- Dec 20, 2015
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So I own an ASUS laptop that I use for gaming and other work when I can't use my desktop computer, but it was running out of space in the primary partition. Sure I have an external HDD but I would prefer to have the space on the computer itself. I decided to re-partition the SSD as I figured there was hidden space somewhere on the SSD due to there being "250gb" advertised and only 100gb available. I discovered partitions C: (OS) and D: (Unspecified NTFS Format Partition).
Drive partition D: had 120gb of free space not being used, so I shrunk the partition with no trouble and had 120gb of "Unallocated Space". I then realized that this unallocated partition was not next to my C partition and i would not be able to expand the C partition using the free space. I resolved to combine partitions C: and D: and then add the unallocated space to the newly merged partition, and have all of my available space in one partition. I used EaseUS trial software and attempted to merge partitions C and D while my computer was running off of partition C. The EaseUS trial software told me it had merged successfully, so I proceeded to restart my computer. Upon restart the computer would not recognize a boot path or operating system and gave me recovery options. I ran chkdsk /f and /r a couple times in cmd prmpt to no avail, and was told that the C:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt. was missing from the computer or was corrupted.
At this point I panicked and could not find answers on how to fix this issue from command prompt, so I pulled out a Windows 8.1 OEM System Builder DVD I have that I used to install Windows 8.1 on my desktop computer. I had to go into bios via Recovery Options and force it to boot from the Windows DVD (Keep in mind this is not a recovery DVD but an install DVD). When i attempted to Update Windows it gave me an error saying that windows was already running and would not update/repair. If i clicked repair computer on the DVD options, it simply took me around in a loop from the DVD to Recovery Options.
At this time I still had the unallocated partition on the SSD that had not been merged yet. I did a clean custom install of Windows 8.1 from the DVD onto the unallocated partition which was then renamed C: and i was able to boot to windows normally. I could then see that there were 3 partitions, Partition C: which was the newest OS currently running, and partition D: which contained the old (malfunctioning/corrupted/not booting) OS, all of the files that were contained on that partition when it was the previous C: partition before it was merged with the previous D: partition. So it appears that C: (1) and D: (1) were merged, but the original OS C: (1) merged into D: (1) so that the OS was now located on D: (1) instead of C:, which at this point no longer existed due to merging.
I assume that the laptop failed to boot because it could not recognize the boot sequence or OS or a C: partition at all for that matter, and therefore failed to boot. Rather than change the boot path though, I unwisely decided that since I had successfully installed the new 8.1 OS onto the unallocated space (now partition C: (2)) I could simply uninstall the old operating system. I went into management/boot/etc. and uninstalled the original OS because I did not think I would be able to boot from it anyway.
The windows folder (of about 50gb) still exists and I am unsure of what the uninstall actually did. I do not know how to proceed at this point, as I am having a few issues with creating new users on the new OS and they are loading as TEMP users and I am thoroughly exhausted at this point. Since I have access to the files on the computer, should I create a backup and just do a hard reset of the entire computer, or is there a better/different option? Thank you for your time and please help me to decide what I need to do next. I hope i haven't deleted things I needed in the moment of panic.
Drive partition D: had 120gb of free space not being used, so I shrunk the partition with no trouble and had 120gb of "Unallocated Space". I then realized that this unallocated partition was not next to my C partition and i would not be able to expand the C partition using the free space. I resolved to combine partitions C: and D: and then add the unallocated space to the newly merged partition, and have all of my available space in one partition. I used EaseUS trial software and attempted to merge partitions C and D while my computer was running off of partition C. The EaseUS trial software told me it had merged successfully, so I proceeded to restart my computer. Upon restart the computer would not recognize a boot path or operating system and gave me recovery options. I ran chkdsk /f and /r a couple times in cmd prmpt to no avail, and was told that the C:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt. was missing from the computer or was corrupted.
At this point I panicked and could not find answers on how to fix this issue from command prompt, so I pulled out a Windows 8.1 OEM System Builder DVD I have that I used to install Windows 8.1 on my desktop computer. I had to go into bios via Recovery Options and force it to boot from the Windows DVD (Keep in mind this is not a recovery DVD but an install DVD). When i attempted to Update Windows it gave me an error saying that windows was already running and would not update/repair. If i clicked repair computer on the DVD options, it simply took me around in a loop from the DVD to Recovery Options.
At this time I still had the unallocated partition on the SSD that had not been merged yet. I did a clean custom install of Windows 8.1 from the DVD onto the unallocated partition which was then renamed C: and i was able to boot to windows normally. I could then see that there were 3 partitions, Partition C: which was the newest OS currently running, and partition D: which contained the old (malfunctioning/corrupted/not booting) OS, all of the files that were contained on that partition when it was the previous C: partition before it was merged with the previous D: partition. So it appears that C: (1) and D: (1) were merged, but the original OS C: (1) merged into D: (1) so that the OS was now located on D: (1) instead of C:, which at this point no longer existed due to merging.
I assume that the laptop failed to boot because it could not recognize the boot sequence or OS or a C: partition at all for that matter, and therefore failed to boot. Rather than change the boot path though, I unwisely decided that since I had successfully installed the new 8.1 OS onto the unallocated space (now partition C: (2)) I could simply uninstall the old operating system. I went into management/boot/etc. and uninstalled the original OS because I did not think I would be able to boot from it anyway.
The windows folder (of about 50gb) still exists and I am unsure of what the uninstall actually did. I do not know how to proceed at this point, as I am having a few issues with creating new users on the new OS and they are loading as TEMP users and I am thoroughly exhausted at this point. Since I have access to the files on the computer, should I create a backup and just do a hard reset of the entire computer, or is there a better/different option? Thank you for your time and please help me to decide what I need to do next. I hope i haven't deleted things I needed in the moment of panic.
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