Fix win XP's MBR or repair with Linux GRUB?

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daveinmanc

Hi Folks, first time posting but have lurked in the past :)

Preparing my windows xp box for an eventual dual boot I attempted to resize 2 partitions using partition magic,never had trouble before but this time, it did. . . . . .
I resized my C from 50 to 40g, and my E from 440 to 400g - set a new 50gb partition for mint, to be formatted to FAT32.
It appeared to go fine 'til the end when as I was pressing enter to reboot, i noticed an error, unfortunately didn't catch it in full . . . . as the machine restarted up popped a BSOD for a second, (can't catch it hitting pause) then it rolls onto the options screen but booting normally doesn't work or last good config or anything else ...

Inserting the win cd, the repair option doesn't even appear and my C drive is called unknown1 ...... the E drive is recognised and the sizes haven't changed, so the Linux partition I was trying to create didn't happen - If I plug in in a Mint USB, the C & E drive contents appear fine and all there, I just can't boot.

If i select with the win disc, either drive, it tells me C is formatted with an incompatible file system, which is bizarre considering i'd only tried to shrink it by 10g, i didn't touch the File System . . . . a linux mint live USB/gparted tells me its NTFS, why windows can't recognise its own file system is beyond me?

I cannot get a Command prompt at all . . .

checking this with mint, the 10gb i was trying to shave off the C drive is showing as unsused space, so maybe this is a partition magic fubar, same goes for the E drive but that's still recognised as NTFS.....

Long shot. . . . . . . . but . . . could i not transfer all the C drive files over to my 1tb external, format C to NTFS, transfer them back . . . . ??
Is this even do-able/possible before anything else ?

Sorry for the lengthy post but I was up late last night with this so trying to include every step I tried at the time.

Thanks in advance for any pointers . . . . . . Dave
 
you can transfer data files, such as my documents, pictures, videos, favorites, desktop.

then you can copy those back to their respective folders after formatting.

during formatting you can create your partitions to the size you want.

do not forget that you will have to install sp3 manually to get microsoft updates to work, unless you have a slipstreamed cd with sp3 already on the cd.
 
Update . . . . . this debacle gets weirder by the hour lol . . . . . .
Searched around today for ideas, got wind of hirens boot cd, sounded good, made a bootable usb, booted up, attempted to get a command prompt to do the fixmbr part I'd read all about . . . . couldn't for the life of me get a C: prompt lol . .. .I got one with an X, one with a B, but could I get a C....

So i gave that up, decided to try my barkingly mad simple idea i had last night, which was after reading that the file system wasn't recognised, I was going to try copying Cs contents to external, format to ntfs, copy em' back ...... well I did, rebooted, got the black screen to boot normally/safe mode etc, chose normal - it only went and booted straight back into partition magic at the end of stage 1 of 4, I'm sat here after an hour and it's over half way done in the last stage, If it works I'll have my 50gb partition for mint and if not, C's getting wiped and mint can have the lot, I'll see what happens at the end . . . . . . I'd partitioned for disasters way back, got copies on externals etc so i've no real worries about losing anything, this is the most bizarre episode I've ever come across, and I've had a few with windows over the years lol :rolleyes:
 
Wish I could help more, but I do not have any personal experience using Partition Magic, but it is recommended by a lot of contributors.
 
Update for anyone coming across this in future:

I LOL'd for so long I now have sore ribs :)

My ridiculously simple idea worked, posting from my xp install now, with a repartitioned disc with a 50gb partition waiting for mint, so due to the in for a penny in for a pound nature I tend to have, i'm going straight into a Mint install while i bask in the glory of my genius lol . . . : /

It's restored . . . . once partition magic finished it was like nothing went wrong........... I had my 50gb partItion made for mint which i've just installed LM13 to and it's up and running with alice in chains playing off the E drive lol . . . . . happy times :)

I can only put this down to a PM glitch ...... but with me getting an unrecognised file system message yesterday I figured why not give it one it does then and see what happens . . . . worked for me lol
 
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