PDA

View Full Version : [ubuntu] Windows is unable to find any Hard Drives for installation!



zap_xlib
November 18th, 2010, 10:09 PM
I had installed windows XP and then Ubuntu a few months ago. I was mostly using Ubuntu only. My Ubuntu is up to date. Windows XP got the blue screen and i had to re-install it. So, i used the Disk Utility and formatted my C-drive as NTFS with a boot flag.

After that, when i attempted to install windows XP on my C-Drive that i just formatted, Windows Setup is unable to recognize any drives! :(

I really don`t want to uninstall Ubuntu or format my whole HDD, just to install windows XP. But i also want to install windows XP as i have to run some applications in it!.

Any help is anticipated and appreciated!.

Thank you!.

sikander3786
November 18th, 2010, 10:17 PM
Please boot into Ubuntu and post the output of,


sudo fdisk -lu

And also note that after installing Windows, you'll need to re-install Grub in order to boot Ubuntu.

zap_xlib
November 18th, 2010, 10:21 PM
Please boot into Ubuntu and post the output of,


sudo fdisk -lu

And also note that after installing Windows, you'll need to re-install Grub in order to boot Ubuntu.

Hi!. Thanks for your reply... The output i got is below:



Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5040503f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 62910539 31455238+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 62910540 125821079 31455270 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 125821080 167766794 20972857+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 167768062 312580095 72406017 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 167768064 306589695 69410816 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 306591744 312580095 2994176 82 Linux swap / Solaris

sikander3786
November 18th, 2010, 10:40 PM
There seems to be a little problem regarding cylinder boundaries (??) but that should not be causing any problems to Windows.

Are you sure that drive doesn't need any extra drivers to be loaded for Windows? I have seen a few drives like that...

Might be some members comes up with some better answer. Wait and see. And in the mean while, it'd be better to post your query on some Windows forums as well as it seems to be a Windows specific problem to me.

Good Luck!

zap_xlib
November 18th, 2010, 10:46 PM
There seems to be a little problem regarding cylinder boundaries (??) but that should not be causing any problems to Windows.

Are you sure that drive doesn't need any extra drivers to be loaded for Windows? I have seen a few drives like that...

Might be some members comes up with some better answer. Wait and see. And in the mean while, it'd be better to post your query on some Windows forums as well as it seems to be a Windows specific problem to me.

Good Luck!

I don`t think there is any need for extra drivers to be loaded for windows. Yes, i would love to get a solution, or i might have to waste lot of time trying to remember what all packages i installed in UBUNTU, if i really have no other choice but to format the whole drive and re-install windows and then linux...

Thank you for your time!.

coffeecat
November 18th, 2010, 11:48 PM
@zap_xlib, are you using a Microsoft XP install disc or an OEM manufacturer's Windows restore/install disc? I calculate your NTFS partitions to be approximately sda1 - 30GiB, sda2 - 30GiB and sda3 - 20GiB. The Microsoft install disc should detect all three NTFS partitions and should be happy to install to a 30GiB one. But an OEM disc may have a minimal size constraint and may not be coded to give you a sensible error message if your NTFS partitions are too small for it.

zap_xlib
November 19th, 2010, 12:16 AM
@zap_xlib, are you using a Microsoft XP install disc or an OEM manufacturer's Windows restore/install disc? I calculate your NTFS partitions to be approximately sda1 - 30GiB, sda2 - 30GiB and sda3 - 20GiB. The Microsoft install disc should detect all three NTFS partitions and should be happy to install to a 30GiB one. But an OEM disc may have a minimal size constraint and may not be coded to give you a sensible error message if your NTFS partitions are too small for it.

Yes, that is right!. 32, 32, 21. It is a restore/install disc as it does not detect any disc and all i get is some message like "Setup could not find any hard drives on this computer, please press F3 to reboot". From that point, i have no other option but to reboot.

coffeecat
November 19th, 2010, 12:32 AM
It is a restore/install disc

I thought it might be. I've seen threads like this before. It must be that some restore discs will only work if the hard drive is in a certain configuration. Which is really very unprofessional work on the part of the responsible software engineers. You'd think at the very worst it would offer to reformat the whole disc for you. Not that that would help you.

The only thing I can suggest is to make one much larger NTFS partition, perhaps sda1, 2 and 3 combined to make ~80GB. If the restore disc is happy to use that you could then shrink the reinstalled XP down to 30GB again and re-create your sda2 and sda3.

Other than that, I don't know what to suggest - sorry.

Edit: one further thought. What make/model of computer is it? A google search might bring up things from people using the restore disc. That might give you some idea of how big a NTFS partition it needs - if indeed that is the problem.

zap_xlib
November 19th, 2010, 12:36 AM
Oops... just forgot to attach an image, and made a double post. So, i`m editing this post...

zap_xlib
November 19th, 2010, 12:49 AM
The only thing I can suggest is to make one much larger NTFS partition, perhaps sda1, 2 and 3 combined to make ~80GB. If the restore disc is happy to use that you could then shrink the reinstalled XP down to 30GB again and re-create your sda2 and sda3.

Hey, that`s a good idea!. I`ll certainly try it!.

Thank you very much!.

coffeecat
November 19th, 2010, 12:54 AM
Oops... just forgot to attach an image, and made a double post. So, i`m editing this post...

I see that the SMART status is reporting a few bad sectors. You might want to keep an eye on that and/or view all the SMART data in Disk Utility. This might mean the drive is on the way out and/or the bad sectors may be confusing the restore disc.