Help please for Packard Bell X6620UK

Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there now.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition v7.7 shows the following
partitions:

Partition Capacity Used Unused
File System Type Status
*.PQSERVICE 12.00GB 8.66GB 3.34GB
NTFS Primary None
*.SYSTEM RESERVED 100.0MB 25.39MB 74.61MB
NTFS Primary Active & Boot
C:Packard Bell 459.45GB 90.58 GB 368.87GB
NTFS Primary System
DATA 459.96GB 1.84GB 458.12 GB
NTFS Primary None

I contacted Packard Bell about the PQSERVICE and SYSTEM RESERVED
partitions and they
replied that they were necessary, but would not tell me anything else.

I cannot investigate them because they are not visible in Windows
Explorer.

Can anyone tell me what these partitions are ? Are they necessary if I
format the hdd
and install a bought copy of Win 7 Pro or can they be deleted?

I was intending to delete the two partitions and extend the C:
partition to cover the
then unused space, followed by installing Win 7 Pro onto this
partition after formatting.
I am now unsure, however, because of these two partitions.

Can anyone advise me ?
TIA

--
remove fred before emailing
Registered Linux User 490858

scbs29 wrote, On 4/16/2014 3:12 PM:
Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there now.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition v7.7 shows the following
partitions:

Partition Capacity Used Unused
File System Type Status
*.PQSERVICE 12.00GB 8.66GB 3.34GB
NTFS Primary None
*.SYSTEM RESERVED 100.0MB 25.39MB 74.61MB
NTFS Primary Active & Boot
C:Packard Bell 459.45GB 90.58 GB 368.87GB
NTFS Primary System
DATA 459.96GB 1.84GB 458.12 GB
NTFS Primary None

I contacted Packard Bell about the PQSERVICE and SYSTEM RESERVED
partitions and they
replied that they were necessary, but would not tell me anything else.

I cannot investigate them because they are not visible in Windows
Explorer.

Can anyone tell me what these partitions are ? Are they necessary if I
format the hdd
and install a bought copy of Win 7 Pro or can they be deleted?

I was intending to delete the two partitions and extend the C:
partition to cover the
then unused space, followed by installing Win 7 Pro onto this
partition after formatting.
I am now unsure, however, because of these two partitions.

Can anyone advise me ?
TIA

PQSErvice = Recovery Partition placed on the drive by PB and used to
restore the machine to the factory as-shipped condition
- one would need recovery disks (created by user or supplied by PB or
the a Recovery application installed on the C: drive by PB to accomplish
said task)

System Reserved = System Volume partition(files needed to boot the
system and pass control to the operating system)

C:Packard Bell = Boot Volume partition(Windows Operating System)

Data = Separate partition or second drive for Data


To ensure you understand the 2nd and 3rd item above.
Windows boots from the System volume then passes control to the Boot
Volume to load the operating system.

Note: Note: The first two (PQservice and System Reserved) do not get
assigned drive letters - this is design intent


Thus if one wiped the first three creating 471.5 GB of unallocated space
(from the three wiped) and leaving the Data partition intact/untouched)
one would end up after clean installing Windows 7 from media with the
following
System Reserved (System Volume) = 100 MB
Windows 7 (Boot Volume) = 470.5 GB partition minus the size of the
installed Windows 7 (this would be the C: drive)
Data Partition (D: drive) - left intact

It would be prudent to ensure you have all the necessary drivers for all
hardware prior to wiping anything....some of which may be necessary for
a PB machine.

--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

scbs29 wrote:
Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there now.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition v7.7 shows the following
partitions:

Partition Capacity Used Unused
File System Type Status
*.PQSERVICE 12.00GB 8.66GB 3.34GB
NTFS Primary None
*.SYSTEM RESERVED 100.0MB 25.39MB 74.61MB
NTFS Primary Active & Boot
C:Packard Bell 459.45GB 90.58 GB 368.87GB
NTFS Primary System
DATA 459.96GB 1.84GB 458.12 GB
NTFS Primary None

I contacted Packard Bell about the PQSERVICE and SYSTEM RESERVED
partitions and they
replied that they were necessary, but would not tell me anything else.

I cannot investigate them because they are not visible in Windows
Explorer.

Can anyone tell me what these partitions are ? Are they necessary if I
format the hdd
and install a bought copy of Win 7 Pro or can they be deleted?

