Minitool Partition Wizard killed my Windows

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  1. Posts : 132
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    Minitool Partition Wizard killed my Windows


    Hi!
    I just tried the tool mentioned above to resize my partitions.
    I'm running W7x64 on a SATA drive and XP on IDE, so I can startup both depending on which disk I set as boot disk in my BIOS.

    So far things were running fine but ever since I tried to resize my Win7 partition to have more room for my storage partition (same physical drive), my Win7 keeps rebooting.
    I see the normal boot screen and after a while, the PC restarts.

    I tried the repair console to no avail - the assistant claims it couldn't restore anything, it doesn't even show me any restore points (which I know do exist).
    The actual Win7 partition seems OK though as I can access most folders when I boot in XP.

    What somehow puzzles me is the drive layout.
    It says
    D: System Storage: Active: Primary
    E: Win 7: None: Primary
    G: Storage: None: Primary
    Plus my XP partition which works fine.
    I tried to set E active but it was set to status None automatically after the next unsuccessul reboot.
    But shouldn't D and E drive letters be the other way around?
    Or even worse, shouldn't Win be E, Storage F and System Storage G?

    Oh, booting from my Win7 DVD and trying the repair install option didn't work either.

    Did a chkdsk and everything on my Win7 partition but it found no errors.

    Any ideas how to fix this mess?

    Cheers.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #2

    Hello sordid, welcome to Seven Forums!


    Try this.

    Disconnect all HDDs except the one with Windows 7 on and connect that to the #1 SATA port of the motherboard and set it as the second boot device after the CD/DVD drive.

    First have a look at Option Two to see how to use diskpart to mark the Windows 7 partition as Active and do the 3 separate startup repairs with the separate restarts outlined in the main body of the tutorial to (re)create boot files to the Windows 7 partition.

    Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

    DISKPART : At PC Startup


    Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 132
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks a lot for the input.
    Unfortunately, it didn't help either.
    I see the normal boot screen, Windows starts loading and after a while (I think that's about the time when the desktop would show up under normal circumstances) reboots.
    When I start in safe mode, I can see Windows showing a list of all the files it loads, then it reboots again too.

    I'm still puzzled regarding the partition drive letters - they can't be right I think.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #4

    Did you disconnect the IDE HDD and boot the Windows 7 installation DVD to get to a command window and load diskpart, like in Method One of this tutorial?


    DISKPART : At PC Startup
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 132
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Yep. The partition was set to state Active.
    But actually, nothing has changed, things still behave the way they did.
    I even tried playing around with the drive letters meanwhile but that didn't change anything either.
    I'm really disappointed with Partition Wizard - I have used many partitioning tools over the last 15 years and never had any difficulties; now I tried this one and it somehow managed to ruin my OS.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #6

    Did you disconnect all other HDDs before you attempted the startup repairs?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 132
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Yes, I did. Didn't make any difference though.
    I reversed the drive letters to their previous state and tried again, it all doesn't help.
    I don't think my Win7 can be resurrected...
    Now all I would need is at least a way to access my personal folders in Win7 from either my running XP or Ubuntu - it should work in Ubuntu, shouldn't it? Then I'll have to reinstall Win7 and never ever touch that crappy piece of software Partition Wizard anymore.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #8

    I would be more inclined to believe it was operator error rather than the S/W, too many have used it successfully, including myself to do partition resizing and have never had issues, I've probably done close to 100 such operations, both on 'real' hardware and using VirtualBox and never had an issue with it.



    This will help you copy out the data if need be.

    How to Copy & Paste in Recovery Console on Windows 7 or Vista
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 132
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Well, I used different partitioning tools over the last 15 years and all I did was shrinking one partition and growing another one.
    You'd have to try very hard to make any mistakes in such a scenario - and yes, I repartitioned a few hundred times in the past as well, but obviously with different tools.

    Thanks for the link - that's a pretty neat trick I wasn't aware of.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #10

    Glad I could help mate and be sure to keep us posted.
      My Computer


 
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