1

Topic: File system unknown / unformatted

Dear All,
            I am incurring in a problem using GParted.
I hope to find some help here :-) Thanks for your effort.

I am trying to create a partition for Liux in my Windows 7 64 HP EliteBook850 G3.
This HP has a SSD 500 GB memory, which is already divided into 4 partitions.
Following a guide , I have deleted System partition.
I am encountering many problems:
1. I can't shrink C partition, neither using MiniTool partition Wizard, EaseUS partition Wizard or GParted. The reasons seems that C is full (no space unused) which is of course not true. If these software don't detect available space, shrinking is impossible. How can I solve this?
2. MiniTool, EaseUS and GParted don't recognize the file system of C, and it appears as 'unformatted' for GParted or 'Unknown' for MiniTool. This is strange because when using Diskpart in windows, C's file system is detected as NTFS, as it should be. Why is there a discrepancy between what these softwares and Windows detect?
3. Windows somehow is still detecting System partition even though I have deleted it and is no unallocated space. MiniTool, EaseUS and GParted instead don't recognize System (it appears as unallocated space). Why is there a discrepancy between what these softwares and Windows detect?

When I run GParted, a strange error message appears, you can access it here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Problem 1 and Problem 2 appeared also before I deleted System partition. Therefore, I don't think they are related to System partition.

Thank you so much for your help
Best Regards
Alberto


Machine: HP EliteBook850 G3
Operative sistem: Windows 7 x64
Processsor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6500U CPU @ 2.50GHz, 2501 Mh

2

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Please, be more precise in your description.
System partition is usually called a partition that contains the executables of the operating system and its tools. For windows 7, the system partition is the one that contains the C: volume (99% of the times). So, if your o.s. still works, you didn't delete "the system partition", perhaps you did erase some of the remaining partitions.
Is there any other hard drive (internal or external) or any system USB stick connected to the computer?

There are often:
a EFI system partition (related to the boot sequence in EFI mode)
a microsoft restricted partition (used mainly in case you decide to change your drives from basic to dynamic.
a system restore partition (that contains a copy of the operating system instead of dvd install disc, to reinstall the o.s. if it is severely broken),
a partition containing tools provided by the computer's manufacturer in order to test the hardware,

You can sometimes remove the system restore partition and/or the tool partition if you can replace their functionalities (i.e. if you already have a o.s. install dvd, or if you can find the testing tools from other sources).
EFI and microsoft restricted are usually very small in size.


You have to use recent versions of the software tools with UEFI drives.

Please, post here the output of the following commands from the command line:

sudo parted -l

and

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

3

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Dear Class413,
                    thank you for you quick answer.
Sorry for my late answer but I have been on something else these days.
Also, sorry for not being precise in the description.
In my HP computer I have 4 partitions (which is supposedly the maximum number).
1. System partition (that's its name), active partition that allows to boot the operating system and run Windows Recovery Environment
2. C partition, with Windows 7 and all my files, partition on which the operating system was preinstalled
3. HP Tools partition, partition which allows to use the HP System Diagnostics after pressing the F2 key on the  startup
4. Recovery, partiton which allows to recover the operating system by pressing the F11 key on the startup

I have deleted partition number 1, called System partition, and I have changed the setting of partition 2 'C' to 'active'.
I have been following this:  https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks … 107#M53336 .

I have tryed from the GParted command line:

sudo parted -1
sudo fdisk -1

Both give as output: 'invalid option "1".

Have I done something wrong?

Let me know
Alberto

4

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

sudo parted -l

sudo fdisk -l

The option parameter in these commands is the lowercase L letter, not the number 1.

Furthermore, if the first partition is a "EFI system partition", it means that the disk contains a EFI partition system, that allows up to 128 partitions (or 126? I'm not sure just now) all primary.
The "old style" msdos partition table allows up to 4 primary partitions but we can make much more logical partitions, by making one of the 4 primaries "extended". 
Newer generations of laptop computers come usually with UEFI firmware, that goes together with the UEFI partition table.

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

5

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Dear Class413,
thanks for your answer.

I knew I was going some very stupid mistake..
Here are screenshots of the results (Sorry, but GParted saved them somewhere I couldn't find)
Imagine 1
https://ibb.co/hmW8G7

Moreover, I had two "blue screen" forced shutdown, with the error "IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL" which can be related to corrupted system files.. maybe these things are related.

Thanks again for your help
All the best
Alberto

6

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Image 2:

https://ibb.co/kUWm3n

7

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Image 3:

https://ibb.co/hmW8G7

8

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

(images 1 and 3 are the same)

It seems that the partition table is msdos type. I find it somehow unusual for recent i7 generation systems.

I see errors related to the cdrom device (/dev/sr0 is usually a cdrom device). Are you sure that the device / connecting cables are working properly?
Do you run gparted from this optical device? if so, can you check the downloaded file that you used for the cd burning? The correct checksum values can be found in the download pages.

Another idea: you can try to run the chkdsk command from the windows command line with the /F argument, and be sure to properly and fully shutdown the system (not just sleep). Non-microsoft tools don't work well in case of improper shutdown.

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

9

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Hei Class413!
Thanks for your answer.

Gosh I need to inform myself about partition tables, I am very ignorant.

Sorry for posting two times the same image.. Unfortunately I have deleted those photos.. but I can take them again if that would be useful!

I am using an external drive to read / burn CDs as my HP (obviously) comes without a CD entry. I have burned GParted on a CD but I have no idea what software it used (no installation appeared).
The external drive is a super cheap LG CD drive reader / burner (Slim Portable DVD writer). Both the drive and the cable are brand new. Should I ask for a refund and get another one? It seems to work fine!