I was intending to delete the two partitions and extend the C:
partition to cover the
then unused space, followed by installing Win 7 Pro onto this
partition after formatting.
I am now unsure, however, because of these two partitions.

Can anyone advise me ?
TIA


This is similar to my laptop when I got it.

+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
| PQSERVICE | SYSTEM RESERVED (boot files) | C: (rest of OS) | D: DATA |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
(Boot flag 0x80, points here)

The boot flag in the MBR would point to SYSTEM RESERVED.
And SYSTEM RESERVED hands off to C: as part of the boot process.

PQSERVICE holds the restoration partition, if you want to restore
to factory conditions. Typically, when the computer is new, the
user is prompted to burn DVD(s) made from PQSERVICE, so even
if the hard drive dies, the user can restore the factory partition
setup and content, using the DVDs.

If you made the DVDs using the built-in disc preparation offered
by the Packard Bell OS, then you would no longer have a need of
PQSERVICE. Restoring to factory can then be done with the DVD set.
(Have a five pack of DVDs handy before you start.)

At the current time, if you were to consult the user manual,
find the proper function key to press at startup, the PQSERVICE
partition would be used to restore SYSTEM RESERVED and C:
to their original (factory) content. And D: would likely
be erased.

So you don't have to waste a license and install Windows 7 Pro,
when the Windows 7 Home Premium hiding inside PQSERVICE, can be
used to restore the hard drive to factory fresh condition. Only
if you have some need of what Pro offers (WinXP Mode), would
you bother to do this. If you just want any old OS to run the
computer, a fresh clean copy hides inside PQSERVICE.

*******

The separation of SYSTEM RESERVED from C:, is for BitLocker support.
It allows full encryption of C:, but SYSTEM RESERVED (no user files)
remains unencrypted. So the two separate partitions, allow
bootstrapping when the C: portion is fully encrypted.

It's possible to move the contents of SYSTEM RESERVED, into C:.
That will free up a partition. That's what I did on my laptop.
But if you do that, you can never use BitLocker to encrypt
the entire C:. As now, C: won't boot if the boot files
happened to get encrypted. If you were using BitLocker
for some reason, you would undo it, before making
major partition changes like this. AFAIK, BitLocker is
only supported in the more expensive versions of
WIndows 7 (so for my Home Premium, would not have been
an issue).

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409

If you removed the DATA partition (moved all the of its
files back onto C, then the DATA partition could be
formatted NTFS and left blank. If the Windows 7 installer
DVD sees that, it should offer to install the OS in there.
If the installer sees SYSTEM RESERVED, then it could continue
to let the SYSTEM RESERVED handle booting duties. And then
you end up with a boot menu, with the old and new C: partitions
as boot time options.

If you removed SYSTEM RESERVED, moved the partitions
around a bit, made a blank partition and formatted NTFS,
the Windows 7 installer DVD can be pointed at the blank
partition, and it will install there. And without a SYSTEM
RESERVED in sight, it will put the OS and boot files in
the blank partition. The boot flag will also point
to the blank partition. That leaves the old C: "neutered"
and it no longer interacts with anything. And that's how
my laptop is now.

+-----------+-----------------------------+---------+----------------------------+
| PQSERVICE | Old C: ( boot + rest of OS) | D: DATA | New C: (boot + rest of OS) |
+-----------+-----------------------------+---------+----------------------------+
(Boot flag 0x80, points here)

That's basically how I replaced the Acer (Old C with a
clean copy of the OS, with no Acer files in it. I can
eventually delete Old C: entirely, when I get
bored copying the files off it (email database,
Firefox profile, that sort of stuff).

*******

You can do anything you want... as long as you have backups.

That's the number one rule of computer modification.

For the above, I would use Macrium Reflect Free, and just back
up all the partitions to an external disk. If anything nasty
happens, I can put it all back. There are many backup
utilities, that won't copy all the slack space, so your
backup storage is reduced to a reasonable level.

If you wanted to look in PQSERVICE, you could. You could
change the partition label in the MBR, to make it visible
and the OS would mount it. But I would only do that, if
the plan was to entirely delete the whole setup, and
I didn't care what happened to it.

