Cannot boot anything after resize.
Hi, I recently just resized my main Windows 7 partition, and now I can't boot to Windows, or DD (when the said hard drive is in the laptop). I wanted to resize my main partition to put Linux on it. My hard drive was set up at the factory with a SYSTEM partition, then the main partition, then the Recovery Partition, them the HPTOOLS partition. This is an HP Pavilion DV6 laptop. Any help would be MUCH appreciated!
What version of DD are you using?
Can you get to the Windows "Safe Mode" menu by pressing F8 when booting?
Can you boot to the DD CD? If so, can you post a screenshot of what it shows (take a picture of the screen)?
Hi, I am using DD11 update 2. I installed it last night, and downloaded the latest version before installing. I'll look for more detailed information on that when I get home, as I am in class now. Windows isn't anywhere near booting (so no safe mode). I can boot to the DD CD, but the kicker is that I can't boot anything when the hard drive is connected to my computer using the standard connector. I can't boot the Windows Recovery CD, a Linux Pendrive, or anything at all with the hard drive connected. I can tell the BIOS to boot from other things, but as it starts to load, the power cuts off and it reboots. I've been able to fool around with it when I connect the HDD to my computer using a SATA to USB converter, and was able to recover all of my data since my last backup. I hope this helps.
Have you tried running and hard drive diagnostics on the drive? What you describe sounds odd. Does the drive show up correctly in the BIOS?
Yes, the BIOS does see the drive, and I did run HP's built in HDD diagnostics, and it passed everything (SMART, Short DST, Long DST.) This makes absolutely no sense to me. And I've been working with computers my whole life! Lol.
I talked to HP and I have to send my laptop in for a different issue with my motherboard not functioning properly. I guess it probably could explain the not-being-able-to-boot-anything issue. As for not being able to boot Windows, I'll just attribute that to a corrupted MBR. So I don't lose my head again, can someone please explain to me how to use DD to resize a partition without destroying everything. I bought DD in the first place because I was told that it would not be destructive. Thanks!
Edit: Also forgot to mention that I got it to boot to a Linux Pendrive and connected the HDD in question via a SATA to USB adapter. I plan on nuking it with Gparted here in an hour and reinstalling everything. Then restoring from my TI Home backup. :-)
When you try to boot something when the drive is connected what happens? Does the computer still post normally (BIOS screens)? Does the selected drive/device start to boot and then fail or lock up? You said the power cuts off. Do you mean that the computer loses all power and resets or do you mean the drive powers down?
Does the drive show up properly connected via SATA to a different computer?
When I boot with the hard drive connected to the motherboard, it will POST, then the screen will go black (ya know, like it is going to load the selected OS) then it cuts off like someone pulled the battery, but then it reboots, and does the same thing over again (I could press power once and it would loop like this all day, without my intervention. It seems like it just fails to start, and then tries again.) It does this whether I let it run, or go into the BIOS and explicitly tell it to boot to another volume. I don't have another laptop that I could test this with by connecting it directly to the motherboard, but I can read it in Linux using the said SATA to USB adapter. (Although at some times, if the computer sees the HDD connected by USB at POST, it would still cutt off and reboot, even though I told it to boot to Linux on my flash drive. I can mount it in Linux, and right now I am copying the latest version of all my files to my backup HDD now.
Do you have another laptop drive you can try? It doesn't have to boot it -- just not "fail" when trying or when booting a different drive/device.
Have you checked all the BIOS settings look correct (drive controller mode, for example)?
It sounds like the BIOS is looking for something specific on the drive and what it finds is causing an error. Does the laptop/BIOS have any special features that might cause this? Any "pre-OS" type features?
If the drive is connected and you disable the SATA controller in the BIOS will the computer boot?
Do you have a TI backup of the drive from before you made the partitioning changes?
Is Linux reporting any warnings or messages when you mount the drive?
No I do not have another laptop drive to test. Yeah, the BIOS looks correct, I even pulled the CMOS battery to make sure. The drive does have a SYSTEM partition on it that is before the main partition. I have a backup of that, but I can't load it because of said issue booting with the drive connected. And the TI Home bootable CD doesn't see the HDD when connected via USB. Oh, and I can't disable the SATA controller in the BIOS. This computer's BIOS is very, very limited...
Edit: Linux says the drive is fine, but I can't check the file system using Disk Utility, it says the daemon is inhibited (whatever that means lol). However, Gparted gives warnings on the main partition: Unable to find mount point. Unable to read the contents of this file system! Because of this, some operations may be unavailable.
Edit 2: I was able to boot from other media with the hard drive attached to the motherboard when I deleted the main partition. I just now loaded up TI Home, and it just said Failed to read from sector '0' of hard disk '0'. Then it does the same for disk 1.
I am having a similar problem.
I moved a hard drive from my old XP into my new Windows 7 - both Dell.
Removed 2 parttitions fine - rebooted OK.
Now I want to merge them into one but at reboot it fails to start. Windows tries to fix - Nada
start windows normally and It starts but the 2 partitions are still there
I am having a similar problem.
I moved a hard drive from my old XP into my new Windows 7 - both Dell.
Removed 2 parttitions fine - rebooted OK.
Now I want to merge them into one but at reboot it fails to start. Windows tries to fix - Nada
start windows normally and It starts but the 2 partitions are still there.
DD ver.11 home (build 11.0.2121)
Oh, and by the way - please tell sales to stop sending me satisfaction surveys until this is fixed. You won't like my current thoughts
Which two partitions are you trying to merge?
Is the screenshot from before or after you did the operation?
I recommend booting to the DD CD for any operations that would require DD in Windows to reboot. It gives you more control over the process and gives you a better chance of seeing what's wrong if it doesn't work.
If the data on the drive is important it's recommended to create an Entire Disk Image backup before making partitioning changes. Also, I recommend against using the Split and Merge features of DD. The risk of data loss if something goes wrong is too high.