Partition and MBR Problems

Question

I have a Dimension 5150, and have been dual-booting Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora Core) and Windows XP, but I am upgrading, and want to remove Linux as my son only knows how to use Windows.

I removed the Linux patitions using GParted LiveCD and it wored fine, but when it came to resizing the Windows NTFS partition, it says there is an error (but it didnt tell me what...). I have tried using chkdsk on windows, but that didnt work.

I restarted the computer, not knowing what to do, but then GRUB came up with an error.
I had to reinstall fedora just to use Windows again but that fixed the grub problem.

Also, I have just realised that when installing GRUB, that messes up the MBR, so that I cant use the Dell Utility Partition. It is pretty essential that I have it, as I cant trust my 14 year old on the PC without him ruining it ;)

Is there a way to fix my partition and MBR problems?

Thanks very much!

Message Edited by blake11 on 04-28-2007 07:00 AM

PETER345 · Answer

Run fixmbr to get rid of Grub. You can get the Windows boot loader to boot to the diagnostic partition, but that requires the use of dd and mucking with boot.ini.

You can also run the diagnostics from USB flash drive and CD.

Peter

Fixmbr Repairs the master boot record of the boot disk. The fixmbr command is only available when you are using the Recovery Console.

fixmbr [device_name]

Parameter

device_name

The device (drive) on which you want to write a new master boot record. The name can be obtained from the output of the map command. An example of a device name is:

\Device\HardDisk0.

Example

The following example writes a new master boot record to the device specified:

fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0

PETER345 · Answer

I have never done it, but you can use something like Partition Magic (so I have heard). Search these forums and use Google and you should find recommendations for partition resizing programs. Another option, which I assume you are aware of, is to just reload Windows and start over. Of course, that has it's own problems (reloading data and applications).

Yet another option is just to create a second Windows partition (D: ) to store data or whatever.

Peter

Message Edited by PETER345 on 04-28-2007 09:26 AM

blake11 · Answer

Thanks for your help, but I do not want to waste 30GB of space as I cant resize the Windows partition, do you know how to do that?

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Partition and MBR Problems

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