There is also a "tricky way" to attempt to view it.
Something I was reading just yesterday. Using Macrium,
you can back up PQSERVICE to a .mrimg (image) file. And
Macrium has a Restore : File Browse option, which attempts
to mount the contents of a .mrimg file, then it pops up
a copy of Explorer to look in it. That provides a safe
way to inspect a partition, without actually opening the
partition itself in read/write mode. So that's another
lazy man's way of getting to inspect the contents. I tried
that out while running WinXP here, and I could look
at the backup of my (not currently connected) Windows 8 disk.
And the partition is mounted with its own drive letter.
A separate context menu entry is provided, to dismount it,
when you're done with it.

Paul

On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:48:35 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there now.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition v7.7 shows the following
partitions:

Partition Capacity Used Unused
F
snip
And the partition is mounted with its own drive letter.
A separate context menu entry is provided, to dismount it,
when you're done with it.

Paul

Thanks for the detailed reply.
After using Win 7 Pro 32-bit on my old machine and Win 7 Home Premium
on the new one I much prefer Win 7 Pro. Also I will probably need XP
Mode.
I do not have the user manual so I will have to sort out how to
reinstall Home Premium. I can then back that up ont to an external hdd
and install Pro, which I will also back up on to an external hdd.

Since the two hidden partitions are so small, I will probably leave
them alone and just install Pro to C:

--
remove fred before emailing
Registered Linux User 490858

scbs29 wrote:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:48:35 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there now.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition v7.7 shows the following
partitions:

Partition Capacity Used Unused
F
snip
And the partition is mounted with its own drive letter.
A separate context menu entry is provided, to dismount it,
when you're done with it.

Paul

Thanks for the detailed reply.
After using Win 7 Pro 32-bit on my old machine and Win 7 Home Premium
on the new one I much prefer Win 7 Pro. Also I will probably need XP
Mode.
I do not have the user manual so I will have to sort out how to
reinstall Home Premium. I can then back that up ont to an external hdd
and install Pro, which I will also back up on to an external hdd.

Since the two hidden partitions are so small, I will probably leave
them alone and just install Pro to C:


OK, if you want to do that, you could use "diskpart" to remove the
contents of the old C:. You can't very well delete C: if you're
"running on it". But if you use the installer DVD as a means to
boot to the recovery console, you can use diskpart to prepare C:.

OK, say this was the original state.

+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
| PQSERVICE | SYSTEM RESERVED (boot files) | C: (rest of OS) | D: DATA |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
(Boot flag 0x80, points here)

I would:

1) Delete SYSTEM RESERVED. (I won't be using BitLocker, ever...)
2) Clean the contents of C: out (reformat as NTFS).
3) Now, the drive has three partitions, and no boot flag.
Using diskpart, there is usually an asterisk or some
kind of marker like that, for the boot flag.

+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
| PQSERVICE | unallocated | reformatted | D: DATA |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+

When the installer sees this, it should prompt whether you
want to install in the reformatted partition. This would
do a single partition install. The installer should also
reformat the reformatted partition (hopefully, a quick format).
A quick format is good enough.

You can find tutorials on using diskpart. It's command
line based, but reasonably easy to use. Only occasionally
requires interpretation. ("Volumes" seems to refer to things
like dynamic disk RAID, while "partition" is something we're
more interested in. I find the distinction can be annoying
at times.)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

Once the install is done...

+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
| PQSERVICE | unallocated | C: boot+OS | D: DATA |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
(Boot flag 0x80)

Now, you can go into Disk Management, and adjust things a bit.

Paul

On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 21:54:58 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:48:35 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there now.
snip
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

Once the install is done...

+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
| PQSERVICE | unallocated | C: boot+OS | D: DATA |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
(Boot flag 0x80)

Now, you can go into Disk Management, and adjust things a bit.

Paul

Thanks again for the detailed reply.
After some thought I have decided to delete the two partitions, extend
c: to cover the resulting space, format and install directly to c:
I usually use a Paragon boot disc for partition manipulation.
I will see if I can fnd information on recovering Home Premium first,
which I can then back up to an external hdd, just in case.

--
remove fred before emailing
Registered Linux User 490858

scbs29 wrote, On 4/17/2014 4:19 AM:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 21:54:58 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:48:35 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there now.
snip
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

Once the install is done...

+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
| PQSERVICE | unallocated | C: boot+OS | D: DATA |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+
(Boot flag 0x80)

Now, you can go into Disk Management, and adjust things a bit.

Paul

Thanks again for the detailed reply.
After some thought I have decided to delete the two partitions, extend
c: to cover the resulting space, format and install directly to c:
I usually use a Paragon boot disc for partition manipulation.
I will see if I can fnd information on recovering Home Premium first,
which I can then back up to an external hdd, just in case.


