Damaged GPT partition on dual boot

[davidphayden]

OK I wiped the linux partitions from the windows disk management, ran chkdsk and will start again from scratch. I'll either remove RAID altogether (which I think would involve reinstalling windows) or try to install ubuntu with RAID (which I'm expecting will be trickier). Thanks for the help, oldfred.

[oldfred]

Several threads where users did different things. Some older, newer versions of Ubuntu should be easier.
Acer S7 14.04 & Windows 8.1 RAID
http://askubuntu.com/questions/59064...-acer-s7-quest

Sony Vaio - EFI dualboot Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 8 in Raid0
http://sygard.no/2012/09/efi-dualboo...n-sony-vaio-s/

Acer Aspire S7 can't install ubuntu - UltraBook erased RAID meta-data
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2121187

[davidphayden]

OK, I actually have an Acer S7 as well. I tried the first link and it doesn't work (gparted just shows two unformatted disks) then, from the third link, I followed your suggestion:

Disable the RAID, for me it was using the Intel rapid management thingy and telling it to disable the acceleration or the use of the SSD. If you have a different system, just disable the RAID system then install Ubuntu. Once installed you can then re-enable it.
sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda
sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sdb

but also to no avail. Do you know how to re-enable the RAID (since of course now windows can't boot either)?

[oldfred]

It should be a setting in UEFI/BIOS for drive.
Most that convert also change drive setting from RAID to AHCI.
Not sure now with UEFI if that makes a difference or not.

[davidphayden]

Hmm it's still set to RAID in UEFI. I switched it to AHCI and back to RAID but it doesn't offer windows as a boot option... by erasing the metadata have I rendered it useless?

[oldfred]

This was the Intel SRT which looks like RAID to Ubuntu, but perhaps your actual RAID is different.

Some info on re-instating details in post #9 Dell 14z
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2038121
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2070491
Ubuntu on hard drive, re-enable SRT post #19 details
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2129157

Do you have a Windows repair flash drive? Often it needs refreshing. Either chkdsk or just its repairs run from its repair console.

[davidphayden]

Thanks again for your help, oldfred. I got everything working in the end by disabling RAID and reinstalling both OS's, one on each hard drive.

In case anyone else has the same problem, I would suggest (after backing everything up) disabling RAID and following the advice and links above. For some reason my windows 8 backup didn't work (perhaps because of RAID?) and I had to reinstall it by making a USB from another windows 8 machine as in this link.