A few history
All acer users know the erecovery program. It has the ability of restore the O.S. to factory state (like the first time you turned the computer).
The recover images are on a hidden partition called PQSERVICE.
It used a software called ImageIT to save the OS files in D2d/IMAGES folder. In that folder was a huge amount of files with *.dsi, *.wsi and *.000 to *.xxx.
To extract those files you needed a IIT.exe and the password (can found it trough Google).
Also in D2D folder is a PATCH folder that containes some programs installed in first OS boot.
If you wanted to change some of this it was quite easy cause the PQservice contained all you needed.
The actual
The file structure in PQSERVICE still is the same but with 2 different things
First acer techs puted away the image it soft and now uses Imagex from microsoft, which is more available to extract de OS files to a large WIM file.
Second now the patch folder contains a new file extension *.enc that are like ini files for install but cannot be decoded/decrypted (at least i can not decode it). Without this *.enc files you cannot add new files like new drivers or updated programs to be installed on first boot or OOBE.
Few of us have bought our notebooks with MS Windows Vista but if you upgraded to MS Windows 7 this upgrade will not update your hidden partition with the new OS.
The objective - Try to update the OS in the hidden partition to windows 7. but now here is the problem, if you extract the image with Image IT or Imagex you will see inside windows folder and/or OEM folder some files with *.enc extension. they are a sort of ini files with the configuration to be installed on the computer.
To be able to install new software on first boot you need to add a new enc file to the install, otherwise it will not be installed
Tools you need:
partedit.exe
gimagex
imagex
a windows pe on a pendrive with imagex on it
IMAGEIT in case your files are in wsi, dsi
(to be continued)
