Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
Well hello everyone i hope you can help me with my problem:
Yesterday i installed Ubuntu via Wubi over Windows, i mean using a virtual partition, but it had a couple of very annoying bugs so i decided to create an actual partition for the dual boot.
I Downloaded Ubuntu from Ubuntu.com and burnt the ISO, I assumed the installation "wizard" would give me the option create a partition. [I should mention that my PC wouldn't boot with the CD, so i had to choose the option "Help me Boot from CD"]
I got to the step on the installation where i had to allocate the drive space, the option to install alongside Windows was there, I chose "something else" instead and it opened the partition manager, it showed my partitions [C: drive, and the occult recovery partitions].
I didn't feel comfortable with the partition manager so i exited the installation and booted Windows 7 [64bit] to create a partition, my disk was fragmented so i had to defragment it to create a partition of the size that i wanted [27GB]
After the process of defragmentation was done, i created the partition using the Windows Disk Manager, and formated it as NTFS.
Until then everything was OK, i Booted Ubuntu from the CD, clicked on "Install Ubuntu 11.04" on the UI, and when i got to the step where i had to allocate drive space, the option to install it alongside Windows
[I dont really remember what the option was exactly ] was missing and there was a message saying "This computer has no detected operative systems, What would you like to do?".
http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/a...reenshot-1.png
so i clicked "Something Else" and my partitions didn't show, it just shows my HDD.
http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/a...Screenshot.png
So i gave up on the installation and went back to Windows 7 to install it via Wubi, on a virtual partition, so then i could migrate it to an actual partition, when the process was done i booted Ubuntu and the installation process gave me the error "No root filesystem defined".
Sorry if i overdid the post, but im extremely frustrated and this is the only thing i can do.
PD: I'm running on a Toshiba laptop
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
Welcome to UF :-)
Firstly can you inform as to how many primary partitions you now have on the system?
If unsure you can post a screenshot of your Windows Disk Management screen.
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
From liveCD post this using terminal, so we can see how man partitions you have:
Many Windows 7 computers use all 4 primary partitions that is allowed under MBR(msdos) formating. Windows uses 2, a hidden system boot/recovery & the main install. The vendor does a recovery partition which is an image of you hard drive to restore your computer to the way it was when purchased, erasing everything since. And often just another Utility partition to use all 4 and prevent you from easily installing anything else. Microsoft likes it and the Vendor likes it as users do not call about installs of stuff they cannot script for a help desk.
You need a repairCD or USB flash drive for every operating system you have installed (and maybe a couple of other repairCDs).
Make your own Windows recoveryCD/repair:
http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1114725.htm
Windows 7 repair USB
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-re...tion-dvd-disc/
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/creat...usb-drive.html
If you have made a lot of changes you may not want to restore Win7 with the recovery disks unless eventually you sell it. But you should make the set of recovery DVDs as that is the only way to totally restore it.
The vendor recovery DVDs are just an image of your drive as purchased. If you have housecleaned a lot of cruft normally included, run many updates with many reboots, and added software you may want a full back up.
Backup windows before install - post by Mark Phelps
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1626990
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
Another suggestion by srs5694
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
The command "sudo fdisk -lu"
gave me this
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 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: 0x9a502fc8
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 3074047 1536000 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 3074048 869947540 433436746+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 932866048 976784129 21959041 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
That says you can create a sda4 as an extended partition and install many logical partitions for Ubuntu. If creating the partitions manually you have to shrink win7 and that is best done with win7's MMC. Then use gparted in Ubuntu liveCD to create partitions.
It seems a little strange that your boot flag is on sda1, and is unknown?? Boot flag is usually on a 100MB boot/recovery NTFS partition or the main NTFS Windows partition depending on where the boot files are. Windows can only boot the partition with the boot flag, grub does not use a boot flag.
Post this to see your entire configuration.
Boot Info Script courtesy of forum members meierfra & Gert Hulselmans
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Paste contents of results.txt in a New Reply, then highlight entire file and click on # in edit panel(code tags) to make it easier to read.
Or You can generate the tags first by pressing the # icon in the New Reply Edit toolbar and then paste the contents between the generated [ code] paste here [ /code] tags.
V60 has improved formating and requires code tags to make it legible. New Version is a zip file that you have to extract to get .sh to run.
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
Code:
Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011
============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
sda1: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD
sda2: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe
/wubildr /ubuntu/winboot/wubildr /wubildr.mbr
/ubuntu/winboot/wubildr.mbr
sda3: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sda5: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda5 starts
at sector 2048.
