Question: Windows 10 and resizing partitions apparently don’t mix.I needed to migrate a partition to a smaller SSD, as outlined in this post, so in an attempt to move my massive documents folder to a place where it will remain on the HDD, I tried to shrink my main partition, as it had 120 GB of free space. In the process, I defragged my HDD partition… more than is healthy.
Anyways, because Windows still wouldn’t resize the partition, I tried resizing it with AOMEI partition assistant. I checked the disk twice- the program apparently used chkdsk to do so- and rebooted to apply fixes each time. After that, attempting to run the check would give me a frowny face of death (Stop code: CRITICAL PROCESS DIED, no underscores). I made the mistake of using that software to resize the disk. It ran in PreOS mode, and now my laptop won’t boot. I see the Lenovo logo (it’s a Lenovo laptop), then it goes away- and normally would be replaced by a Windows logo, iirc. I can access the ease of access center via keyboard shortcuts, but that doesn’t have a link to the control panel as Win7 did. Ctrl+Alt+Del won’t work- the shortcuts that do respond are limited to ease of access utilities and Win+P, which is useless.
I re-expanded the disk to the original size (plus 460KB or so) and ran chkdsk C: /f multiple times, as per recommendation of GParted. GParted says the NTFS is inconsistent, but everything else seems to point to it being functional- aside from it not being functional. I’ve also run whatever Boot/System Recovery thing is in the Advanced Repair Options, which immediately gives me an error saying it couldn’t do anything.
So… can I fix this, or should I put it in my external enclosure and find some place to put my data? Also, if the booting is screwed, could I save my installed programs by copying some folders, perhaps Program Files/(x86) and .appdata?
If anyone knows how to correctly get Windows to resize a partition, that would also be useful for the future. Yes, I disabled hibernation/pagefile/other stuff, and consolidated free space with Defraggler.
I don’t have a computer to set up USB tools with (I’m typing this from a Chromebook) but I do have a Ubuntu Live USB and a USB with Windows recovery tools (and a Win10 installer).
List vol output:
Volume 0 C Windows ?NTFS ?Partition 363 GB HealthyVolume 1 D LENOVO ?NTFS ?Partition 24 GB ?HealthyVolume 2 ?SYSTEM_DRV FAT32 Partition 240 MB Healthy HiddenVolume 3 E WINRE_DRV ?NTFS ?Partition 999 MB Healthy HiddenVolume 4 F Storage ?NTFS ?Partition 19 GB ?Healthy Hidden
If anyone knows how to make a properly spaced list, please tell me or suggest an edit!
Answer: Your post only got my attention because it contains chromebook or another Chrome OS specific keyword on certain StackExchange sites. Chromebooks modified to run Windows is a very unusual case and therefore it’s no surprise that other users will come up with recommendations that may not work for you. That’s your mistake for not being explicitly clear about the situation from the start but putting this important information somewhere at the end. If you discover bug related to this kind of chromebook modification then the folks at r/chrultrabook are the only ones I know of who may have enough knowledge to help you out.
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If anyone knows how to correctly get Windows to resize a partition, that would also be useful for the future. Yes, I disabled hibernation/pagefile/other stuff, and consolidated free space with Defraggler.
Use Windows’ disk manager to resize the partition, if it refuses to do it then you have to reinstall or use dism (as Bob suggested in chat). More commands like bcdboot and reagentc may be required to run for troubleshooting instead of simply reinstalling, I tinkered with this on another problem here but at the moment I don’t have a Windows booting chromebook nor sufficient time available to recreate your issue and look into it (to eventually learn something).