Failure To Boot After Merging Drives C: and D: Using EaseUS

Silmefaron

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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.
 
Solution


I would gather all the possible drivers for it, saved to a USB stick. Just in case.
And if you didn't need the license key last time, you won't need one this time.
Laptops could have special partitions e.g. UEFI/EFI related partition, backup partition, etc.
You should not have merged partitions without checking them first. Some partitions are not even visible in Windows.
You should have cloned all of the partitions first somewhere before merging or modifying the partitions.

My recommendation:
- Try to reinstall Windows from scratch
or
- Try to use Windowns installation media to repair your Windows installation
or
- You should contact ASUS support for assitance, you might have to pay for the service, since you did the damage.
or
Perhaps others have better ideas?


 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
1. Invent a Time machine.
Go back in time to before you started this.
Create a good backup of the entire system.
Continue...

Failing #1, copy whatever personal data you can, to a whole different drive
Wipe the drive and reinstall everything from scratch.
(that's what *I* would do)
 

Silmefaron

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Dec 20, 2015
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Since I managed to get a clean install (or so it seems) of widows 8.1 onto a different partition would it be possible to just wipe the other partition instead of the whole computer or is that a bad idea?
 


Your new C partition is now writen on the back half of the drive, thus you wont be able to just expand it.

Best course of action here is as I and everyone else has been saying, save files, wipe drive completely clean and start over.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Maybe.
But what about the other partitions? Boot info, etc?

Can you show us a screencap of the Disk Management window?

Personally, since you've just done new install of Win 8.1, you're not really losing anything by just redoing it from scratch.
Wiping the entire drive as you install it. That's what I would do.
 

Silmefaron

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Dec 20, 2015
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Okay sounds like that's the best idea to just wipe and reinstall, but I want to make sure I won't lost anything from the manufacturer or need a product key to install this time? I didn't when I did the clean install last night.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


I would gather all the possible drivers for it, saved to a USB stick. Just in case.
And if you didn't need the license key last time, you won't need one this time.
 
Solution