How to Repair Windows Vista Using Windows Partition Wizard
If you are reading this article then you have most likely already heard or read about the new 'Partitioning Wizard' which is a free tool from Microsoft that enables users to create a bootable Windows OS using nothing more than a few simple steps. The use of a 'Partitioning Wizard' basically consists of 2 main parts: creating a bootable Windows OS and fixing a Windows setup file that may be damaged. Essentially these steps allow you to make a backup copy of your hard drive and reformat your system in order to make it run flawlessly once more. Furthermore, if you use a third party Windows OS like Linux, then utilising a 'Partitioning Wizard' allows you to make a bootable Linux OS from scratch using nothing more than a Windows based recovery CD.
To utilize the Partitioning Wizard, you first need to download & run a 'Partitioning Wizard' vista demo. Installation is very easy - simply click on the 'run' tab on the toolbar, then type in an appropriate command line, such as "msconfig" and enter. You will then be given a choice of two options: To Create a New Partition or to Repair a Windows Setup File. After clicking "choose" you will be presented with a series of three partitions: A primary partition for the bootable Windows OS, an EFS partition which should be formatted for optimal storage & a free space partition. Depending on your usage you can choose to create a primary partition and boot the system as you normally would (do), create an EFS partition to store your operating system files and set up a free space partition to use as a root directory for the OS.
In the "repairing the bad disks" process, you will be prompted to enter some specifics. The most important data you will need is the drive name (which can be blank), the filesystem type (FAT, FAT32, NTFS) and the size of the bad disk. There are many other parameters that can be changed and are described in the 'using Microsoft Partition Manager', which can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. Once the partition wizard closes, you can then proceed to format the new partition. You will be prompted for a drive name, disk size and filesystem type. You can use the default values unless you have much knowledge about the partitioning software or Windows itself.
