gparted makes MBR unreadable by win2008

[Martin Olsson]

Note: I've been able to resize Vista NTFS partitions several times without problems. This bug applies only to Windows server 2008.

1. Install Windows Server 2008
2. Boot the Hardy live CD
3. Use gparted to resize the NTFS partition and create a small (primary) ext2 fs on the same disk after the NTFS partition
4. Reboot

Actual results:
Windows fails to boot (it's not even possible to get to the Windows recovery menu).

Expected results:
MBR should be updated to include both partitions but the NTFS one should still be bootable.

Please notice that I did not install GRUB or even Linux, I just created and formatted the ext2 partition. I'm fairly sure that the Windows Server 2008 installation was using the MBR (even though Windows Server 2008 also supports GPT). After running into this problem I manually restored the MBR using dd from a backup I had on disk. It's fair to say that 95% of Windows users would not be able to recover at all from this bug (asking these people to dd their MBR is insane) and I also believe that if they run into this problem they will be VERY conservative about dual-booting Linux on their boxes in the future.

I think it would be a good idea to sketch out some basic use cases for dual booting installs and then walk through those use cases as a "test pass" before each release.

[AJenbo (ajenbo)]

Did you move your NTFS partision to the beginning of the drive (windows usualy leaves a bit of space at the beginning).
Was the NTFS a static or dynamic partision?

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

I dunno, it was a regular clean Windows Server 2008 install (it never asks about static vs dynamic partition, what is that?). I guess it was at the start of the drive by default and I don't remember if I moved it but I don't think so.

Also note that I no longer have access to any Windows machines so I can't re-run the repro etc (though I can answer questions to the extent that I remember).

[Jan Claeys (janc)]

Some older versions of GParted (I can look up the version when it was fixed if useful) would re-align the start of partitions on a 1 MiB boundary when resizing them (which is useful for better performance). I know the bootloader of Vista & Windows 7 have problems with that, so I guess the same is true for Server 2008.

But putting the MBR back with dd would not fix that, as normally it requires running a rescue procedure from the Windows install CD to fix... Are you sure you didn't do that?

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

I know we had one of those "Repair Windows installation" items in the network boot menu, however I can't remember if I ran it before trying "dd" or not (maybe I did but in that case it didn't fix the problem). I'm sorry, I can't remember for sure. As such, I suppose the value of this bug report is limited. It would certainly be a good idea if someone did some basic testing for dual boot but personally I've converted over to 100% Ubuntu now so I can't offer any help there.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Since nobody else has ever duplicated the problem and you can not reproduce it either, and hardy is reaching end of life, this report does not seem to have any value, so I am closing it. Feel free to reopen it if it is ever seen again and more information can be gathered.