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Topic: Resized a Vista created system partition, not booting.

Hi. I had troubles with my C:\ Partition (20G) getting full, so I tried to expand it by taking some from the rest of the disk. It applied, but when I started the computer again, the system couldn't find a boot device. Ergo something is wrong with the boot partition (sorry for my lack of terminology).

Then I read in some article which is lost to me now; Vista created partitions use alternative start / ending points for the BOOT section of the disc. It came out of that article that resizing an vista created boot partition is a no-no. Too late for me though.

So I am wondering, how can I make this partition bootable again, without loosing the data ? (Cause the data is fine, mounted it and checked). 

My greatest gratitude.

Kakemann

2 (edited by kakemann 2008-09-17 08:43:27)

Re: Resized a Vista created system partition, not booting.

I've got word about tesDisc. Could this application possible do what I'm searching  for ?. I read that it could rewrite the MBR and make it a valid bootable partition. I just don't want to do something hasty and do more damage then salvation.

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Re: Resized a Vista created system partition, not booting.

Hi,
I assume, you used "Gparted" (which version) for resizing your harddisk ? If so, tell us the partitioning scheme / data, "Gparted" (GUI) or "fdisk /l" (at the "Gparted" console prompt) indicate ( Windows' drive C: is not always the first primary partition; look for NTFS filesystem or Volume label). Did you try Vista Recovery Tools to get your system bootable again ? If you don't have Vista Recovery Tools, you can download a Vista Recovery Disk (ISO-File) here for free and burn it.

cmdr

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Re: Resized a Vista created system partition, not booting.

Hey. It was using the latest live cd from this page, so I belive that is 0.3.8. I am sorry for not mentioning that I used Gparted to resize / shrink naturally I think you know why. 

As for the partition the first one is the C:\. I know that by looking at the size of it. I can post the partitioning scheme probably tomorrow, as I don't have access to the computer right now. By this you say it is sufficient to run

fdisk -l

?

I am downloading the Vista Recovery Tools iso you linked too (thanks a lot!). I didn't have any recovery dvd surpringsingly no wink.

I'll fire it up and see if it does the trick without deleting any data. I appreciate the response.

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Re: Resized a Vista created system partition, not booting.

I remind that there were some sub-versions 0.3.8-x for the livecd till now (testing versions). Latest "stable" version is 0.3.7-7.

Topic moved to the Live Media section.

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