24 days, modified in >24 days in that order from beginning to end of the drive. I havn't booted up on that hard drive yet to see how it goes.

As for boring life? I find it quite fun to experiment and learn. Must be why everyone around me is always asking me for help. It takes no effort on my part to defrag a drive. I stick it in an enclosure and let the defragmenter go while I'm busy on my OS drive using my computer or laptop.

 

Hello,
I need some help. I have an Acer Aspire 4520 with the AMD Athlon 64 which came with Vista x86. I recently upgraded to Win7 x64 which is working fine. However, I noticed in Disk Management that my recovery partition is now empty. It is over 9GB which is a lot of wasted space since I only have about 100GB. I would like to use Win7 backup to put an image recovery file in that space. But the partition seems locked. Windows doesn't recognize it as a potential backup destination and none of the reformat tools are available in the drop down context lists when I right click. I'm locked out. How do I open it up so I can put stuff into it? I probably don't even have to repartition it. Please help! thank you.

 

The recovery partition is not empty; it just appears to be empty. The recover image is still in that partition. I have the same result in Disk Management with my Acer Aspire 5740G. You can probably delete the image in the partition with some more advance software.

 

thanks for your response aylafan. But in Disk Mgt is says:

capacity: 9.76 GB
free space: 9.76
% free: 100%

but disk management doesn't provide any options to access the disk. Also in Windows 7 BackUp, this partition is not offered as a destination option in the drop down box. It's off limits.

So you are saying that Disk Mgt is lying to me about the status of the partition? I'm not saying you are wrong but this is so odd. It would seem logical that the contents of the recovery partition would be wiped since I did a clean fresh install of Win7 x64 over Vista x86. I was always told that you would lose all data on the HDD once you did a clean install. Anyway, do you have any suggestions as to what software or tools I could get that would allow me access to that partition? Ideally, I would like to use Win7 backup to put their recovery files in there. Thank you very much!

 

i had bought the new 160gb hard disk to replace my laotop's 1. i had managed to copy all of the contents from the hidden PQSERVICE partition to new hard disk but it showing following masage after i boot my laptop with the new hard disk:

"ntdrl file is missing....press ctrl+alt+del to restart"

I wish i can duplicate the PQSERVICE partition to the new hdd and maintaining its Alt+F10 function. Anyone here have experience of how to do this?

Note: My combo-drive was spoiled and it can only read CDs.

 

Mine says the exact same thing (100% free space), but it's not empty. The recovery image is still in that partition.

When you did a fresh install of Windows 7. You probably just formatted the main partition and left the recovery partition alone.