EXTRA! EXTRA!: Mystery Startup Issue

[mzadotcom]

Long story short, my PC isn't loading Windows anymore.

I haven't installed any new hardware. No setting changes, either in Windows and/or in the BIOS, have been made. I make a habit of thoroughly cleaning/dusting my system @ least once a month with a can of air, q-tips & 100% isopropyl alcohol. Everything was working fine, like normal, when I shut my PC down the other night but the next morning when I tried to boot up, got this pre-Windows prompt:

https://skydrive.live.com/#cid=8C94C03D3028BB29&id=8C94C03D3028BB29!297

Sorry about the link format, I used the "Insert a URL" option, but it's showing up this way.

It just hangs @ the above image screen. Can't even go into the BIOS or change the boot order so I can assess what's going on using a Linux rescue disc.

The only thing that might remotely be the culprit is I used EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition to resize the last of the 4 partitions on my boot drive about a week ago. Hadn't restarted since then, as I usually just put it to sleep. I don't see how that could effect the 1st/boot partition. A bit frustrating.

At first I thought it has to be an HDD problem, as my OS drive is nearly 5 years old, but now I'm not so sure. Reason being, it won't even go into the BIOS. That has to be a motherboard issue, right? I took things apart earlier today to see if something has burnt out or is not/loosely connected, etc., but nothing to report there.

Have already ordered an SSD [my 1st] & it's on it's way. Once I have it set up & running [G*d-willing], that will eliminate the HDD being the issue.

In the meantime, has anyone else had similar issues? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.

 

[Pinhedd]

I'm going to point to that partition resizer as being the culprit. Honestly that software just sounds sketchy. If you ever need to do partition work, PartedMagic (a free Linux rescue disk, worth many times its weight in gold) has all that you need. It's more than likely messing with the storage controller and causing it to deadlock. My suggestion is to unplug whatever drive you resized and see if it will post

 

[clutchc]

Almost sounds like a virus...

 

[mzadotcom]

I'm going to point to that partition resizer as being the culprit. Honestly that software just sounds sketchy. If you ever need to do partition work, PartedMagic (a free Linux rescue disk, worth many times its weight in gold) has all that you need. It's more than likely messing with the storage controller and causing it to deadlock...

Unfortunately for me, I think you're right. It hit me earlier today that this might be the problem. What's aggrevating is that the operation that took place had NOTHING to do with what's happened/there was no way that this outcome was a possibility @ the time. Logically, why would resizing the *4th* partition affect the *1st* partion!?! But here we are.

FYI: My OS HDD, a 150GB WD Raptor X, has 4 partitions, so it looks like this:

Partition 1 > C Drive > 60GB
Partition 2 > G Drive > 45GB [Games]
Partition 3 > M Drive > 7GB [Media Editing]
Partition 4 > V Drive > 25GB [Virtual Machines]

What I did with EaseUS Partition Master Home was change the size of V Drive from 20GB to 25GB, taking 5GB from the then 12GB M Drive, which is now 7GB. I've actually done this before in virtual machines running Windows XP without any issues.

The kicker in all this is that out of the several Windows partition managers I've used in the past [Paragon, EaseUS, Acronis, GParted, etc.], EaseUS Partition Master Home has been the easiest to use & I quickly became a fan of it.

I'm pretty sure I've seen PartedMagic on one of my various Linux rescue discs, but have never used it. I'll definitely look into it.

So, going from here, I honestly don't have the time to trouble shoot this & try to find out *exactly* what went wrong. I'm thinking a clean Windows install should take care of everything. I already ordered an SSD when I thought this was a HDD issue. No worries, I needed to upgrade, anyways.

The problem then becomes rescuing my data from the problem HDD. Once I've set up the SSD with the OS, I'll be able to, hopefully, get into the platter HDD using a different number of means.

My suggestion is to unplug whatever drive you resized and see if it will post.

Can't do that since all 4 partitions reside on the same HDD.

The best thing to come out of this is a precedent has been set: BE VERY CAREFUL with partition managers/software! Even if it says the operation was successful, it's not always the case.

BTW ~ Looking @ your specs, looks like you have a monster system. I remember when buying *2* GB of RAM cost 3 months salary.

 

[mzadotcom]

Almost sounds like a virus...

Agreed. While anything's possible, don't think anything malicious is responsible. Most likely, it was my resizing one of the 4 partitions on my OS HDD. The problem didn't show up right away, but only after a reboot.

 

[mzadotcom]

Best answer selected by mzadotcom.

 

[Pinhedd]

Unfortunately for me, I think you're right. It hit me earlier today that this might be the problem. What's aggrevating is that the operation that took place had NOTHING to do with what's happened/there was no way that this outcome was a possibility @ the time. Logically, why would resizing the *4th* partition affect the *1st* partion!?! But here we are.

FYI: My OS HDD, a 150GB WD Raptor X, has 4 partitions, so it looks like this:

Partition 1 > C Drive > 60GB
Partition 2 > G Drive > 45GB [Games]
Partition 3 > M Drive > 7GB [Media Editing]
Partition 4 > V Drive > 25GB [Virtual Machines]

What I did with EaseUS Partition Master Home was change the size of V Drive from 20GB to 25GB, taking 5GB from the then 12GB M Drive, which is now 7GB. I've actually done this before in virtual machines running Windows XP without any issues.

The kicker in all this is that out of the several Windows partition managers I've used in the past [Paragon, EaseUS, Acronis, GParted, etc.], EaseUS Partition Master Home has been the easiest to use & I quickly became a fan of it.

I'm pretty sure I've seen PartedMagic on one of my various Linux rescue discs, but have never used it. I'll definitely look into it.

So, going from here, I honestly don't have the time to trouble shoot this & try to find out *exactly* what went wrong. I'm thinking a clean Windows install should take care of everything. I already ordered an SSD when I thought this was a HDD issue. No worries, I needed to upgrade, anyways.

The problem then becomes rescuing my data from the problem HDD. Once I've set up the SSD with the OS, I'll be able to, hopefully, get into the platter HDD using a different number of means.



Can't do that since all 4 partitions reside on the same HDD.

The best thing to come out of this is a precedent has been set: BE VERY CAREFUL with partition managers/software! Even if it says the operation was successful, it's not always the case.

BTW ~ Looking @ your specs, looks like you have a monster system. I remember when buying *2* GB of RAM cost 3 months salary.

Ah yeah it's a very bad idea to resize a parition that is sandwiched between two other partitions. There's a lot that can go wrong there

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr