LiveUSB not booting

Thanks, i'll give that a try next time as your other suggestion for using UNetbootin worked like a charm for me.

Hello bevm1066,

what do you want to install : "PartedMagic"(containing "GParted") or "GParted" ? Your files belong to "Parted Magic" and therefore do not match my list for "Gparted". Anyway, I also have problems at the moment to get "Parted Magic" to work from USB with its newer versions.  But it crashes at a later instant of time than yours.

Regards
cmdr

Hello bev,

160 GB = 149 GiB (division by 1.024 three times); 149 - 146 GiB = 3 GiB (space for recovery partition). As the recovery stuff always is on a separate partition, there are two partitions at minimum on your HDD ( the recovery partition may be invisible to XP and often contains a compressed disk image, which is very fast to restore).

Now we have to clarify the three programs,  which were mentioned in your partitioning context.

1. Partition Magic V 8.0 (old version from 2002 ?)

Commercial DOS/Windows program, that allows, what you intend. Disadvantage : It installs its own bootloader, which is hard to get rid of again.

2. PartedMagic V 3.7 ( actually the latest )
GNU licenced (free) Linux program, which contains "GParted" (see 3.).

3. GParted Live V 0.4.1-2 ( latest stable version )
GNU licenced (free) Linux program for creating, resizing, moving partitions without loss of contents ( well, I do not say, that it NEVER happens. A backup before is a good idea.). Will also do, what you intend, without installing something against your will.

There is an ISO-Image ( =CDROM-image ) or a ZIP-File with the usable programs. Since your netbook does NOT have an optical drive, you need an USB-Stick.

As you are here in a forum, which covers "GParted", I will explain, how you can do the job with "GParted"

How to:

1. Download "GParted Live" -ISO-Image ( that's no fault, see later) from here

2. Download "UNetbootin (Windows V. 3.12)" from here

3. Take an empty FAT or FAT32 formatted USB-Stick ( >= 256 MB ), attach it to the netbook and
keep its drive letter in mind or write it down. You should also know the folder, where the ISO image is stored locally on your netbook.

4. Start "UNetbootin" (single EXE-file without installation), mark "Diskimage" "ISO" and seek your download, then  choose drive letter of the attached USB stick below ("Type: USB drive"). Start program ("OK").

5. Ready ! You now have a bootable "GParted Live" distro on stick. Reboot (maybe you have to change boot sequence), start "default" and answer the configuration questions (language, keyboard etc.). If everything went right, you see the graphical interface and "GParted" examining your harddisk for a while.

The partitioning graphic shows, how much partitions your HDD already has.

To have an exact non-graphical information for us in the forum, please start "Terminal" (double-click on Desktop icon within "GParted") and type (l = lower-case L)

and press [ENTER]. Write down carefully the output and present it here.

Then you will get advice, how to proceed with your intended partitioning task.

Regards
cmdr

Hello bev,
very good job done !

Yes, "/dev/sdb" is the USB stick ( "Disk /dev/sda" surely is a little typo here ?).

Be cautious, your HDD isn't "unallocated" at all, even if "GParted" says so. It merely has an unusual partitioning. You say, that "Gparted" doesn't show the two existing partitions in its graphical window ? Was there only unallocated space on "/dev/sda", no "/dev/sda1" or "/dev/sda2" ? Since  "GParted" can only work on things, it recognizes clearly, this would be a bad sign for your intended resizing process.

Normally the lower border of the first primary partition (/dev/sda1) starts at sector 63 ( i.e one "track" is reserved for a boot mechanism; usually only one single sector is used for the Master Boot Record). Your HDD's lower border is sector 2048. I assume, that there is a program, which launches the recovery process on the second primary partition (you have to press [ALT] [F10] at boot to start it ?).  The Partition table shown by "fdisk" seems to be normal, except for the above mentioned lower border; the two primary partitions are detected.

I have no solution at the moment. I will reflect on this issue and be back tomorrow.

Regards
cmdr

You can upload the picture to any free host like http://www.imageshack.us/ or photobucket and post the link here.

Hello Bev,
your screenshot shows exactly, what you described ... and alas, this doesn't match reality !
But there is one possibility left : ntfsresize. This is a commandline tool (in Terminal window), which "Gparted" also uses (and therefore is contained on your USB Stick), when working on NTFS. NTFS is a little bit problematic, because Microsoft keeps its structure as a secret. GNU programming for NTFS is reverse engineering, which might not cover all cases or might have unexpected limits. Please backup everything on your netbook, what you don't want to loose, before you proceed. Using "ntfsresize" should not touch the boot code or the recovery partition, but it is not totally excluded.  Having or getting (from your dealer) a WinXP-CDROM and a driver disk for your netbook, would be a welcome reassurance. Changing the factory state might also void warranty.

