1 Topic by ecstech

  • ecstech
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Topic: GParted and Windows 7

A lot of people are trying out GParted to resize their Windows drive to try out Windows 7 and I thought I'd give a little help to Windows users as I tried and failed due to a piece of missing knowledge.


Getting ready.

1. Make your GParted CD disc.
2. Open a command prompt in Windows and type in CHKDSK /F /V /R C:
    Answer Y to a prompt to do the check at the next reboot.
3. Defragment your C: fully. Don't believe Windows if it claims you don't need to. Do it anyway. smile
4. Reboot your computer and let it do the CHKDSK.
5. Wait. This is a intense check of your C: drive it'll take time.
6. When it wants to restart. Let it and let it go back into Windows.*
7. Shutdown Windows.
8. Insert GParted disc and configure your PC to boot from it.
9. Once you're in the Linux enviroment, do your resize requirements.
10. Hopefully this preparation will stop GParted from claiming there is a error on your C:.

TIP1 :
To get the saved GParted details off the PC.
Insert a USB storage stick at boot up.
Once in Linux open the terminal and type in

mkdir /mnt/usb
mount  /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb

(/dev/sdc1 being what my USB stick got assigned to. Yours may be different. GParted will list all drives found at boot up so if you had your USB drive in during boot up then it'll be listed in the GParted drop down menu. So note the /dev/sdxx letter and number. Probably just /dev/sda1? )


then save the GParted_saved details.html file into it.
via the cp command?


TIP2 :
Create a Partition at the very least 16GB. I say 20GB minimum.

TIP3 :
Name the new created partition 'win7' so you can easily Id it when you install Windows7


*
You can find out if CHKDSK found any errors by looking in the 'Event Viewer' program via Control Panel>Administrative Tools.
Look in the Application section and look for an entry under Type- Information, Source - WinLogOn.
If it contains errors you may need to do further CHKDSKs.
note: Doing a 'CHKDSK /F...' can lose a persons data if the C: drive is a mess or faulty and the user has never done a CHKDSK for months/years. Hope your backups are up to date!

(I use the Seagate Discwizard to do C: drive backups as it's free and works with non-seagate drives.)

I hope this is of some help.

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: GParted and Windows 7

Hi ecstech,

Your suggestion to place this type of information in the FAQ is a good idea.  I will look into adding this to the GParted FAQ.

The new GParted Manual contains additional tips on shrinking NTFS partitions.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/manual/g … on-actions

3 Reply by gedakc

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Re: GParted and Windows 7

Thanks again for your suggestion ecstech.

An entry for tips for shrinking NTFS partitions has been added to the GParted FAQ.

4 Reply by ecstech (edited by ecstech 2009-01-28 11:20:52)

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Re: GParted and Windows 7

You mentioned a diagnostic tool, was this the Seagate's diagnostic tool - SeaTools?

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/suppor … /seatools/

If so, did you use its low level scan for errors?

Is this a SATA or IDE connected drive?

Can you confirm you did a full "CHKDSK /F /R C:" command?

5 Reply by ecstech

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Re: GParted and Windows 7

I think you mean http://tinyurl.com/csq3dz and is it really a 160GB drive?

How much free space does it claim you have in Windows?

I'd try removing the page file.
Go into My Computer properties > Advanced>Settings>Advanced>Virtual memory>Change
Set paging file size to 'No paging file' and then OK and let Windows reboot.
Then run the defrag tool in Windows.
This may be quicker for you to do all of this if you reboot into safemode. smile


BTW, if you're getting errors in a low level scan by SeaTools, this means your disc is having hardware faults and it's time to replace it. Have you read its SMART messages for errors?
Do you have SMART enabled in your PC? A lot of BIOSes turn it off.



Though having said that, I did have a drive with these sort of errors and I ran the free BOOT+NUKE tool. This in its process of wiping clean the harddrive 'repaired' the lowlevel errors. You may have to end up doing this. Just set DBAN to its quickest nuke mode and it'll not take too long.

6 Reply by ecstech

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Re: GParted and Windows 7

Ah right. You're saying you reformatted the drive during the re-install process?

You didn't have any copyright protected software at any point on this drive? Some of these nobble the disk layout.

If not, remember to do a Seagate discwizard scan at least once every two months to ensure the drive is not developing any more faults.

7 Reply by ecstech

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Re: GParted and Windows 7

Do me a favour and delete all your postings on this thread as it shouldn't really have been on this thread.

Thanks.