Troubleshooting

@JoeyLópez the only realiable way is within Windows, which only lets you shrink down as far as the last written block (usually halfway on a new partition, could be later if the drive was used for a while)

Apart from that, gparted usually works. I've also used Acronis before.

Joey López

I have ~120 GB of free space, almost totally moved to the end of the drive, but Windows won't let me have even 25 GB

I've heard gparted breaks it

Bob

But there's a certain level of risk to those, which is why they recommend backups.

@JoeyLópez It's not a sure thing

Joey López

3:44 AM

yeah, I might get a backup disk while I'm on the search for new storage anyways

Bob

@JoeyLópez What SSD brand is that, btw?

Joey López

The SSD is Samsung, but the HDD Windows is on is Kingston

Bob

@JoeyLópez Samsung provides a migration tool that usually works. And worst case you can go back to the HDD and try again.

Joey López

It's on the HDD

Bob

Of course, we'd need to fix your existing install first...

Joey López

3:46 AM

I'm trying to shrink it, so I can make a new partition, move my ridiculously huge documents/pictures/other folders to it, shrink it again, and move it to the SSD, leaving my documents and such behind

Journeyman Geek

not very helpful but aomei's in our current shi... list. They spam this place ;p

Joey López

...why did clippy or whatever his name is just show up

Bob

@JoeyLópez ...ouch. Yea that's pretty tricky.

@JoeyLópez ...heh, chat easter egg :)

Journeyman Geek

@JoeyLópez err... its a SU/chat easter egg

Joey López

"it looks like you're trying to (long list) would you like some help?"

Journeyman Geek

3:48 AM

@JoeyLópez ya.

Joey López

somehow I doubt it would help much

Journeyman Geek

(I'll explain later - some sites have chat easter eggs, that is ours ;p)

@JoeyLópez good backup software will let you shrink when restoring. Or expand when restoring.

Joey López

The scan hasn't progressed at all.

Bob

@JoeyLópez what does it say right now?

Joey López

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Journeyman Geek

3:50 AM

(also throwing in a link to the question + + pinning it for now, for those playing at home)

2

Q: Partition issues, Windows 10 not booting

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...

Bob

@JoeyLópez hmmmm... it should have hopped into Beginning verification phase of system scan.

Joey López

If boot is unfixable, is there a way to migrate installed programs?

Bob

@JoeyLópez Nup. Closest you'll get is an in-place upgrade, which effectively migrates installed programs to itself.

Joey López

ah, that'll do

Bob

Migrating to an existing OS on a different drive is not doable.

I'd still suggest a backup first, but failing that...

Joey López

3:55 AM

I'm looking to move the entire installation over to now-empty space, end-result

Bob

@JoeyLópez Can you at least upload your docs and other critical files?

Since you're on a Chromebook I assume you have Google Drive or similar.

Basically, just in case recovery attempts permanently remove your data.

Joey López

I don't think I have any critical files, though if I counted my documents folder as critical I'd smash Google Drive's 20GB (or 30GB?) limit.

Bob

@JoeyLópez As long as you're aware there's a risk you'll lose everything on that drive.

Fairly unlikely but possible.

Joey López

112 GB just from my documents folder alone... you see, I'm careless and probably have a few copies of massive files when I only need 1, and cleanup is rather daunting at that size

Bob

@JoeyLópez You say you have a Windows 10 installer handy. Do you know when that was created, and/or if it's the same version as is currently installed on the machine?

Joey López

3:57 AM

What counts as a new version, anniversary updates?

Bob

@JoeyLópez Yea, any "big" upgrades are effectively a new version.

Joey López

In any case, it was made not too long after I got the laptop, so about 2 years ago, give or take a few months

Bob

In-place upgrades should only be to the same or newer versions. Going to an older version, if it doesn't just refuse completely, is risky.

Joey López

so not the newest version

Bob

@JoeyLópez ...you'll probably need to make a new one.

Joey López

3:58 AM

Can that be done from Linux?

Bob

@JoeyLópez Yup.

Journeyman Geek

@JoeyLópez the media download tool will actually give you an ISO (rather than the MCT) from linux. Its... actually better ;p

Bob

@JourneymanGeek 'cept you need to put the ISO on the flash drive manually.

dd will work if you don't care what else is on that drive.

Joey López

Great because my only other Windows install is a Win7 from 2009 with a non-functional battery... and a Windows XP with no connectivity besides dialup

Journeyman Geek

@Bob I THINK etch will handle it

Joey López

4:00 AM

How big does it have to be for the ISO?

Journeyman Geek

@JoeyLópez if you can get it on your windows 7 box, you can use rufus to write the iso to USB too.

Bob

@JoeyLópez 8 GB

Journeyman Geek

errr... I think 8?

Bob

IIRC the ISO itself is somewhere 4-6

Journeyman Geek

(I have nothing smaller at the moment)

Joey López

4:02 AM

I can just overwrite the 64-bit and 32-bit recovery tools on the drive, I had some other troubleshooting tools on it I don't really use

16 should be enough

Could I download it from a Chromebook?

Bob

@JoeyLópez Yes, you can.

microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

Joey López

Fall Creators update is what I need, right?

Also, I closed the cmd and tried the command again, and it's not going to verification

Bob

@JoeyLópez Yes, that's the most likely option.

@JoeyLópez ...probably not worth trying dism if even sfc won't work.

Unfortunately we don't know what else is corrupted and how much is recoverable.

Joey López

I consolidated almost everything to the beginning of the partition before doing this, so probably not too much.

But you said the programs should still be there, right?

FML Cat

Eek.

Joey López

4:19 AM

oh and I find it ironic that having stuff like system restore points makes it impossible to shrink partitions, as disabling it means it's not there to help when things go wrong

Bob

@JoeyLópez An in-place upgrade will preserve installed programs.

That is, assuming enough of the OS is intact that it can detect them...

FML Cat

@Bob wait, clippy is in all chat channels on this site now?

Bob

Just make sure you select upgrade keeping files & apps during install, not keep files only and NOT clean install.

Joey López

Downloading the file directly to the USB will work, right?

FML Cat

@Bob last I checked you can't initiate an in-place upgrade from outside the running copy of Windows you want to upgrade

If chkdsk came back OK your data is almost certainly intact.

I'm guessing it's the pre-boot stuff thats fuxorrd

You should probably post the startup repair log if you haven't already

Joey López

4:32 AM

Startup repair basically just told me it couldn't do anything. Gave me a line or two of output.

Bob

@FMLCat ...gah, that's a good point. I'd forgotten that.

@FMLCat Original question info was critical process died, which implies corrupted system files on the OS partition.

Joey López

4.4GB download via wifi is painful

well

FML Cat

@JoeyLópez there should be an "advanced" button that leads to a "view log" or something

Bob

Pre-boot wouldn't even get that far

Also, sfc not progressing is ... suspicious

Joey López

that was when I used AOMEI's disk checking thingy, which said it used chkdsk

Bob

4:34 AM

@JoeyLópez ...didn't you say you used chkdsk /f in the question text?

FML Cat

@Bob or the aomei reprogrammed some of the startup routines and botched it

Joey López

it seems that's what the issue is

AOMEI on the third check said chkdsk couldn't run because snapshots were disabled...?

then after that crashed with the critical process died

Bob

@FMLCat eh. bcdedit

Joey López

it opened up after that... twice

then I resized and everything died

Bob

@JoeyLópez yea, 3 boot failures triggers startup repair

FML Cat

4:36 AM

@Bob that's... Way more fundamental

Bob

@FMLCat I mean. @JoeyLópez should run bcdedit and check its output

FML Cat

Some partitioners work by running their own code after the Windows kernel loads but before userspace

Joey López

let's try bcdedit, I don't think I've run that one yet

Bob

Wait. This wasn't a bootable partitioner?

...

Oof.

FML Cat

Shrug, I wasn't paying attention. I still aren't.

Joey López

4:37 AM

it just restarted and ran in "PreOS" mode

Bob

...ouch.

Joey López

so I think it left behind some screwed up startup stuff

FML Cat

@Bob tbf startup repair log would be the most useful thing right now. It checks the BCD among other things.

Bob

@FMLCat Yea, that'd be good.

