Reserved partition - moved

I have been running an Acer laptop with Win 7 & Ubuntu dual boot with easy bcd controlling boot for 6 months with no problems. Setup included Win7 in 50 gig resized partition and a shared data partition of 200 gig.

Recently, I ran out of space in the Windows partition, so decided to adjust things. The Windows partition is at the end of the drive with the reserved partition just before it. I used GParted to make the changes.

I reduced the data partition to 150 gig, leaving 50 gigs of unused space. I intended to resize Windows to 100 gig. However, the reserved partition was in the way. I copied and pasted the reserved partition to a new location, just after the data partition. I then deleted the original reserved partition. I used GParted to flag the new partition as "boot".

I expected things not to boot, so I booted with the Windows repair disk cd. I thought this would fix things; so far, nothing is working. Message says "Missing operating system", "No bootable device". I have thought of deleting the new reserved partition and then running the Windows 7 repair disk. Any thoughts at this point?

As you install Linux, your reserved partition & Acer Recovery partition are unusable.
Did you make your Acer Recovery Disks?

Theog:
Thanks for replying. Windows 7 was factory installed. I resized the partition and then installed Ubuntu. Everything worked fine and booted fine until this last change. I do have the Acer Recovery Disks; however, they restore factory settings, including all the junkware. Are you suggesting that my latest change is irriversible?

It appears as though the reserved partition is critical for booting. Can I delete the partition wth GParted, and then use the Windows repair disk to build a new set of boot instructions?

THe best way of deleting Linux is the CLEAN ALL command.
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command
But you will lose all your DATA & need to reinstall with Acer Recovery Disks.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

I wish to keep my dual boot configuration. I need to have both Windows and Ubuntu. I simply wanted to resize my windows 7 partition. I attempting this, I have moved the reserved partition and now the computer will not boot. I can restore a backup as a last resort. In the mean time, is it possible to delete the reserved partition and then use the Windows 7 repair disk to rebuild the boot instructions for Windows?

You could try reinstalling GRUB.

In a nutshell, yes.

If, for some reason, your repair disc doesn't do the job, you can do it through the command line:

Bootrec.exe Tool - How to Use in Windows Recovery Environment

The System Reserved boot partition is too sensitive to copy and paste. It will need to be rebuilt if it won't repair after making sure it's marked Active and running Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots.

To rebuild it, delete and recreate it using free Partition Wizard bootable CD or Diskpart from DVD Command Line: DiskPart Command-Line Options
DISKPART At PC Startup

Then mark Active using PW CD or Diskpart and run 3 Startup Repairs from DVD to write the System boot files to it, until Win7 starts. Partition - Mark as Active

If this fails, you likely have GRUB corruption interfering. You can try moving the Active flag to Win7 partition itself to run the Repairs to see if it will start, or you'll need to use GRUB bootloader for Win7 or wipe GRUB partition completely from the HD to avoid it's corruption of Win7.

jamrash said:

I wish to keep my dual boot configuration. I need to have both Windows and Ubuntu. I simply wanted to resize my windows 7 partition. I attempting this, I have moved the reserved partition and now the computer will not boot. I can restore a backup as a last resort. In the mean time, is it possible to delete the reserved partition and then use the Windows 7 repair disk to rebuild the boot instructions for Windows?

You could try reinstalling GRUB.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am back up and running in dual boot. Gregrocker, deleting the reserved partition and rebuilding it worked perfectly. I did not need to delve into Grub. I used Windows repair disk Diskpart to delete the partition from the command line and then rebooted with the Windows repair disk which detected the problem and fixed the boot sequence. Windows repair disk should be shipped with every Windows 7 computer!