If planning on deleting PQService and System Reserved, then format C
after extending, why not just delete the 3 partitions (C included) and
let Windows install to the full unallocated space...

--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

....winston wrote:
scbs29 wrote, On 4/17/2014 4:19 AM:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 21:54:58 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:48:35 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there
now.
snip
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

Once the install is done...

+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+

| PQSERVICE | unallocated | C: boot+OS | D:
DATA |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+

(Boot flag 0x80)

Now, you can go into Disk Management, and adjust things a bit.

Paul

Thanks again for the detailed reply.
After some thought I have decided to delete the two partitions, extend
c: to cover the resulting space, format and install directly to c:
I usually use a Paragon boot disc for partition manipulation.
I will see if I can fnd information on recovering Home Premium first,
which I can then back up to an external hdd, just in case.


If planning on deleting PQService and System Reserved, then format C
after extending, why not just delete the 3 partitions (C included) and
let Windows install to the full unallocated space...


I like to recommend leaving the PQSERVICE there, as if the
machine ever gets recycled and the recipient knows nothing
about it, they can restore to factory. You don't get enough
space back from deleting PQSERVICE to make it worthwhile.

Maybe if the machine was a tablet or all-in-one, with limited
SSD inside, then deleting all partitions would make a lot more
sense (every byte counts). As the storage was never adequate
in the first place. But with hard drive based machines, there's
plenty of room, and the PQSERVICE isn't hurting anything.

Paul

Paul wrote, On 4/17/2014 9:11 PM:
...winston wrote:
If planning on deleting PQService and System Reserved, then format C
after extending, why not just delete the 3 partitions (C included) and
let Windows install to the full unallocated space...


I like to recommend leaving the PQSERVICE there, as if the
machine ever gets recycled and the recipient knows nothing
about it, they can restore to factory. You don't get enough
space back from deleting PQSERVICE to make it worthwhile.

Maybe if the machine was a tablet or all-in-one, with limited
SSD inside, then deleting all partitions would make a lot more
sense (every byte counts). As the storage was never adequate
in the first place. But with hard drive based machines, there's
plenty of room, and the PQSERVICE isn't hurting anything.

Paul

I'd agree with not getting enough space back (12GB out of the 471
available especially an almost blank D: drive partition should be quite
sufficient for anything Windows.

My question was relative to the op saying deleting the 'two partitions'
and extend C: then format...which would imply deletion of PQSERVICE and
System Reserved.

Keeping PQSERVICE assumes that a method/mechanism is in place to restore
to factory (Disc created, Function key at boot, order media etc.)..if
not, keeping it holds little advantages.

--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On Thu, 17 Apr 2014 21:11:13 -0400, Paul wrote:

...winston wrote:
scbs29 wrote, On 4/17/2014 4:19 AM:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 21:54:58 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:48:35 -0400, Paul wrote:

scbs29 wrote:
Apologies if this is too far OT.

I have just been given a Packard Bell IExtreme X6620UK and wish to
reformat the hdd and
install Win 7 Pro instead of the Win 7 Home Premium that is there
now.
snip
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

Once the install is done...

+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+

| PQSERVICE | unallocated | C: boot+OS | D:
DATA |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------------+----------+

(Boot flag 0x80)

Now, you can go into Disk Management, and adjust things a bit.

Paul

Thanks again for the detailed reply.
After some thought I have decided to delete the two partitions, extend
c: to cover the resulting space, format and install directly to c:
I usually use a Paragon boot disc for partition manipulation.
I will see if I can fnd information on recovering Home Premium first,
which I can then back up to an external hdd, just in case.


If planning on deleting PQService and System Reserved, then format C
after extending, why not just delete the 3 partitions (C included) and
let Windows install to the full unallocated space...


I like to recommend leaving the PQSERVICE there, as if the
machine ever gets recycled and the recipient knows nothing
about it, they can restore to factory. You don't get enough
space back from deleting PQSERVICE to make it worthwhile.

Maybe if the machine was a tablet or all-in-one, with limited
SSD inside, then deleting all partitions would make a lot more
sense (every byte counts). As the storage was never adequate
in the first place. But with hard drive based machines, there's
plenty of room, and the PQSERVICE isn't hurting anything.

Paul

OK thanks, I will take your advice.

--
remove fred before emailing
Registered Linux User 490858