Acer eRecovery, what to do?

damngoodmrjam

After a sudden BIOS reset (cause unknown) Windows 7 didn't boot anymore. Replacing the CMOS battery did not help. The message 'BOOTMGR is missing' is persistent. Reinstalling the OS did not work with my Acer eRecovery dvd. I get the message there is insufficient disk space for the required temporary files. I can see this 0.1 GB partition when booting from Partition Wizard. This is what I see:
Disk 1. Capacity Used Unused
PQSERVICE 13 GB 9.22 GB 3.78 GB
ACER 100 MB 9.73 MB 90.22 MB
Acer 225.95 GB 92.8 MB 225.86 GB
DATA 226.71 GB 103.1 GB 123.61 GB

I formatted the third partition (Acer) but Acer eRecovery still gives the same error of insufficient disk space.
What should I do? I really really don't wanna delete my DATA partition. Can I delete the other partitions, including the hidden PQSERVICE partition??

Please help me, I'm already spending days at this and contacting Acer Support myself does not help me either..

JordanB

I think since you have c volume and d volume, you can keep d volume but delete everying else.  Your D is more than just a partition......it's a volume.

 

But I'm not overly savvy when it comes to disk management.... partitions, volumes and the like, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

 

If you have critical data on your volume, then maybe use some data recovery software if you're unsure.  You'd need to remove the drive and put in a USB enclosure or something.

IronFly

Acer erecovery disk needs a full wiped HDD, no partitions, to work.

damngoodmrjam

? That would contradict their claiming of partition ACERDATA not being erased:

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/55/~/why-are-there-two-hard-disk-drives,-acer-(c%3A)-and-acerdata-(d%3A),-on-my-computer%3F

JordanB

I think since you have c volume and d volume, you can keep d volume but delete everying else.  Your D is more than just a partition......it's a volume.

 

But I'm not overly savvy when it comes to disk management.... partitions, volumes and the like, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

 

If you have critical data on your volume, then maybe use some data recovery software if you're unsure.  You'd need to remove the drive and put in a USB enclosure or something.

JordanB

You may have to do some googling on how to delete the C volume and the other partitions.  Be careful with diskpart.  It can be unforgiving with a mistake.

 

But as IronFly eluded to, you'll want to install your recovery on unallocated space.  You may even have to delete some of the stuff twice as the link below describes if it is uncooperative in becoming unallocated space.

 

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2668-partition-volume-delete.html

damngoodmrjam

I'm using MiniTool Partition Wizard right now to copy the DATA partition to an external HDD, just to be sure.
Next, I'm guessing I can safely delete the Acer (100 MB) and ACER (actual C drive) partitions and reinstall Windows 7 with the Recovery dvd. If I understand correctly after doing some research the 100 MB boot partition will be created anew during Recovery. I'm guessing I should leave the PQSERVICE partition alone?

damngoodmrjam

Do I have to create unallocated space with Partition Wizard before reinstalling with Acer Recovery or is it created by Acer Recovery itself?

JordanB

If I were trying it, I would create the unallocated space.  Basically you want Acer Recovery to see that unallocated space and ignore your D volume.  But since I never tried it, I'm guessing.

 

JordanB

If I were trying it, I would delete everything except the volume.

 

Acer recovery is designed to work on a brand new hard drive (in cases where someone's HDD dies)....so I would think it would lay down a brand new PQ service partition.

 

Ideally you want Acer recovery to see that unallocated space as its place to perform its recovery and ignore your volume.  Again, I'm guessing.  If my data on volume was critical, I wouldn't risk it on my guesswork.

JordanB

It could be that you have to shrink the D volume to give it more room.

 

Note: shrink and delete aren't the same thing

 

If you've never shrunk a drive (volume), you'll have to google for instructions.

JordanB

If you're confident that your volume is safe on a different hard drive, then ideally you'd want to perform a diskpart clean on the whole drive before you ran the recovery ( as IronFly sugessted).

 

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/The-Cru/Reset-your-SSD-to-factory-settings-Windows-DiskPart/ba-p/162503

 

 

damngoodmrjam

It seems I have solved this issue! I deleted all partitions except the DATA drive but starting Acer eRecovery I found out I had deleted one too many. Now eRecovery wanted to restore the DATA partition! So, it apparently doesn't need unallocated space but a destination partition to install. I recreated the ACER ("C") partition with Partition Wizard and now Windows 7 is being installed on this partition leaving the DATA alone! So, it seems Acer eRecovery does not need an empty HDD (unallocated space) to begin with, which would support their claim DATA won't be erased.
I can also conclude Acer support in this issue is insufficient. How many people out there are trying to do a restore and then face the wall of insufficient space on the 100 MB partition? The eRecovery software should have been able to delete this partition to enable a proper restore. Now, 3rd party software is needed to do this!
Thanks for your input!

JordanB

Glad you figured it out.  But I've got to tell you that it's not like the days of Windows 95.  Backing up your files is pretty important, so you shouldn't really have to even mess with trying to preserve a d: data volume.  Personally, I use many of the tools available for backing up:  File History, OneDrive, Flickr, Google Drive, Google Photo, system image backup, and occasionally a manual backup of certain files locally.

 

It mostly comes down to experienced users that backup their files and inexperienced users that take their computer to a computer shop or bestbuy to get their files recovered.