I'm afraid, that, after shrinking your XP partition, "GParted" will continue showing nothing but unallocated space. It is therefore not possible to create a new volume with "Gparted". But this is an easy task for Win XP's Disk Management. I would suggest to create an Extended Partition with the intended logical volume inside, because you are not limited to four (primary) partitions (three are already "shot"), which gives you flexibility for further changes. The fact, that the partitions are not in disk order afterwards, does NOT care Windows, and it must not be changed or you loose the recovery function.
NTFS is fault-tolerant, resizing tools are NOT. You should run "chkdsk /F /R" twice from WinXP to assure a clean filesystem BEFORE using any Linux programs and AFTER the resizing. Sometimes it is better, shrinking in a few smaller steps to the wanted size than to do it in a big one. It is important to test after each step, whether XP is still bootable ( and running "chkdsk" !).  Some users noticed, that "ntfsresize" does not only shrink the partition, but move it unintentionally a small amount. The loss of storage(=>unallocated space), however, is neglectable.

How to :
1. Enable your "GParted" USB-Stick to store screenshots and other print-outs
a. Start WinXP, attach your USB-Stick, open "syslinux.cfg" with "WordPad".
As you might have noticed, there is a menu item at boot "To RAM, Boot media can be removed  later" . This "unlocks" the stick for mounting it as read/write device. The smallest amount of RAM storage loss is achieved by changing the "append initrd= ..." parameter from "toram" to "toram=filesystem.squashfs". Do this please, store it and choose the appropriate menu item at next boot.
b. After booting, open "Terminal" window and type ([Enter] after each line)

"Midnight Commander" file manager opens; you see at left folder "/root", where screenshots are stored (gparted.jpeg), and at right the new folder "bup" on your USB Stick. Mouse isn't working within "mc". You change side with [TAB]-key and copy highlighted file with [F5] to the other side. To store the output of a commandline, use " ...(any command)... > /mnt/usb/bup/(whatIwantToStore).txt". If "...txt" is highlighted, press [F3] to view it.

2. Study this carefully.

3. Test, whether NTFS partition is recognized and minimal size for XP detected (don't forget an appropriate surplus for updates and new programs )

Since the print-out is stored permanently on your stick, you can present it easily here, before continuing ! Please state the intended new size of Win XP and the number of smaller steps, you want to use (see above).

4. Do a test run

...... stands for the target size in MegaBytes. Guess, where you should present the file.

5. Shrink your WinXP partition

...... stands for the target size in MegaBytes. This value decreases from step to step.
Probably the first primary partition looses the bootflag with this procedure. You verify/restore it with "fdisk"

Look for the asterisk behind "/dev/sda1". If it lacks, type

6. Do a test run, see 4.

7. Use "fdisk" to temporarily delete and instantly recreate partition table 1 a little bit bigger than the new resized WinXP volume, see the link above. This is very important !!!

8. If everything went right, open XP's Disk Management, create an extended partition and a logical volume of appropriate size within. Format it with NTFS or FAT32. Ready !

Good luck for this adventure
cmdr

Hello bev,

Message 1 means, that your stick had an other device name; you can easily figure it out by typing : fdisk -l -u

Message 2 should have worked, even if mounting failed, but it seems, that there is no space between "mkdir" and "/mnt/usb...".

You are right, I confused left and right with "mc". It reads from the commandline as it is shown in the filemanager.

Courage , let' s get up to step 4, and then we will reevaluate your chances. Up to that point, nothing gets changed ... but you already gained much skill to handle Linux !

I reflected this weekend about what "GParted" might confuse, that it doesn't show the two partitions in its graphical window. I think,  it's the filesystem ID (0x27, unknown) of the recovery partition, which is not contained in the fdisk list.  But Microsoft, Acer, Lenovo and others use this ID to hide their recovery software. AFAIK, it is a simple FAT32 file system. It is very easy to set this one Byte field in the partition table 2 to an arbitrary value (FAT32=0x0B or 0x0C), thus revealing its existence ( temporarily, until you finished).

Hiding vital functions (recovery software) from being accidentally overwritten or deleted by the customer, who hits by hazard one key to much, isn't that bad. Launching it by HDD boot and not with separate media, simplifies desaster recovery. To put this partition to the end of the HDD, leaves the customer a contiguous storage area. If it didn't exist, it should be invented that way.
I think, it's really possible to create a further partition without a total loss !

Regards
cmdr

cmdr

Sorry - In answer to your question, I forgot to say my plan is to eventually have three partitions: a Windows and other programs partition of about 56 GB and two other 50 GB partitions for data.

Bev