Solved Creating additional partition makes all partitions non-bootable

[ToughDiamond]

I wanted to steal a bit of HD space and make it into an extra partition for storing data, so I used Disk Management to shrink the system partition, then reallocated the free space as a new drive. Everything looked as it should, except that Windows warned me that formatting my new partition would make ALL partitions "simple" and that none of them would then be bootable, apart from the Win 7 system partition.

The computer as such still works OK, but the functionality of system backups has been impaired. Norton Ghost now greys out the destination drive and therefore won't do a partition restore. Computer maker's factory reset stops with an error message. Windows 7's own complete system image restore stops with an error, but mercifully it still works if I run it from the Win7 Repair Disk. I haven't tested it but I expect Ghost would also work if I told it to retore the disk rather than just the partition. But both those methods overwrite the whole shebang.

Is there any way of creating a working data partition that doesn't nobble booting from existing partitions? I want to be able to restore just the system partition without wiping out my data.

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum can you post a screen shot showing all the details of your drive from diskmangment so we can see you may have created a none primary partition

 

[ToughDiamond]

Thanks, I'll do the snapshot ASAP. Meanwhile, I'm sure I did create it as non-primary, or "simple" as Win7 called it. There was no choice for primary. From memory I'm pretty sure there were 4 partitions already, and I think I read that it'll only make the first 4 primary.

 

[samuria]

Yes you can only have 4 primary on a MBR drive so you may have created a extended one

 

[pbcopter]

You may have converted the disk to dynamic to get the extra partition.

 

[ToughDiamond]

Here's the screenshot of Disk Management, with the warning when I try to format the new partition after allocating it. You're correct about it making them dynamic. But it won't do it without.

 

[samuria]

You covered the details with the message. The best bet is to delete the last up partition copy data of if you want. Then move the other hp to the right were the other partition was then you can create a primary partition in the free space. You better using free partition software as it's more friendly

 

[SIW2]

There are only 4 partition slots in an mbr partition table. All 4 slots are occupied because you currently have 4 partitions.

The simplest solution to make your 2nd partition the system partition ( labelled C: in your screenshot).
The way to do that is

1. open an administrator command prompt, and type:
bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
then press enter.

2. Mark your second partition (C Active. You can't do this bit using disk management from within windows.


3. Then you could delete the first ( 300mb )partition as you no longer need a separate system partition.

4. That would free up a slot in the partition table, and you can create a new partition from the 78.13gb unallocated space.

You need a 3rd party partition manager to do number 2 . You also need to do it from outside windows. I suggest you d/l Aomei free (standard) partition assistant. Get it to make bootable media. Boot that up and make the changes I just described.

Or, you can borrow my boot media that already includes Aomei and other free tools:
A23x86.iso

 

[ToughDiamond]

Thanks, so I have to delete a partition to avoid exceeding the limit. This is a newly-purchased second hand computer, and I'm new to Win 7, so it's hard for me to know which is the least important existing partition and what I'd be losing. Samuria, I guess you mean the E: partition (HP Tools)? I'd best look in the manuals and see if it's got anything worth keeping it for. The D: partition is probably HP's factory reset volume. SIW2, I have no clue what the leftmost 300mb system partition is for. I get that if I delete it I must make the C: drive the system partition. Any idea what the benefit of the 300mb partition is?

 

[ToughDiamond]

You need a 3rd party partition manager to do number 2 . You also need to do it from outside windows. I suggest you d/l Aomei free (standard) partition assistant. Get it to make bootable media. Boot that up and make the changes I just described.

Or, you can borrow my boot media that already includes Aomei and other free tools:
A23x86.iso

That's kind of you, I'll take a look.

 

[SIW2]

The 300mb partition was just to get people "used to" the idea tha MS implements a separate system partition for UEFI/gpt systems. You don't need a separate "system" partition.

 

[ToughDiamond]

That's heartening, and may explain the presence of an EFI folder somewhere on the drive even though the machine will reliably boot on everything including legacy media. And there seem to be enough complete-drive backups around for recovery if anything goes wrong - there's Win7's own image, HP's factory settings, and Ghost can also do the whole drive. . Avoiding UEFI is a big part of the reason why I got a win7 machine, rather than 10. Hard to know which w10 models will really allow legacy boot options. I gather if it's a bargain then it probably won't.

 

[samuria]

As I said you can copy files of up tools if you want to keep them. It's simpler to delete that so you don't need to mess with boot files the system partition is were it boots from then hands over to c

 

[Megahertz07]

Beware.
System partition on OEM disks normally have the boot loader and the possibility to launch other programs like diagnostics, tools and system restore.

 

[ToughDiamond]

Yes zapping the HP Tools partition sounds a little safer, so far at least. A genuinely complete backup of the whole drive ought to render everything safe, but with that 300mb partition looking like some kind of master partition, I don't feel quite so sure. On an XP machine I wrecked the built-in Samsung recovery partition when I took a bit of space from C and gave it to the (existing) data partition. No apparent reason why that would have affected Samsung, which was on a partition I never knowingly touched.

 

[Megahertz07]

My personal opinion: Don't play with partitions. It's a OEM disk with diagnostics, tools and system restore.

- You should create the factory recovery boot able USB flash drive to be able to restore the OS in any disk.
- Use Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free to generate a disk image on an external HDD.
With these two tools you can rebuilt your disk if disaster happens.

If you want to improve your laptop, buy a small (120G) SSD and a caddy to replace the ODD with a HDD.
Put Windows and programs on the SSD and data on the HDD.
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[ToughDiamond]

Sure, an external copy of a complete drive image is the best rescue, and the utility has to be able to restore whatever has happened to the drive. Win7's imaging utility reversed my partitioning work and its damage to the bootability of the internal partitions with no trouble, because it ran from the Windows boot CD. Ghost runs from a bootable flash drive, it wouldn't let me select the computer drive to restore it, but that image was of the C partition only, so it seems quite likely that it'd have done the job if I'd used a drive image instead of a partition image. Won't try to use that without checking if I'm right first. If there's any reason to suspect neither option will restore all partitions, Macrium will be worth a look. Clever to think of a different drive for the OS, though that'd be a lot of unfamiliar territory for me.

 

[SIW2]

Making C system and deleting the litlle 300mb thing is fine. I have done it hundreds of times.

I have no idea why the other posters are contradicting me. They should know better.

As an alternative, you could get rid of the HP recovery partitions, which would get you even more space. It contains reinstallation media, with relevant drivers, and various HP applications. It also contains the cert and product key that matches your slic table - for automatic activation.

If you are going to delete the recovery partition(s), make sure you have reinstallation media and a product key.

It is good idea to make regular images of your drive - I recommend Aomei backupper as it is the simplest to use, and does a good job.There is a free (standard) version which may be all you need.
Best Windows Backup and Restore Software | AOMEI Backupper

 

[Megahertz07]

A SSD is the best upgrade since multi core CPU.
Have done it on a friend's computer and will be glad to guide you.

 

[SIW2]

Yes, an ssd is a worthwhile upgrade for most laptops.

That wasn't the original question.