Also, since it might be at least getting into the OS, see if you can grab one of the dump files from C:\Windows\minidump\

Joey López

uhh

that didn't take long

FML Cat

4:39 AM

I'm 30% high on drugs, 30% asleep, and 30% ~~f÷¦¥¦] >>;><~$¡%8)~~ a cat

Joey López

that's 90%

Startup Repair couldn't repair your PC

FML Cat

@JoeyLópez which leaves the remaining 10% to be useful here.

Joey López

Press "Advanced options" to try other options to repair your PC or "Shut down" to turn off your PC.

Log file: C:stuff\SrtTrail.txt

ok booting into linux live usb to check log

if I remember it was a bit long last time

crap should have typed it out, I have the path somewhere else though

FML Cat

Log might be only in the pxe ram drive

Joey López

already got it but thanks

???

I found it last time through a linux usb

FML Cat

4:43 AM

Oh, well that's a good sign.

At least its booting to the installed OS pre-boot and able to write log files there...

Joey López

oh the second time I opened that image my chromebook decided the site was blocked now...

FML Cat

Many times I've messed up something and startup repair can't write log files to the C: drive because it doesn't know where the C: drive is.

Joey López

Last successful boot time was 9 PM today (it broke yesterday), 2 repair attempts

system disk = \Device\Harddisk0

windows directory = C:\Windows

autochk run = 0, number of root causes = 1

FML Cat

Uhh... Pastebin it and I'll look at it tomorrow. .. It's 5am here.

Joey López

uhh

yayyyyyy typing the whole file out on pastebin

Bob

4:47 AM

@JoeyLópez copy it to the flash drive

FML Cat

Copy paste

It's called pastebin not typebin

Joey López

usb isn't persistent

crap iso had a download error

I can't copy paste rn, I'd have to put the ssd in and put the hdd in an enclosure and read it oh so slowly... I'll have to do it tomorrow evening

FML Cat

This is one of the areas where Mac OS soundly surpasses Windows.

Bob

@JoeyLópez you should still be able to copy it to the flash drive's partition, I'm pretty sure

Joey López

also 5AM is closer to when I wake up than when I go to sleep :|

FML Cat

4:50 AM

@JoeyLópez my point exactly.

Joey López

where on the disk should I put the file?

actually

I have another disk

I feel kinda dumb

pastebin.com/ztBA7xJC

Bob

@JoeyLópez While you're at it copy out the contents of C:\Windows\minidump

FML Cat

The EFI on a modern Mac can connect to the Internet, automatically download an install image for you and seamlessly do an in-place upgrade/reinstall while preserving your data/applications. All autonomously without booting to the OS if the OS can't boot.

Joey López

and this is an argument that has me considering spending more money than I have on a mac

Bob

Root cause found:
---------------------------
Boot status indicates that the OS booted successfully.

pfft.

Joey López

4:55 AM

you see this shouldn't be happening, all I wanted was to shrink a partition

yeah that's what I thought when I read that log yesterday

FML Cat

@Bob basically the bootloader and kernel loaded and passed on processing to the next stage.... So the bit before userspace loads

Bob

@JoeyLópez grab the dumps

Joey López

already closed the thing but ok

FML Cat

In other words it's a driver/service/application corruption/configuration issue. So follow Bob's SFC trail of thinking.

Bob

@FMLCat 'cept SFC didn't play ball

FML Cat

4:57 AM

Does system restore work?

Joey López

I may or may not have been instructed to disable something possibly related to error dumps while seeking to shrink the partition, is that an issue?

Bob

I'm hoping the dump will just identify a driver that can be disabled

FML Cat

@Bob well make it play ball, because that's the ball court you should be playing in

Bob

@JoeyLópez just see if there's anything in that folder

Joey López

uh oh

nothing at all

FML Cat

4:59 AM

On the off chance its doing something stupid like booting to the wrong BCD entry... Follow Bob's BCD Edit line of thought too. Basically, listen to Bob. Bob's smart.

And not asleep. Unlike me.

Joey López

you should probably do that

go to sleep

I don't think I did run bcdedit yet

FML Cat

GoTo ~~fail~~ Bob

I wish I could star myself.

@JoeyLópez I'm waiting for the sleeping drugs to kick in and override the psychedelic stimulant drugs.

Bob

@FMLCat 'cept I forgots everything

@JoeyLópez Just for kicks... does safe mode work?

