Problem booting after resizing partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pritcham
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Pritcham

Hi

I'm really hopeing someone will be able to help me (or point me in the
right direction). Yesterday I noticed that my main partition was
running a little slack on space so, as there was another (less
frequently used) partition on the same drive I decreased the size of
that partition and added the extra space to the main (boot) partition
using Partition Magic (v7 I think, if that's important). Since doing
that I've not been able to boot the PC at all and am beginning to panic
a little now as there's too much on there for me to just re-format and
start again.

I'm running Windows 2000 (SP4) and the boot process goes as far as the
logon screen, once I've entered my details it comes up with the usual
"loading your settings" dialog and then nothing... just a blue, empty
desktop (no icons at all, no task bar, no errors - nothing).

I've gone into the Windows 2000 recovery console and ran CHKDSK on it
with no errors reported, the one thing that I did notice was that the
main drive letter seems to have changed - it was G:, and now it appears
to be D:. Having noticed this I went into Acronis DiskDirector to try
to change it back to G: to see if that would fix the issue but the
"Change Drive letter" option doesn't even give "G:" as an option - all
the other unused letters are there, just not G: (and there are no other
drives mapped to G: either) so it looks like the os thinks that G is
already taken. Having read a newsgroup post elsewhere I also ran
FIXMBR and FIXBOOT just incase they solved the issue but they haven't.

One other thing, while loading the Windows 2000 setup disk (so I could
actually get to the recovery console) an error message was displayed
saying "Disk I/O error - status 00001000" (although it still manages to
boot from the CD ok). I've googled this error and most of the
responses I came across seemed to imply a hardware failure but if that
was the case I would have thought this would have shown in the CHKDSK?

Any pointers/help would really be appreciated

Thanks a lot in advance
Martin
 
Pritcham said:
Hi

I'm really hopeing someone will be able to help me (or point me in the
right direction). Yesterday I noticed that my main partition was
running a little slack on space so, as there was another (less
frequently used) partition on the same drive I decreased the size of
that partition and added the extra space to the main (boot) partition
using Partition Magic (v7 I think, if that's important). Since doing
that I've not been able to boot the PC at all and am beginning to panic
a little now as there's too much on there for me to just re-format and
start again.

I'm running Windows 2000 (SP4) and the boot process goes as far as the
logon screen, once I've entered my details it comes up with the usual
"loading your settings" dialog and then nothing... just a blue, empty
desktop (no icons at all, no task bar, no errors - nothing).

I've gone into the Windows 2000 recovery console and ran CHKDSK on it
with no errors reported, the one thing that I did notice was that the
main drive letter seems to have changed - it was G:, and now it appears
to be D:. Having noticed this I went into Acronis DiskDirector to try
to change it back to G: to see if that would fix the issue but the
"Change Drive letter" option doesn't even give "G:" as an option - all
the other unused letters are there, just not G: (and there are no other
drives mapped to G: either) so it looks like the os thinks that G is
already taken. Having read a newsgroup post elsewhere I also ran
FIXMBR and FIXBOOT just incase they solved the issue but they haven't.

One other thing, while loading the Windows 2000 setup disk (so I could
actually get to the recovery console) an error message was displayed
saying "Disk I/O error - status 00001000" (although it still manages to
boot from the CD ok). I've googled this error and most of the
responses I came across seemed to imply a hardware failure but if that
was the case I would have thought this would have shown in the CHKDSK?

Any pointers/help would really be appreciated

Thanks a lot in advance
Martin
Click to expand...

Although the symptoms you describe are not typical for a changed
boot drive letter, this link might help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/EN-US/

You write "there's too much on there for me to just re-format and
start again.". If this is so then you should seriously consider an
imaging solution to protect your installation. Imaging programs cost
very little!
 
Hi

Thanks for that - I've taken a look at the link but it looks like it
requires you to be able to successfully boot the system in order to
make the suggested changes (which I can't do).

As for the imaging software - this is something I've already decided
upon following the issues yesterday (and yes, it would have been great
if I'd already had one in place but I think I've learned my lesson now
- just need to get this issue resolved so I can implement
imaging/mirror the drive).

Cheers
Martin
 
You can make the required registry changes in several other ways:

- Via a networked PC (easy)
- By slaving your disk to some other Win2000/XP PC (not so easy)
- By booting the machine with a Bart PE CD (not so easy)
- By booting the machine with a Nordahl boot diskette (hardest)

If you report your preferred method and if you're willing to
invest the necessary time then someone will supply further
details.
 
Hi

Thanks for the reply. I do have both a development machine (running
Windows 2003 Small Business server) and my original dusty old pc (think
that one may be running either Windows 2k or Windows 2k3 server, can't
remember as I haven't used it for so long) all hooked up to my
hub/router so I could run with option 1 with some guidance (if that's
ok) - if there's a KB article or something I can refer to I can give it
a shot tonight when I get home.

Again, thanks for your help
Martin
 
Pritcham said:
Hi

Thanks for the reply. I do have both a development machine (running
Windows 2003 Small Business server) and my original dusty old pc (think
that one may be running either Windows 2k or Windows 2k3 server, can't
remember as I haven't used it for so long) all hooked up to my
hub/router so I could run with option 1 with some guidance (if that's
ok) - if there's a KB article or something I can refer to I can give it
a shot tonight when I get home.

Again, thanks for your help
Martin
Click to expand...

The cure is already described in the KB article I previously
mentioned, with a little twist: Instead of opening the registry
on the problem PC (which you can't), you open it from a
networked PC. Just run regedit, then select "Connect Network
Registry".
 
Hi

Sorry if this is a stupid question but how do I connect to the
(unbootable) PC via the network if I can't boot it - should I use the
W2k setup disk to get to the recovery console then try to connect to it
or if not, how?

Like I said, apologies if it's really basic but I've got to be honest
and admit that networking isn't my strong point.

Thanks again for your help with this - much appreciated
Martin
 
Pritcham said:
Hi

Sorry if this is a stupid question but how do I connect to the
(unbootable) PC via the network if I can't boot it - should I use the
W2k setup disk to get to the recovery console then try to connect to it
or if not, how?

Like I said, apologies if it's really basic but I've got to be honest
and admit that networking isn't my strong point.

Thanks again for your help with this - much appreciated
Martin
Click to expand...

From your first post it appears that your PC is very much
bootable: It goes to the logon screen but no further. As it
happens, when a PC is at a logon screen then its network
connectivity is usually intact, hence you can reach it from
another PC. Here is how you do it:
- Assume PC1 is the flawed, PC2 is the good PC.
- Connect PC2 to PC1, either with a crossover cable or
via a network switch.
- Make sure that PC2 has an IP address that lies within
the same subnet as PC1.
- Log on to PC2 under an admin account that also exists
on PC1.
- Run regedit.exe on PC2, then click Registry/Connect
Network Registry.
- Specify the name or the IP address of PC1, e.g.
\\192.168.0.5.
Post again if you need more detailed instructions.
 
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