Topic: [SOLVED] What data gets moved when you resize an extended partition?
I need to resize a Windows 7 boot partition. It completely fills an extended partition. So I need to first expand the extended partition to the left.
Last I heard, if I resize the LEFT end of a Windows 7 boot partition with GParted, and set Align to anything other than 'None', it will move the data, and the partition won't boot anymore, supposedly because of some magic data Windows 7+ requires before the start of a boot partition. (This is a long-standing bug in GParted, and it REALLY ought to be documented in the FAQ, or, better, fixed.)
I thought: Maybe I can align the extended partition to a megabyte boundary when I resize that. Then I can expand the boot partition, but not align it. I'll just expand it all the way to the left of the extended partition, which is aligned, so the boot partition will be aligned, too, but the data won't be moved and so MAYBE it will still boot.
I don't see how the secret Windows data before the start of the partition won't get overwritten, though.
Anyway, when I ask GParted to expand the extended partition, it reports that it's going to do a move and a resize, whether I ask it to align it or not.
Does that mean it's going to move all of the data inside the extended partition, including the data in the boot partition? I need that not to happen.
Has anyone tried expanding a Windows 7, Vista, or 10 boot partition to the left?