Hi,
I tried to resize the second partition on a friend's notebook from 252 GB to 75 GB – the partition where Windows 7 is installed (it's a Lenovo IdeaPad U550). I did this with KDE Partition Manager from a Linux Mint 9 KDE LiveUSB after I couldn't find the partitioning utility in Windows 7 in Control Panel, where I read it was supposed to be...
Something went terribly wrong, and now I can't boot into Windows 7 anymore. I'm not sure why though, because KDE Partition Manager didn't report any errors, I went through the log as I always do.
What I did was to shrink that partition from 252 GB to 75 GB, and accidentally, I also moved it to the left by 2,5MB (towards the first 200 MB partition, the boot partition.), which might have caused the problem, I don't know... I didn't notice this was part of the changes that were being applied until it was too late.
This is the error I'm getting before Windows starts (more or less; I found this error googling and it seems to correspond to the one I'm getting in Czech):
"Windows did not start correctly. A recent hardware or software change might
be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. insert your windows installation cd and restart your computer
2.choose your language settings and click next
3.click repair your computer
If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer
manufacturer for assistance.
Status: 0xc0000225”
I'm posting here because I have almost no experience with Windows 7 (the last Windows I was using was XP) and the boot stuff is a lot different, so I don't want to screw things up (more than they already are).
Could this be solved by installing GRUB 2, that would only boot into Windows 7? My friend doesn't really want Linux on her notebook, so no dual boot, just a working Windows 7 install...But there's the problem that I don't know anything about the Windows 7 bootloader. Could somebody explain to me how that boot partition works (those first 200MB on the hard disk), what happens to it if GRUB2 gets installed, WHERE it gets installed, if there is maybe a backup of the windows 7 boot partition somewhere, and how I could restore it, if windows won't boot? Here's how the partition table on that notebook looks like:
/dev/sda1: ntfs, 200 MB, flag "boot"
/dev/sda2: ntfs, 75 GB, (Windows 7 is installed here). Clonezilla reports “dirty” (damaged?) filesystem, however I can mount it in Linux (LiveCD) with no problems. Maybe these warnings come from the fact that Windows 7 ntfs partitions needs to be checked by chkdsk after every resize, and the partition is fine apart from that...
unallocated space, 177 GB – where part of the second partition was before shrinking.
/dev/sda3: extended, 30,33GB
/dev/sda5: logical, ntfs, 30,33GB, Windows D Drive
/dev/sda4: ntfs, 14 GB – this one might be some sort of a backup partition. It contains directories like “boot” (in there, there is a file called bcd, seems important), and there's also a “bootmgr”... and a pagefile.sys (wonder what it's doing there, another and bigger pagefile.sys is on the second partition, the one with the Windows install...)
What options do I have now?
There is no install disk for Windows 7, it came pre-installed.
I couldn't fix this with the Linux utilities – neither GPartEd nor KDE Partition Manager detect any errors (I clicked Check and fix), and fsck.ntfs doesn't exist yet, apparently.
Linux-based LiveCD I've been booting from trying to fix this (Clonezilla, GPartEd LiveCD) report “dirty” /dev/sda2, and suggest using chkdsk, which I can't do, besause I can't boot into Windows.
Right now, I'm downloading a Windows 7 Recovery Disc from here:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/window...-repair-discs/
I hope I'll be able to run chkdsk from there or some sort of Install Repair...
But I really don't know what to do without causing even more damage.
1.
Install GRUB? (doesn't it damage this 200MB boot partition? How does that partition work anyway?)
2.Wait for the
Windows 7 Recovery Disc to download (this will take a while, I'm on GPRS right now) and run chkdsk/repair install?
3.Try to build some live environment with
Bart PE and Windows XP and run chkdsk from there? (probably a bad idea, XP NTFS and Windows 7 NTFS is not exactly the same, plus the bootloader problem doesn't go away, I guess)
4.Find out if the 4.
partition is really some
backup and figure out how to restore it?
At this point I'm not even sure what the problem is. Corrupt filesystem of the second partition or a broken bootloader, or both?
I realize that this is rather a Windows problem, but with a possible Linux (GRUB) fix, which is why I'm posting here. Oh and my post at sevenforums is still waiting for approval. And most importantly, I'm desperate.
Please help, I'd be really grateful, my friend is probably going to kill me, and I don't even know where to start...
