1 Topic by Andre

  • Andre
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Topic: [SOLVED] Vista Resize Guidance Update Request

Hi there,

  I recently got a new Sony VAIO and used GParted to resize the existing Vista partition to install a different edition of Vista on another partition. Unfortunately since I left the default (round to cylinder) partition start settings, I fell foul of Vista's new partitioning rules (http://www.multibooters.co.uk/partitions.html) and had to follow the MC_HxEd (http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13277) to restore access to Vista on the parition.

  This is a request to please update the FAQ question about Vista to include the following:
"If you are reducing the size of an existing Vista partition, uncheck the default round to cyclinder checkbox to leave the starting point of the parition untouched. Leaving this checkbox ticked will most likely lead to the Vista partition being moved to the start of a cylinder and Vista no longer booting on this parition. Note that if you are creating a new partition to install Vista to, the checkbox can be ticked."

Thanks
Andre

2 Reply by cmdr

  • cmdr
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Re: [SOLVED] Vista Resize Guidance Update Request

Hello Andre,

I strongly support your request ! An alternative would be, that "Gparted" compares start sector value in Master Boot Record's partition table (=  physical location of VBR) and "Hidden Sector value" in the associated Volume Boot Record (VBR). If different, there should be an appropriate correction. A plausibility check would be a second comparison with cylinder border value, that's all.

Regards
cmdr

3 Reply by class413

  • class413
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Re: [SOLVED] Vista Resize Guidance Update Request

I move this topic to the Feature request section.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

4 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
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Re: [SOLVED] Vista Resize Guidance Update Request

The source of this problem arose due to two bugs.  Both of these bugs are fixed on GParted Live-0.4.4-1.

1)  Bug 574389 - No /usr/bin/xxd file
The GParted application does try to update the "number of hidden sectors" stored at offset 0x1C when an NTFS partition is moved.  It does this by using external commands such as xxd and dd.  Unfortunately,  GParted did not outline this requirement, and as such the /usr/bin/xxd command was not installed on the Live CD versions 0.3.6-1 to 0.4.3-3.

2)  Bug 571151 – gparted moves partition to the left even if unneeded
This is a problem that would change a resize operation into a move if the partition did not start on a cylinder boundary and the default option "round to cylinders" was enabled.  The logic of the resize/move dialog was reworked to only move the start sector of a partition IF the space before value is changed.

These two bug fixes should address the unfortunate situation that arose that caused Windows to not boot due to an incorrect 0x1c offset value.

A big thanks goes to cmdr for discovering the cause of this problem and helping many people on this forum to fix this problem.  smile

5 Reply by gedakc (edited by gedakc 2011-01-13 19:30:33)

  • gedakc
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Re: [SOLVED] Vista Resize Guidance Update Request

Steven Shiau pointed out to me that there is an ntfsreloc program for updating the "number of hidden sectors".

ntfsreloc can be found at:
ntfsreloc

EDIT:  2011-01-13  ntfsreloc appears to be ntfsfixboot now.

Unfortunately it does not appear to be bundled as one of the tools in the ntfsprogs package.