Boot code for recovery partition

Had the same problem. Luckily I'm a Computer Technician so I had the experience to know that you can use a Bootdisk (Such as Dell DSRFix or Partition Magic Partition Table Editor) to temporarily change the partition from 00 to 80 on the Hidden Recovery Partition. This requires you to put the 00 where the current 80 is on the normal 'C Drive' partition. You will most likley need to change the 00 & 80 back to the way it was, after you are finished re-loading the factory copy of windows. Note: If you opt to utilize the Dell DSRFix Tool, you only want to use the Partition Table Editor (not the DSRFix, as this is an E-Machine).

All the VAIO Computers will be shipped with the Recovery partition in the Hard Drive. If the Hard Drive is not completely formatted, you can access the Recovery partition by pressing the F10 key for 5 to 10 seconds when the VAIO logo appears.

If you're able to access the Recovery partition, then select Restore C Drive option to restore the Computer back to the factory settings.
Let me inform you how to check the if Recovery partition is available.

Press windows+R key and type diskmgmt.msc and check if you're able to view EISA partition. If EISA partition is there, then the Recovery partition is available and you can access by pressing the F10 key at start-up.
If the EISA partition is not there, then the partition is deleted, then you can purchase the Recovery Discs for your Computer which may cost $15 to $35.

You may have a Virus, try a factory restore. As you know, the Acer computers and those of other manufacturers are now delivered with a system of restoration installed in a hidden partition of your hard disk. This system launches out while pressing keys ALT+F10 simultaneously. And sometimes for various reasons this system ceases functioning.
The first cause often comes owing to the fact that function D2D Recovery is disable in the bios (menu principal).

The solution : enable the function and try to press keys ALT+F10 during the starting of the computer.

The second cause : in this case hidden partition PQSERVICE was erased or damaged, or you replaced the disc and in this case it is not present.

The solution : If you did not previously make a backup of your system by making an image disc. It will not be possible to use the D2D recovery. Your only hope will be to have in your possession Acer Recovery CD/DVD.

And the third causes : the Acer Master Boot Record (MBR)was damaged or replaced by non-Acer MBR. As long as partition PQSERVICE is present or that you can put the hand on the necessary Acer files you can reinstall the MBR of Acer.

The solution :

First method : on a functional Windows system:

1 disable the D2D recovery option of the bios.
2 open a Windows session with an account administrator.
3 Download, unzip and launch partedit32(registration required for download).
markymoo: ptedit32


4 Identify the Pqservice partition by its size (at the bottom of the partedit window there is a partition information box) it is a small sized partition approximately 2 to 6 Go.Once made change the type of your partition into 0C and save. Restart and open a session with an administrator account, you should be able to navigate to the PQservice partition. Seek these two files mbrwrdos.exe and rtmbr.bin once localised open a command prompt and launch this command mbrwrdos.exe install rtmbr.bin, this will install the Acer MBR. Close the command prompt window restart again Windows go into the bios and reactivate the D2D recovery. Now ALT+F10 should launch Acer recovery at the starting of the computer.

Second method : On a nonfunctional Windows system.

For that you must use a Linux distribution (for me Mandriva provided all the tools necessary).

1 Boot on the Mandriva install CD/DVD the boot menu will give you the possibility to repair or to restore the Windows boot loader.
2 If that is not enough launch an installation of linux(this will be an occasion to test this terrible OS) and choose LILO as boot loader(a boot menu that allow you to choose between several operating systems) once finished the installation. Restart your computer in the boot loader menu system you will have at least 2 Windows options the first generally point to PQservice choose it and you will boot directly into acer D2D recovery. __________________

Well there is an array of programs out there that can do this for you. I suggest gparted. If you download the gparted iso and burn it to a disk. You can boot from the disk and then you follow the onscreen instructions. You can divide the partitions in any way you see fit. If you have any questions on using the program you can always contact me and I'd be happy to answer

Today's machines require we make our own or order them. Let's see if Acer has some boot recovery method but first, I'm going to write as if there is no issue about losing files on the machine.

Try the ALT+F10 key

First of all you must be aware that some of the operations to come can cause irreversible change on your hard disk, I recommend to you and I will never make it enough make a backup of your system before launching you in any hazardous operation.