Operating System:
Boot files:
sda4: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda4 has
43905023 sectors, but according to the info from
fdisk, it has 43918081 sectors.
Operating System:
Boot files: /BOOTMGR /BOOT/BCD
============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2,048 3,074,047 3,072,000 27 Hidden NTFS (Recovery Environment)
/dev/sda2 3,074,048 869,947,540 866,873,493 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 869,949,440 932,866,047 62,916,608 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sda5 869,951,488 932,866,047 62,914,560 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda4 932,866,048 976,784,129 43,918,082 17 Hidden NTFS / HPFS
/dev/sda4 ends after the last sector of /dev/sda
"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________
Device UUID TYPE LABEL
/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 E202520F0251E8D5 ntfs TOSHIBA System Volume
/dev/sda2 92F253A5F2538BFB ntfs Local Disc
/dev/sda4 1A6655F16655CE5F ntfs HDDRECOVERY
/dev/sda5 48C09827C0981D6E ntfs Local Disc
================================ Mount points: =================================
Device Mount_Point Type Options
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Daniel090
After the process of defragmentation was done, i created the partition using the Windows Disk Manager, and formated it as NTFS.
Ubuntu cannot be installed to an NTFS file system, it needs to be a linux file system such as ext4. Try deleting the partition to leave empty space on the disk. The Ubuntu installer should show that unallocated space in its partitioner and you can tell it to make root and swap partitions there.
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
YesWeCan
Ubuntu cannot be installed to an NTFS file system, it needs to be a linux file system such as ext4. Try deleting the partition to leave empty space on the disk. The Ubuntu installer should show that unallocated space in its partitioner and you can tell it to make root and swap partitions there.
I already tried that and it didn't work
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
I just noticed this:
Code:
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2,048 3,074,047 3,072,000 27 Hidden NTFS (Recovery Environment)
/dev/sda2 3,074,048 869,947,540 866,873,493 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 869,949,440 932,866,047 62,916,608 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sda5 869,951,488 932,866,047 62,914,560 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda4 932,866,048 976,784,129 43,918,082 17 Hidden NTFS / HPFS
/dev/sda4 ends after the last sector of /dev/sda
That'll probably be it. The partition table is corrupt.
What's in sda4 - it might have to be "rearranged"
Re: Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my windows installation/HDD partitions
YesWeCan's analysis is correct; whatever you used for partitioning created (or changed) /dev/sda4 in such a way that it's too big for the disk. The Linux libparted library, upon which the Ubuntu installer's partitioning tool is based, flakes out and reports as empty any disk that has even a tiny partition table problems (and sometimes non-problems, too), which is why this defect is causing the partition table to show up as empty.
If you created /dev/sda4 for Linux's use, or if it's otherwise empty, the best option is to delete it. You can do this with whatever you used to create it or with fdisk:
- Type "sudo fdisk /dev/sda" to launch fdisk into interactive mode.
- Type "d" to delete a partition. You'll be asked for a partition number. Type "4".
- Type "p" to view the partition table and verify that you're working on the correct disk and have deleted the correct partition (as determined by its start and end points). If something seems wrong, type "q" to quit without saving your changes.
- If everything seems fine, type "w" to save your changes.
Once that partition is deleted, the Ubuntu installer should be able to handle the disk correctly. You can use it to create partitions, as described in various installation documents on the Web. (I don't happen to have any bookmarked, though.)
If /dev/sda4 contains valuable data, then it becomes trickier. You'll have to either resize it with a utility that can cope with its illegal size (I have no recommendations on that score) or back up its data, delete it, create a new partition in its place, and restore its data. Since it has a type of 0x17 ("Hidden NTFS / HPFS"), you'll have to unhide it before you can back it up from Windows.
One caution: Do not use Windows to create partitions for Linux! Recent versions of the Windows partitioning tools have a tendency to convert a disk to use Windows' "dynamic disks" feature, which is a Microsoft-only type of partitioning scheme. They typically do this if you try to create more than four partitions on a disk. If you use dynamic disks, it becomes much harder (perhaps even impossible) to install Linux on the disk. There are some tools, such as EASEUS, that claim to be able to undo the conversion to dynamic disk format, but I've never tested them, so I don't know how well they work. Your disk has not been converted to dynamic disk format, so you got lucky on that score. I mention this mainly to warn you off of a second attempt that might result in such a conversion, but also to warn off anybody else who might read this in the future.