linux-ntfs-user

[Linux-NTFS-User] Resizing Windows 7 Partition?

[Pete M. <mc...@pe...>]

I have a hard drive image file with a Windows 7 installation that I
captured prior to first boot.  It looks like this:

bigmedia:/var/extra1/images# losetup -fsr ./netbook-working-sda.img
/dev/loop0
bigmedia:/var/extra1/images# fdisk -lu /dev/loop0

Disk /dev/loop0: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdc7a3828

      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/loop0p1              63    25173854    12586896   27  Unknown
/dev/loop0p2   *    25173855    25382699      104422+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/loop0p3        25382700   312579759   143598530    7  HPFS/NTFS
bigmedia:/var/extra1/images#



I want to shrink this installation down to 40GB and put it back on the
machine which right now has Ubuntu taking up all 160GB.

I have read that ntfsresize may have some problems resizing Windows 7
partitions, and also that sometimes machines ship in Suspend mode instead
of shutdown that can lead to boot problems.

Can I safely use ntfsresize to shrink partition 3, and put the 3 partitions back
on the drive after my Ubuntu installation, and expect the machine to boot?
Or is that type 27 partition the suspend partition that needs to be first on
the drive?  Anything else I should keep in mind?

Thanks,

-Pete

Re: [Linux-NTFS-User] Resizing Windows 7 Partition?

[Anton A. <ai...@ca...>]

Hi,

On 24 Apr 2010, at 23:04, Pete McCann wrote:
> I have a hard drive image file with a Windows 7 installation that I
> captured prior to first boot.  It looks like this:
> 
> bigmedia:/var/extra1/images# losetup -fsr ./netbook-working-sda.img
> /dev/loop0
> bigmedia:/var/extra1/images# fdisk -lu /dev/loop0
> 
> Disk /dev/loop0: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0xdc7a3828
> 
>      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/loop0p1              63    25173854    12586896   27  Unknown
> /dev/loop0p2   *    25173855    25382699      104422+   7  HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/loop0p3        25382700   312579759   143598530    7  HPFS/NTFS
> bigmedia:/var/extra1/images#
> 
> 
> I want to shrink this installation down to 40GB and put it back on the
> machine which right now has Ubuntu taking up all 160GB.
> 
> I have read that ntfsresize may have some problems resizing Windows 7
> partitions, and also that sometimes machines ship in Suspend mode instead
> of shutdown that can lead to boot problems.
> 
> Can I safely use ntfsresize to shrink partition 3, and put the 3 partitions back
> on the drive after my Ubuntu installation, and expect the machine to boot?
> Or is that type 27 partition the suspend partition that needs to be first on
> the drive?  Anything else I should keep in mind?

The type 27 partition is either an Acer laptop hidden rescue partition or a Windows RE hidden partition.  In either case you do not need it at all.

As far as booting goes, no it will NOT work.  Windows booting is much more complicated than that.  You will need to modify the NTFS boot sector to update it to the new physical location on the disk, you will need to update the new drive geometry information in the NTFS boot sector as well.  You will then need to also edit Windows 7 setup itself so it knows about the new system and boots from it.  I am afraid I have no idea how booting works in Windows 7 so you will have to search google for details of what you have to do but be prepared for a lot of pain...

I would recommend you to install Windows from scratch in the new space you want to put it in, then copy over from the old disk image anything you want to keep to the new Windows installation then make a full backup and then discard your now no longer needed disk image...  This will be a lot less hassle than trying to do what you are trying to do...

Best regards,

	Anton
-- 
Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cam.ac.uk> (replace at with @)
Unix Support, Computing Service, University of Cambridge, CB2 3QH, UK
Linux NTFS maintainer, http://www.linux-ntfs.org/

Re: [Linux-NTFS-User] Resizing Windows 7 Partition?

[Miller, S. <Sha...@yr...>]

Good day Pete,

How would you feel about booting the Windows, going through any initial
setup it might offer you (having just come fresh from a vendor), then
resizing after a nice, clean, old-fashioned shut-down?

Perhaps if you are hopeful to copy this dual-boot state to some other
disks you could even look into re-sealing the Windows however the vendor
did that.  If so, you might then be inclined to capture an image of your
disk before-hand so you can snoop around in it, looking for wherever
SysPrep's current incarnation is.

At least in Windows XP/2003, Windows uses HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\ in
the Registry to associate C: with a particular volume under
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet00X\Enum\STORAGE\.  Removing the association for
C: causes Windows to re-scan HDDs, looking for a disk matching params
that NTLDR passed on.  I'm not sure if this is the same for BOOTMGR and
Windows > 2003.

Good luck.  A backup image of the whole disk is always handy.

- Shao Miller