How to unhide and delete Recovery partition in Acer Aspire 6920

[kidambi502002]

I have Acer Aspire 6920 Notebook which came with vista home premium in 64 bit installed. I have made Recovery disks (3 DVDs) and had resorted to factory defaults several times by using the DVDs and not by Alt+F10 (at that time I did not know about alt+f10). I now have removed the 64- bit vista home premium and have windows-7 Ultimate RTM, Vista Home Premium and XP Pro all in 32 bit in three separate partitions in one single hdd. I have also done BIOS upgrade from 1.06 to 1.14. I have SATA mode set to IDE instead of the default AHCI due to XP not functioning under AHCI interface. My BIOS shows hdd pw frozen by default though I have removed the hdd and set the BIOS to default twice. I find the Vista Home Premium in 64 bit OEM is a real pain since it has a lot of third party softwares – free and sharewares – which I have to uninstall every time (more than 20 of them) and therefore I tried to delete the acers recovery partition which is of 18 GB size and my Notebook with 250 GB hdd shows only 232 GB. However, the partition is hidden and I have tried to unhide and delete the recovery partition with a number of third party partition softwares like Paragon, partedit32, Easeus, Norton, acronis, G-parted, macrium reflect, all with no success! I am a noob but all this I have tried by googling and reading posts in various forums.
Now I request the learned members to give me a solution that will work, in simple procedure explained, to unhide the acer recovery partition and deleting it without disturbing my present OSes installed on the three partitions. Macrium does not show the PQ Service/EISA partition. Thanks in advance.

[DarkSilver]

When you insert the Installation Discs(Windows 7 only), it will show totally all PQservices(hidden partitions) inside the AS6920G will appear. Then, DESTROY it!! Muahahahha!
It will be no PQServices Hidden Partitions appear for Installation Discs(Windows Vista).

If you want a more advance and manual method, I can tell you too but it is harder and more bugs if you do it wrongly.

[kidambi502002]

I inserted windows 7 RTM disk and booted from it, and in either of the options, viz. installing windows-7 or Repairing the OS, was the hidden partition shown. The Install option only showed three partitions I made totalling to about 232 GB (the hdd is 250 GB). Please let me know the advanced and manual method to unhide the PQ Service and delete the hidden partition so that I can reclaim the 18GB space.
thanks and regards.

[DarkSilver]

I inserted windows 7 RTM disk and booted from it, and in either of the options, viz. installing windows-7 or Repairing the OS, was the hidden partition shown. The Install option only showed three partitions I made totalling to about 232 GB (the hdd is 250 GB). Please let me know the advanced and manual method to unhide the PQ Service and delete the hidden partition so that I can reclaim the 18GB space.
thanks and regards.

Sorry, I can't understand such high standard English(I am not english-man).
Did you mean you can't see the PQservice there?
You can't have totally 250GB even your HD is 250GB. I would be only 24XGBs as max the Partition's format(NTFS, FAT32 and so on).
Ok. Now the advance method.

1st, Download Partedit32(PTEDIT32.EXE).
Restart your laptop. Press F2 and enter BIOS setting. Disable D2D Recovery.
Save setting and exit BIOS setting.
Now, in the Windows.
Extract it(ptedit32) out to a folder. Open the PTEDIT32.EXE. A box will come out.
You can see some Partitions(based on the amount of partition you have on your laptop) as appear on the Box.
You can see some numbers on the most left part(label as Type).
Change the number in the "Type" of the Partition that you think is the Hidden Partition. Basically, change the number to 07 will make the Hidden Partition appear.

Warning: I won't hold any responsible for this advance method. Try it at your own risk. As told, it is ADVANCE.

[kidambi502002]

Sir, thank you for the fast response. I did as I was advised by you. The first three partitions show the type as "07" while the last and the 4th partition shows the type as "00" followed by '0's in all subsequent columns. The partition information at the bottom left shows as "free space". When I tried to change the type from "00" to "07" (the 4th partition), it asks me "About to make changes to drive 1, are you sure?" But the drive size of drive 1 is shown as 238472 MB (which is equal to 232.88 GB). I was afraid of making the change. Can I do this change of type for the 4th partition. Will it then show the full size of 250 GB. If my three partitions and their contents are gone, it will not matter, I can repartition and reinstall. But will I get the full size of 250 GB. thanks in advance.

[DarkSilver]

Sir, thank you for the fast response. I did as I was advised by you. The first three partitions show the type as "07" while the last and the 4th partition shows the type as "00" followed by '0's in all subsequent columns. The partition information at the bottom left shows as "free space". When I tried to change the type from "00" to "07" (the 4th partition), it asks me "About to make changes to drive 1, are you sure?" But the drive size of drive 1 is shown as 238472 MB (which is equal to 232.88 GB). I was afraid of making the change. Can I do this change of type for the 4th partition. Will it then show the full size of 250 GB. If my three partitions and their contents are gone, it will not matter, I can repartition and reinstall. But will I get the full size of 250 GB. thanks in advance.

I think you better backup everything 1st before anything stupid happens.
Moreover, you need a Windows Installation Disc as well. If the Hardisk files got screwed-up, you can still do an Installation of OS. With your backup, it should be a big problem.

If you can't backup your stuffs and don't know how to reformat your laptop,
I would no suggest you to test it out.

[kidambi502002]

I have done everything, but no luck. Please suggest something drastic - I am prepared to do it. I do not mind reformatting and installing OSes again - I have done it hundred times and no problem. But I am bent upon removing/deleting the hidden pqservice partition and reclaim the 18GB space. thanks again.

[DarkSilver]

I have done everything, but no luck. Please suggest something drastic - I am prepared to do it. I do not mind reformatting and installing OSes again - I have done it hundred times and no problem. But I am bent upon removing/deleting the hidden pqservice partition and reclaim the 18GB space. thanks again.

Strange. Mine used to be OK with it. I mean even without 3rd Party Software.
Basically, I just boot into Windows 7 Installation, I can delete the partitions I want included the hidden partitions.
Maybe you should try some other 3rd Party Software such as Paragon.

[chriscatt]

Hi, can you not just install win7, then manage all the partitions through disc management 'Right click' computer, 'left click' manage, then click on disk manager. You then should see all the partitions and do with them what you please...
Chris

[DarkSilver]

Hi, can you not just install win7, then manage all the partitions through disc management 'Right click' computer, 'left click' manage, then click on disk manager. You then should see all the partitions and do with them what you please...
Chris

A very good suggestion. I think it will work because after installing Windows 7, the Hidden Partition Acer MBR will be destroy and can be deleted using Disc Management.
But it is strange that he can't see the hidden partitions while Installing Windows 7.