[rosejo]

The problem started as my Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 laptop began running very slow and having a difficult time executing simple "Save As" commands in particular with MS Excel, but with all applications. Upon investigation, I found that my C:\ drive is only 30GB in size and that the 160GB HD came from the factory prepartitioned with my Windows VISTA Home Premium O/S on this partition, which I have quickly filled up with my own applications such as MS Office XP Pro, and other applications, picture files, and other data files.

This problem prompted me to try and find some type of partition management software to hopefully resize the partitions more equally (i.e., ~70GB per partition). While searching on Geekstogo's How To Forum for "Changing Partition Size in Windows Vista" , I found a Help Topic entitled, "How to install Vista the safe, easy free way" and read on how to resize a partition using a GParted Live CD that I successfully created. I followed the instructions, but was unable to expand the factory set boot partition, despite an almost unused 107GB D:\LENOVO drive that also was created at the factory. I fiddled around with the GParted menus and eventually managed to copy my boot partition from its original location into a newly created partition. I first shrunk the 107GB D:\LENOVO partition by about 40GB and then created another partition in the unallocated space that was left behind between the factory C:\ drive partition and the now shrunken D:\LENOVO partition. During all of this, there was an extended partition (not sure what that is, but it was about 107GB in size to start out, then I also increased it to cover the entire 137GB of my hard drive along the way while doing the previous actions). After successfully copying my boot partition to this new partition, I deleted the previous C:\ drive partition, then was able to expand the new partition with the copy of the original C:\ drive boot partition data in it to cover the entire first half area of the entire hard drive, now approximately 70GB in size, and label the partition as a boot partition using the labeling function of GParted. I was ecstatic and then proceeded to shutdown and try to reboot my newly partitioned system several times without the result from the instructions in the "How to install Vista the safe, easy free way". I can still see the old data as the first part of the newly expanded 70GB boot drive partition in GParted, but my system will not boot from the hard drive, giving me the following messages:

"PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM."

and also below those two lines this appears:

"Reboot and select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device
and press a key"

Please help me get my computer to boot up to my old Windows Vista Home Premium O/S. I have my Windows Vista Home Premium "For Distribution with a new Lenovo PC only" package, but have not opened up the shrink wrap yet on it and don't want to have to reformat and lose all my data, if possible.

Thanks,

Ray

[Advertisements]

Hello,

There is a full detailed method to recover the Vista bootloader here:

http://neosmart.net/...ista Bootloader

Check it out as it may prove useful to you.

Cheers,
Mak

[Makaveli213]

Hello,

There is a full detailed method to recover the Vista bootloader here:

http://neosmart.net/...ista Bootloader

Check it out as it may prove useful to you.

Cheers,
Mak

[rosejo]

I tried to use the Windows Vista Recovery disk that is described in the link you gave me, but the System Recovery option fails to do anything despite reporting fixing the partition. It appears all my old data and files are still intact, however, as at one point I was able to see a directory of the folders on my old sized C:\ drive partition within the newer, larger partition that is labeled a boot partition. I still get the same error messages and Windows fails to begin loading. How can I get my computer to recognize this new sized C:\Boot partition and allow Windows to load as it used to? Somehow, the Broadcom PXE ROM appears to be the first thing to load after my computer completes it's POST, and cannot find the intact Windows Vista O/S initially (or continue on after loading the Broadcom PXE ROM system.

Thanks for the suggestion, though!! I know someone has to be able to get my computer to recognize my intact files within the newly enlarged partition.

Ray

[SRX660]

Reading this forum thread may help you with your problem.

http://www.nocrash.c...msgs/3247.shtml

SRX660

[rosejo]

Still cannot get the laptop to boot, but did get rid of the initial PKE error message. Now, all I get when I try to boot is the last error message:

"Reboot and select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device
and press a key"


I took all the references to any network boot from my BIOS boot priority list, and disabled the Onboard LAN Boot ROM, too. This removed all of the references to PXE that I previously was seeing. I have removed and reseated my SATA HD, with no result for that. I have not removed any other parts of my computer, such as the RAM sticks and the battery after I read most all of the long thread provided by SRX660 and am at least glad to have gotten ride of the PXE messages stuff. I still can see all my old Vista boot partition folders intact when I search for a source for drivers during attempts to repair Windows Startup after getting to that screen using the Windows Vista Recovery disc. I tried flaggin the large 134 GB "extended" file system partition (/dev/sda2) as "boot" and then as both "boot/lba" and got a flashing white cursor on a black screen after my machine finishes its POST. I have flagged the 71 GB logical partition (/dev/sda6) as "boot", but it will not accept an additional "lba" flag as the large 134 GB with the above quoted error message as a result. GParted reports both the 71GB and the shrunken 63 GB (/dev/sda5) partitions as being "ntfs" file systems, and the remaining 15 GB partition as "unknown" file system.

Should I try seeing if I can take my hard drive out of my laptop machine and install it as a slave in my Windows XP desktop system and recover all my old laptop boot partition folders and files to an external hard drive, then attempt to wipe my hard drive, reformat it and start all over with my Lenovo supplied Windows Vista Home Premium disc? Will this disk be able to reinstall a fully functional Windows Vista Home Premium O/S onto the factory supplied hard drive and allow me to transfer my files and settings back to my laptop system?

Thanks,

Ray