access eRecovery manager after reformatting C:?

aa1 8.9" xp 1gb ram 160gb hdd.
here is the short version.. i installed a 1gb ram stick to make 1.5gb total and the computer worked like a charm. then (the next day) the keyboard and trackpad froze (in the middle of playing wow, so the only way out was holding the power button until shutdown). when i tried to restart, it wouldn't go past the black xp screen with the little blue/green bar running under the logo. when i tried in any of the safe modes, it would run a few scripts and freeze there, on a black screen with a bunch of scripts. i didn't know about the F10 trick and i didn't even consider that it was the ram stick because it had worked fine for like 4 hours w/ a few standbys and restarts just to make sure.

anyway, after fighting with it all days and searching the internet for answers, i reformatted the C: drive. i figured if i could at least get windows running, then i could access the D: drive (PQSERVICE where the backup info is) and run the eRecovery manager to reformat back to factory settings. it was fail, but worked just fine after i put my old ram back in.. go figure.

so the damage had been done, and i now have a copy of a DELL xp home sp1 on my acer C: partition, which now thinks its a dell. that being said, i couldn't just pull up the eRecovery from the start menu. so i loaded partedit32 to gain access to the PQSERVICE (D partition and unhide it, so its now viewable in my computer. in it are the following folders: autorun, D2D, factory, FMTNTFS, and Minint.. and the following files (not foldered): backup.nap, acerbp.p2, boot, d2d32, d2d32.exe_3.4.3.12, d2d32.exe_3.4.3.14, d2d32_old, fatboot, FmtFAT32, FMTNTFS, FormatDisk.dll, imagefile.dll, int15, it41.dll, ItWin, MBR, MBRwrWin, model, NAPP, napp2p_cmd1, napp2p_create, napp4, ntdetect, ntldr, obr3, obr3.acr, p1, partition.all, rcd, readfile.dll, RestoreFAT32, rtmbr, scd, swcd, and unicode... the only file in the autorun folder was also titled autorun, which did nothing.

the D2D32 file ran the eRecovery manager and asked me if i wanted to format the 144GB C: partition (which i do) and then said it failed to do so. "Now formatting, this operation may take several minutes" then "Partition fail to be formatted" maybe 3 seconds later. i tried it both with D2D enabled and with it disabled in BIOS, both times i get the same message. the only thing i can think of is that i used the partedit32 program to view the D: partition, and to do that you have to change it to a type 07 from a type 12 using partedit32, as per these instructions: http://ezinearticles.com/?Access-To-The-Hidden-Partition-Pqservice&id=414487. could that have anything to do with why it is failing to format?

i feel so close! i just want to be back like new.. any ideas?? thanks in advance! ~sam

 

really? 14 (or so) views and nobody has any ideas?

 

I think the only people who can help are the Acer guys. Putting the "Dell" on it made it a Dell. I would think you would have to have the original "Empowering Technology" folder on C drive to use the partition. Of course you can always do what I did, when I completely screwed up my five year old E-machine, and install Ubuntu.

 

yeah, i suppose that's an option.. and a good point about making it a dell.. ) well thanks a bunch for looking! it sounds like (from the acer folks) that they can just ship me a recovery disk and i should be good to go. that's probably what i'll do, i was just trying to save $23. thanks again!

 

you can download and reinstall the acer erecover program. that will let you access the recover partion but you will need to install windows first.

 

The simpliest thing to do is reinstall from the recovery disks. It is hard to advise you on getting a D2D eRecovery partition working again when so many things have been changed. Since you have already reformatted the C drive, I advise you use the recovery disks.

 

try using a bootable usb pen (like a gparted liveo ne) to set the pqservice partition as active then reboot and i bet d2d will load and allow restore done it on my acer 9303 before when the hdsMBR got wiped out

 

Can anyone please post the Partedit32 file I have been looking everywhere and I can't find it. You may also send a link or whatever to PM. All the ginven links don't work.
Thanks