Any damage and/or modification done on your system will be under your whole responsibility. The following procedures were done on a Acer Aspire 5102wlmi and some also functioned on a Dell Inspiron 9400/1705.

As you know, the Acer computers and those of other manufacturers are now delivered with a system of restoration installed in a hidden partition of your hard disk. This system launches out while pressing keys ALT+F10 simultaneously. And sometimes for various reasons this system ceases functioning.

The first cause often comes owing to the fact that function D2D Recovery is disable in the bios (menu principal).

The solution : enable the function and try to press keys ALT+F10 during the starting of the computer.

The second cause : in this case hidden partition PQSERVICE was erased or damaged, or you replaced the disc and in this case it is not present.

The solution : If you did not previously make a backup of your system by making an image disc. It will not be possible to use the D2D recovery. Your only hope will be to have in your possession Acer Recovery CD/DVD.

And the third causes : the Acer Master Boot Record (MBR)was damaged or replaced by non-Acer MBR. As long as partition PQSERVICE is present or that you can put the hand on the necessary Acer files you can reinstall the MBR of Acer.

The solution :
First method : on a functional Windows system:
1 disable the D2D recovery option of the bios.
2 open a Windows session with an account administrator.
3 Download, unzip and launch partedit32(registration required for download).
4 Identify the Pqservice partition by its size (at the bottom of the partedit window there is a partition information box) it is a small sized partition approximately 2 to 6 Go.Once made change the type of your partition into 0C and save. Restart and open a session with an administrator account, you should be able to navigate to the PQservice partition. Seek these two files mbrwrdos.exe and rtmbr.bin once localised open a command prompt and launch this command mbrwrdos.exe install rtmbr.bin, this will install the Acer MBR. Close the command prompt window restart again Windows go into the bios and reactivate the D2D recovery. Now ALT+F10 should launch Acer recovery at the starting of the computer.

Second method : On a nonfunctional Windows system.
For that you must use a Linux distribution (for me Mandriva provided all the tools necessary).

1 Boot on the Mandriva install CD/DVD the boot menu will give you the possibility to repair or to restore the Windows boot loader.

2 If that is not enough launch an installation of linux(this will be an occasion to test this terrible OS) and choose LILO as boot loader(a boot menu that allow you to choose between several operating systems) once finished the installation. Restart your computer in the boot loader menu system you will have at least 2 Windows options the first generally point to PQservice choose it and you will boot directly into acer D2D recovery.

The last solution is the simplest one, just note that during the Linux installation you will have to resize your Windows partition to create a place for a new Linux partition it is the most perilous part because irreversible, therefore take your precautions at this time.

Regards
PCmania

Hi there.
If F11 is not workings as it sometimes does, then pop the recovery DVD in the drive and try hitting F12 as the computer starts up so you can change the boot order without going into the bios.
If you do not have this option the enter the bios by hitting F2 as it starts up, once in the bios look for the boot order and change it to CD/DVD as the first boot device, hit F10 to save the changes and exit the bios, the computer will restart and you should be able to boot from the recovery disk and restore the PC to factory condition.
Please post back if you need anymore assistance.

Good luck and thanks for using FixYa!!

You can't. The partition was created by SONY to hold recovery files because so many people lose their installation disks. So SONY created the partition, loaded the special software on it and put options in the menu to use it.

I'm trying a backup of my Aspire One PQSERVICE to DVD after a near catastrophic partitioning experiment.

So far, I've booted from a Knoppix live CD and I'm trying partimage to copy the contents of the PQSERVICE to an image file on an external usb hard drive. Hopefully I can burn the image to DVD-R. So far, it looks promising.... even if I can't make a DVD-R from the image, I can use partimage to restore the PQSERVICE from the image file if I have to.

Another option would be to boot a knoppix live CD and just copy the contents of PQSERVICE to another disk or partition (not NTFS though). Linux doesn't care about the hidden drive partition settings that Windows uses.

