Linux Restore -- corrupted HD???

[farna]

I've got an unusual problem! I made an image of my original 6GB hard drive by booting from a Linux rescue disk (see http://www.sysresccd.org). It boots and self configures wonderfully on a 600E, I might add, with no problems. I then used "partimage" to make a full image of the HD. I stored the image files (three 200MB files) on a USB hard drive, then made CD images of the files. I then pulled the old drive and installed a newer 20GB drive. Using "partimage" again I successfully restored the drive and rebooted -- everything works flawlessly!

There's just one problem. The documentation for "partimage" says it will restore the image in the exact size that was imaged. In other words, Windows (98SE) just sees a 6GB drive/partition. A partition editor should be used to resize the partition and use the whole drive, or to turn the free space into a second partition. Sounds reasonable.

Well, I booted from my Windows emergency disk and ran FDISK. It reports I have a single 20GB partition. I rebooted with the Linux disk and ran "parted", a partition editor. It reads the partitions correctly, reporting three -- a 0.31MB partition (boot section?), the 6GB partition, and the rest as free space. Fine, let's resize! Goes through the process, gets to 100%, then the window freezes. I can switch to another Linux window, but if I run "parted" nothing happens. The screen doesn't freeze, it just doesn't do anything. If I hit return a carriage return is entered, but otherwise screen remains as it was. I have to turn the computer off to get it to unlock. The good news is the HD isn't corrpupted -- Windows boots and everything works -- as a 6GB drive. I have "Partition Magic" (version 5?) which I've used with Win98 before, so give it a shot. It reports one partition as "other" file system. That version doesn't support Linux, but it's still saying I have one partition just like FDISK. FDISK is really the one that threw me!

I'm going to boot with my XP Pro disk and get into the system recovery feature. Then I'm going to attempt recovering the master boot record (MBR). Someone suggested that it is now corrupted, and that could be causing the problem. Any other suggestions?

So far Linux just plain sucks -- applications that don't work right and little to no support. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Windows? I used to be pretty familiar with at least basic UNIX commands, now I find I've forgotten more than I remember!