Joey López

going to run bcdedit then try that

Bob

@JoeyLópez bcdedit will only dump some text. (which you should photograph and upload, cause retyping it by hand is a chore)

Joey López

5:02 AM

well it knows where the boot manager and boot loader are

Bob

@FMLCat if it's getting far enough to write to C:\, it's probably (probably) booting to the right OS

Joey López

It's getting far enough to think everything's OK

let's try safe mode

Bob

@JoeyLópez bcdedit /enum ALL

FML Cat

@Bob that's the WinRE though

Bob

@FMLCat IIRC doesn't WinRE mount itself as X:?

or was that only WinPE

FML Cat

5:05 AM

@Bob it does many things, including boot from a different BCD entry

Joey López

it's scanning and repairing... drive E:???

safe mode does the same as normal

I can see mouse

FML Cat

Next it'll scan and repair drive S: so you get S, E, and X! Just like Tesla!

Joey López

accessibility stuff works

...

I really don't know what to say about that

FML Cat

Try safe mode with command prompt!

Joey López

I did that earlier

no luck

FML Cat

5:07 AM

@JoeyLópez basically everything except explorer (and maybe winlogin gui) works

Bob

Wait. So you're not getting CRITICAL PROCESS DIED anymore?

Joey López

no

that was just when I tried checking the disk from AOMEI

Bob

...

ok.

Joey López

and then the system would boot

FML Cat

Moar SFC!

Bob

5:08 AM

Go back to the recovery cmd

Joey López

of course this is after it would tell me chkdsk was screwed over

FML Cat

And system restore. Or manual registry restore, if that still works (I don't think I've figure out how to do it beyond windows xp)

Bob

Navigate to C:\Windows\System32

FML Cat

Anyway, I'm off. Good luck.

Joey López

see I turned off restore points because shrinking partitions

Bob

5:09 AM

Rename Narrator.exe to Narrator.exe.bak

Copy cmd.exe to Narrator.exe

Joey López

oooh

I see

Bob

Reboot back into ... normal

From ease of access, run Narrator

That should get you a command prompt. Running as SYSTEM.

Old hack to get admin in pre-boot.

Lemme know when you're there

Joey López

how do I rename?

no gui

Bob

ren

Joey López

and I don't use cmd often

then how do I copy cmd.exe to narrator

just ren again?

Bob

5:12 AM

@JoeyLópez copy :P

Joey López

ok

Bob

Don't rename cmd itself

Joey López

this might be useful in the future, actually

Bob

actually ren is just an alias for rename :P

Joey López

figured

Bob

5:13 AM

@JoeyLópez it's effectively a security hole, so I'd suggest putting it back when you're done

Joey López

yeah

will do

Bob

(as the theory goes, physical access is full access - which is why this is doable and not generally considered a security issue)

if you want to prevent this in future, enable bitlocker ... but that does make this kind of recovery difficult sooooo yea :P

Joey López

just delete narrator.exe and change narrator.exe.bak to narrator.exe later?

Bob

@JoeyLópez Yup. I'd suggest keeping original cases, but that's it.

Once you're in normal boot and have a cmd ... try sfc /scannow

Hopefully online works better

Joey López

uh

it opened narrator

Bob

5:15 AM

... say what

ok, head back into recovery cmd... :P

let's just ... confirm a few things

Joey López

also if I try to un-shrink the window it shrinks itself in a second or two

this is... kinda worrying

is ren narrator.exe narrator.exe.bak case sensitive?

probably is

Bob

@JoeyLópez not case-sensitive but I'd suggest preserving cases anyway

Joey López

uh so what now

Bob

brb

Joey López

idk if narrator.exe is actual narrator or cmd now

uhh I tried dir but it doesn't save enough for me to scroll above files starting with t

Volume in drive x is boot, volume serial number is d60a-0dc2

directory of x:\windows\system32

uhh

Narrator.exe has a date beside it that says 2017

guessing that's an edit date, it's august 2017 so prob last major update

ohhhh

if I run dir then the directory name, it's c not x, serial is different too

Bob

5:27 AM

back

@JoeyLópez cd /d C:\Windows\System32

dir Narrator.exe.bak

If you only did cd before without the /d you probably were in the wrong dir and edited the wrong file