Hello Sir / Madam,

Many Acer systems come with the ability to press ALT+F10 to kick off the Acer Recovery applications from a special hidden recovery partition. Sometimes this won’t work and there can be a number of reasons.
1. D2D Recovery is “Disabled” in the BIOS (Main menu).
FIX: Enabled it and try pressing ALT+F10 again as the computer boots.
2. The Acer hidden recovery partition (PQSERVICE) has been removed or damaged. If the disk drive is a replacement drive then you won’t have this partition.
FIX: Unless you have previously imaged the PQSERVICE partition it will not be possible to use D2D recovery. You will need to restore from the Acer Recovery CD/DVD.
3. You have converted the FAT32 partition on the hard drives into NTFS. Acer D2D recovery won’t be available if you perform this conversion. Ironic that NTFS is a more desirable disk format to use but Acer won’t support this in their systems!
FIX: Restore your system from the recovery CD/DVD media.
4. The special Acer Master Boot Record (MBR) has become corrupt or has been overwritten with an non Acer MBR. As long as the PQSERVICE partition is there or you can get your hands on a couple of Acer service files for your model, then you can remake the special Acer MBR. Let’s cover how this is done.

1. Disable D2D recovery in the BIOS. Can be found in the “Main” menu section. Save the BIOS settings and exit.
2. Log into Windows with an “administrator” level account.
3. Download ParTEDIT32.ZIP (registration required for download).
4. Extract PTEDIT32.EXE from the zip archive and run it.
5. Identify the PQSERVICE partition by its type or size. It is likely to be 12 or another custom value and is likely to be reasonably small in comparison to the other normal partitions - see the example below from a working factory default Acer. Click the Link below see the image full size. http://www.roundtripsolutions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/
6. 2007/10/AcerDiskRecoveryBroken_F031/hidden.jpg
   Change the type to “07′ (Installable File System NTFS, HPFS) and “Save Changes”.
7. Reboot the computer and login with an “administrator” level account.
8. You should then be able to open up a command prompt and navigate to the PQSERVICE drive.
9. Enter the following command at the command prompt:
   mbrwrdos.exe install rtmbr.bin
   - You may have to search for these files and change into the relevant directory.
   Note: This step writes the Acer MBR, with mbrwrdos.exe and rtmbr.bin being the special service files.
10. Close the command prompt window and reboot.
11. Go into the BIOS again and enable D2D Recovery. Save the BIOS settings and exit.
12. ALT+F10 should now start Acer Recovery as the computer starts.
13. The Acer MBR ensures the PQSERVICE partition is hidden therefore there is no need to reset the partition type back to 07 - well there shouldn’t be if all has gone well. If you need to manually reset it then run PTEDIT32.EXE again, set the partition to 12, or whatever the original value was, and save the changes to complete the process. Reboot and it should now be hidden.

If Windows is unbootable, due to whatever issue, you can always use the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win) along with a copy of PTEDIT32.EXE to achieve the same results. Likewise, use UBCD4Win along with PTEDIT32.EXE if the PQSERVICE partition is being changed back to a hidden one by the existing MBR. We’ll leave that as an exercise for those who need to do it! It has been pointed out in the comments that UBCD4Win already has an application that will do partition maintenance, so checkout TestDisc if you go down that road.
If this is a new drive or someone has completely wiped the drive, including the hidden partitions, it may be necessary to use partitioning software to recreate the partitions that the Acer Recovery system is expecting! You’ll also need to restore an image of the recovery partition from a previously made backup, so it is worth making that backup image straight away while the laptop is still new and shiny, and certainly well in advance of any problem.
A final word or two of caution: take great caution when playing around with partitions on an Acer system… you have been warned… and remember to make the backup media disks as soon as you fire the computer up for the first time!


Thanks
Good Luck

Don't forget to rate the Solution!!!!!!!!

Is the d2d erecovery function enabled in the bios?

To check, activate the BIOS utility, press <F2> during the POST; while the notebook PC logo is being displayed.

To enable D2D recovery ard disk recovery), select Main from the categories listed at the top of the screen.

Find D2D Recovery at the bottom of the screen and use the <F5> and <F6> keys to set this value to Enabled.

That should allow you to use the F10 function key to activate D2D.
* Note: D2D e-recovery is not in Acer Empowering Management.
AEM is a power management utility that supports ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface) which allows for maximum power conservation and maximum performance. (Managed by the windows OS)