If I run chkdsk /F it says:
'File system is NTFS type'
It is not possible to block the current unit (sorry I am translating from Italian I have no idea how it should be in English)
It is not possible to run chkdsk as the volume is already in use with another process. Do you want to program the check of this volume at the next startup (Y/N)?

I sometimes have blue screen with fatal errors as I have already said I think, and sometimes my laptop is not shut down properly, manly due to the fact that if you close the screen without sleeping then it is impossible to interact with the laptop and the only way is to forcibly shut it down and restart it :-(

Thanks for your help so far
I have been asking on other forums too but this one seems the only one where I am getting some useful answers.

All the Best
Alberto

10

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

If the chkdsk command doesn't start, you should answer Y to the request to run chkdsk in the next startup. It is rather normal.
GParted and similar tools can't work in system disks in sleeping mode, because there are many o.s. processes in a "pending" state. So, try to shut down properly in order to make partitioning works.

Another idea, use "testdisk" (contained in the GParted live cd too), to examine the drive and look for partition problems.

Blue screens are often related to hardware problems (including defective parts, bad contacts, high temperature in the motherboard or processor or memory chips ... ) or software problems (e.g. drivers, firmware etc).

Due to the eventual hardware or other problems, it is better to try to backup any useful files from the computer before making partition table operations (this is always recommended anyway). An unexpected stop during such operations can ruin the filesystems and make recovery really hard.

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

11

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Dear class413,
thanks again for your answer.
chkdsk hasn't produced any error.
Moreover, to use GParted I:
1. shut down
2. start the computer with the DVD drive inserted, with GParted disk inside
3. computer loads automatically GParted
4. perform the partition

I do have a backup but the problem I presented above appeared before I touched the partition or even installed GParted..

I really don't know what to do!

12

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Let's look at it again.
fdisk shows 3 partitions. The first one starts around the 1 GiB instead of the 1 MiB where usually starts the first partition of the hard drive in a recent msdos-type partition table. The first partition (deleted) was the "system recovery environment", that isn't used in normal system operation. So, there is no change to your regular system. Your C partition is in the partition that starts in the sector 2101248.

To install a Linux, you need a disk space. The 1 GiB from the deleted partition is too small. You have to shrink the windows partition to make some space. Please, check again if GParted live detects correctly the actual disk status. You can attach a screenshot of the GParted screen.

Please use the latest stable version of GParted live. Avoid to use old versions.

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

13

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

Hei Class413,

So yea, as I said at the beginning, the problem is that GParted seems my C partition as 'unknown' and I can't shrink it as a consequence. As you can see in this image, the 'resize/move' button is not accessible.
Image: https://ibb.co/kRxid8
I am using the last version of GParted.
I am going to post the results of sudo parted -l and sudo fdisk -l in case you could not see them properly.

14

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

https://ibb.co/gk5rWT

sudo fdisk -l

15

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

https://ibb.co/kN1by8

sudo parted -l

16

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

I have read online that GParted might be unable to work with my partition (and see it as unknown filesystem) because my partition being a 'dynamic' partition, whatever that means...

17

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

alberto.arletti.variara wrote:

I have read online that GParted might be unable to work with my partition (and see it as unknown filesystem) because my partition being a 'dynamic' partition, whatever that means...

That's the key point. GParted doesn't work with dynamic disks, and it seems it happens with the other tools you already tried. It is a proprietary microsoft format that offers functionality similar to RAID. It appears in the windows disk management screen.  A problem is that it isn't supported by many popular and approved 3rd party software tools. To shrink the partition, you can try to use the windows partition resizing tool from the "recovery environment" I think. For this, it is better to look in the microsoft support forums or in windows-focused forums.

I wouldn't tell it is a good idea to install Linux on a "dynamic" disk. I don't know if this is possible, anyway it would at least harder to maintain the system. If you want to have both operating systems on the computer, you can consider to reformat the drive as basic disk (as far as I know, it isn't possible to just convert a drive from dynamic to basic, at least with older windows editions).


Another detail: I see in your photos from the GParted screen, a yellow triangle just after the partition name /dev/sda1. This is an indicator of problem. By clicking or right-clicking on it you can read the text of the error message concerning the problem origin.

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

18

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

class413 wrote:

Another detail: I see in your photos from the GParted screen, a yellow triangle just after the partition name /dev/sda1. This is an indicator of problem. By clicking or right-clicking on it you can read the text of the error message concerning the problem origin.


Yea that message is telling me that my partition is unknown file system.
Windows partition manager seems unable to shrink it anyway.
I can't believe there are no tools to shrink a dynamic partition.
I guess my only way is to format it.

19

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

I did some search on the question and found that installing a Linux distribution on a dynamic disk is impossible or very risky or non-functional. In theory, it is possible to install software that makes Linux understand a dynamic disk but it seems rather marginal.

There are 2 ways to go recommended (other than reformat everything),
- install Linux inside Virtualbox, or
- reconvert the drive from dynamic to basic. This isn't done by the tools included in windows installation. You need a third party software (like commercial versions of Easus etc), or follow this guide using testdisk free software (I think it is a windows version). I did never use it, so I just give the search result, at your own risk wink

In any case you have to keep a good backup of your content. Every partition manipulation is risky, even in case it is advertised "without loss". Murphy is evil: a small hardware problem, and you have to say "bye bye" to your data.

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

20

Re: File system unknown / unformatted

That method that you found seems cool but it does not work (write error).
But thanks for the help and info anyway.