Have an HP Elitebook with Windows 7 on it, am trying to shrink the Windows partition so I can install linux and dual-boot. Using a USB stick, I can boot the laptop with either a Mint or Ubuntu iso, but neither will recognize the windows partition as what they are. They see the windows partitions but think they are unused, and won't let me resize them. Same with a bootable gparted.

So I tried three different bootable windows-oriented partition tools, but none of these will boot the laptop (??). The USB sticks will be recognized by the bios by name, but they will not boot up.

The bios is set for legacy mode. I tired UEFI with and without CSM but it makes no difference.

Any thoughts?

To my experience this is almost impossible. I have used both Gparted & Mint iso for repair and it always read the disk MBR. Assuming that the Gparted & Mint iso are all in order, --checked with md5sum hash. Assuming all things equal at BIOS configurations. My guess it that the MBR or the first blocks of your HD are mismatched, or something is wrong. To find this out you may want to do this:

a) Reboot the Elitebook into Win 7 and from there make a through disk check and repair. or,

b) Gparted/Mint sees the HD, only that it doesn't recognize the win partition as you said. Try run e2fsck from booted Mint or Gparted, either tool may see the block size and backups somewhere at backup sectors and it may be able to repair the disk. You may want to do it this way--
Gparted can identify a vfat or ntfs, and if the MBR was properly written during the shrinking of win partition. New partition size ought to be written and saved at new MBR record, and from that, it is readable by Gparted or any Gnu/linux tools.

This alludes to a defective MBR. The shrinking process might have halted improperly. So you can still try option (b) above, employing Gnu/linux tools.

Which USB, the Gparted and Mint? or a Win took in a USB.

Good. You are intelligent.

Those are my simple thoughts. If they don't work, come back with debugging report.

Hope that helps. Good luck and enjoy.

m.m.

So, did you try to shrink the partition from inside Windows? Is your computer properly shut down or did you hibernate or suspend?

What I'd do, start Windows and then try to resize the partition. If it won't shrink, defrag the drive. Then try to shrink it again. If it gives you any error messages, run chkdsk on the drive. Report again after trying these steps.

I never actually attempted to shrink the partition, because none of the tools would allow it. So it can't be a problem related to resizing.

I can't find a tool within windows to resize the partition. This is Windows 7 Enterprise, and I don't have a disc for it. I also don't have admin privileges. This was a laptop from my old employer who didn't ask for it back. I know the password can be reset, but I didn't think that would help here if I didn't have the Windows install disk.

The linux usb sticks boot fine, but don't recognize the windows partitions. Whereas all the windows-oriented usb bootable usb sticks don't boot the computer.

I'll try the other things mentioned. Thanks.

If it's an office machine, it may have something like bitlocker installed and operating. You will need the admin password to change anything if bitlocker is enabled.

I suppose that could be. I know the tech guy had to be involved with any alteration of the windows system, like adding programs or hardware, but I thought that was because he had admin privileges.

If Windows is protected, is the only option to delete/reformat the hard drive? I was hoping to keep windows 7, but if not able to, it wouldn't be a disaster.

If the drive is locked with bitlocker, it is a brick without the key. One of the Linux partition tools may be able to delete the partition table so you can start over - maybe. Dealing with bitlocker locked drives is a royal PITA. Do some Googling on bitlocker so you know what you're in for.

Also, I'm just guessing it is bitlocker as it was used at a few places I've worked to lock things down. Also, even if you keep that Windows, you can't change anything that requires admin access - like adding or removing software or changing configurations...

TRY FATDOG (puppy) LINUX that is just the cats A$$ it's got everything you need to play - it is loaded with apps more then most would think and it is 64bit too. it has if memory serves me right gparted in it too.

OR

http://www.partition-tool.com/

OR

when I was runing win 7/8 I used their disk manager to srink the VOL then the one that you want to use for Linux, recreate it as a seperate partition, do not assig a letter to it, (it speeds up the proccess, linux will see it as a NTFS par, just remember what size it is so you can pick out of the list of dirves to use, then when installing Linux look for it then use that, from linux install to finish it off. in linux delete it, change it, a chunck of it for swap and to ext4 and or whatever you want to make that, and split it into / and /home if you like or all on the / , or how ever you want to split it up or not, your call, then install linux on that. I was not using that UIDI whatever it is called to assig HDD I really do not like that system, I rather use hard path to dive in fstab. and yes I did this on a HP ELightBook 6930p. using it right now. got rid of Windows and it is now dead-e-cated Linux BOx

I put grub2 on the MBR and let it handle windows boot. to install linux -> windows not good, windows -> linux -> grub2 or lilo is eaiser to deal with in dual /or/ multi boot

how to use windows 7 disk manager to srink and change drive size


http://www.howtogeek.com/101862/how-...ther-software/


http://www.partition-tool.com/resour...sk-manager.htm

---

which Elightbook U got? I had a 2700 series I beleve that is what it was and I got rid of it becuse it would not play nice with Linux at ALL!

I find it interesting that your old employer to did not ask for the laptop back or at least wipe the hard drive to remove any proprietary information but whatever. That is the entire point of having encrypted partitions and locking down the computer in this fashion. If the laptop was stolen it makes retrieving data very difficult. I'm also surprised that the BIOS was not locked to prevent booting from CD/DVD or USB drives.

If mint or Ubuntu could not recognize and mount the NTFS partition(s) then I agree that they are probably encrypted and that no regular tools will be of any help. Your only choice is to delete windows if possible. My work laptop with my previous employer had a lock icon displayed in file explorer to indicate they were encrypted.

could just go out and buy a different HDD 50$ and that'd fix it too