Joey López

ahh that changed the x on the line to a C

Bob

Check if the .bak is there

Joey López

well dir suggests that the X:\windows\system32 is reset each time

nope

Bob

Ok. Do the rename and copy again

Joey López

ok

I'm in

Bob

5:32 AM

@JoeyLópez sfc /scannow

Joey López

window focus is blinking like that cursed refurb dell... long story (not really)

it's in verification phase

Bob

cool, let it finish

your next step will be dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth but first see what sfc says

Joey López

ok

it's irritating to watch that window focus blinking... not as bad as when it's doing it on Windows 7 with aero transparency, but still annoying

any idea what might cause that?

mouse is also blinking like the cursed refurb

Bob

...blinking?

Joey López

focus is switching between window and nothing on regular cycle

Bob

5:38 AM

o.O

Joey López

well not very regular here

once upon a time there was... is a dell refurb with win7 that may or may not be haunted

superuser.com/questions/1282640/refurbished-windows-7-laptop

idk if that post will show up but whatever

Journeyman Geek

10k+ can see deleted posts with a link

tbh, feels like pre-hardware failure

Joey López

probably

I was thinking poor refurb or desktop window manager being screwed up, idk

taskbar blinks in a cycle if you're in full screen (say in YT)

Journeyman Geek

also, from (bitter) experience - worth including the model in questions like that - sometimes its a model specific issue

Joey López

you don't think start explorer.exe would do any good from here, do you?

Bob

5:45 AM

@JoeyLópez Bad idea. It would work, but bad idea.

Joey López

ok

Bob

Since you're running as the SYSTEM user, it'll use the system default profile.

Joey López

oh

Bob

If you really want to, do a runas /user:yournormalusername cmd first

Joey López

I'm guessing that wouldn't help in the long term?

Bob

5:47 AM

it won't help fix your boot

how's SFC going?

Joey López

46%

verification

it's painfully slow

Bob

well, it is a HDD

Joey López

I mean Windows has been kinda painfully slow since forever, thus why I want to move it to the SSD

I'm getting the feeling shrinking my Linux Partition on the SSD is going to be easier than this

I expanded it a few days ago because 80GB is apparently not enough when you don't know how to uninstall stuff from WINE (separate from playonlinux)

I keep seeing the blue edges on the window because weird window focus and thinking something is printing to the cmd

probably going to have to go, I'll try to pastebin the output at some point

wait

...that might be a problem

Bob

@JoeyLópez ok, just poke us when you get back (ping with @username and we'll get notifications)

well, notifications eventually

Joey López

6:03 AM

uhh

ok it finished

Windows Resources Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not supported in offline servicing scenarios. The system file repair changes will take effect after the next reboot.

@Bob

Bob

@JoeyLópez Try rebooting? Also try the dism command from earlier.

Joey López

in which order

Bob

@JoeyLópez either

could try rebooting first and see if it works

Joey López

ok

wait

maybe I shouldn't have held down the power button, I should have used a command to restart

I had to hold power button before, because restarting isn't in the ease of access center

Bob

...

Joey López

6:09 AM

ok it said "updating your system" briefly before going back to the blank screen

Bob

@JoeyLópez try the dism

Joey López

uh oh

narrator is back?

Bob

@JoeyLópez ...do the rename again :P

cd /d to the right drive first

Joey López

hmm

Bob

sfc probably considers narrator one of the files it needs to revert

Joey López

6:11 AM

oh

Overwrite Narrator.exe? (Yes/No/All):

ok I did yes, I ran ren about four times and it still asked that

Narrator.exe.bak must already be there from before

making the command fail, but I still should have that file so I should be ok, right?

dism is also painfully slow

even shows tenths of a percent to show you how slowly it's running

might leave this one overnight, probably won't have time to return to the laptop until the evening. Maybe I could snap an image of the output (if I remember to) on my way out and send it later, I'll have the Chromebook all day

ok, it's going a bit faster now

Bob

6:27 AM

@JoeyLópez did you get narrator replaced?

I'm assuming you're running dism from a non-recovery boot

Joey López

11:57 AM

The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

Journeyman Geek

Yay? Cc @Bob

Bob

o/