Accidentally shrank Windows partition

[danlel]

Hello! I don't really know if this is the right place to post this, sorry :/

I was trying to install Linux in dual boot with Windows 7 on my netbook. In the partitioning part of the installation, I accidentally shrank the W7 partition, and now I can't boot into Windows (I just see a kind of black prompt). I started the LiveCD that comes with the Linux distro; this is what I'm getting (I post it as a link because the image is too big):

https://s3.amazonaws.com/pushbullet-uploads/ujveLS7uezs-UMw1DApQvwG9k6mBmXR7mxQ5AH1f34mk/IMG_0304.JPG

I'm a newbie with GParted. Resizing /sda3 would delete everything in the unallocated space, if I'm not mistaken. Is there a way to merge the unallocated space with /sda3 and boot into W7 normally? I don't have important archives in the netbook, so just being able to boot into Windows again would be enough. I would keep trying to solve it myself but I think I will just screw it up even more.

Thanks in advance!

 

[gregrocker]

I'm not sure why you shrank the Win7 partition for your Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux
when you have almost 200gb of unallocated space at the end of the drive you could split between the Linux install, even extend your data partition first if desired.

So what I would do is delete the partitions you created in the Win7 shrink space, extend the Win7 partition, then in the Unallocated space create new partitions for Linux.

To start Win7 confirm that System Reserved is Partition Marked Active then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.

A better tool than the Linux disk is free Partition Wizard boot CD which will not only do all of the above but also redistribute space between partitions whether they are adjacent or not as shown in How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

Finally since the Dual Boot tutorial above is meant for starting from bare metal, here's a good way to add Linux to a Windows Dual Boot menu once you're reasserted the Win7 boot loader: Dual boot Ubuntu-Win7