No Partitions Detected on Installation of 9.10

[Bhajun]

Hi all,

I apologize if this has answered previously - I only found one unresolved topic which discusses the same problem I face (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1267532)

Currently I am dual-booting Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04 on my system. For various reasons, I wanted a clean install of Ubuntu now that 9.10 has come out and figured I would install it over my previous Ubuntu installation.

However, running the installation from CD, the partition manager fails to detect any operating systems or partitions. It lists my 160gb harddisk as unpartitioned and prompts me to either format the entire drive and install, or to format and partition it before I continue.

Clearly neither of these options are ideal, and so I wondered if this was a known and/or resolved issue. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[lidex]

Boot into ubuntu and run this command in terminal:

sudo fdisk -l
Post the output please. Also -- what do you see in partition manager?

[Mark Phelps]

Boot into ubuntu and run this command in terminal:

sudo fdisk -l
Post the output please. Also -- what do you see in partition manager?

+1 -- please note that's a lowercase "L", not a "one".

[Bhajun]

When booting up into 9.10 live mode, fdisk shows all of my partitions without issue, but gparted does not.

fdisk:


Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 19196 19457 2104483+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 7 7839 62918572+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 7840 19457 93321585 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 7840 16062 66051216 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 16063 18673 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 18674 19195 4192933+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 19196 19457 2104483+ 0 Empty


gparted:
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/2312/screenshotdevsdagparted.png


I have a similar issue when I boot into 9.04, which is currently installed.

Thanks.

[lidex]

Hmmm...take a look at this (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/gparted-does-not-detect-partitions...-718673/)

[Bhajun]

That seems similar, but that's not exactly it. So it seems that one of my partitions shows up twice in the fdisk listing (sda1 and sda8) for some odd reason. I figure, though it may be possible to fix, it'll save me trouble now or in the future if I just wipe everything and start from scratch.

Thanks for your help though.

[jasonaugustyn]

I'm having the same problem trying to install 9.10 on a Dell XPS in dual boot with Vista. The partitioner claims "This computer has no operating systems on it", but of course Vista is already installed :confused:

Output of
sudo fdisk -l is almost identical to that given above.

Suggestions? I've never had this problem with any other version of Ubuntu.

[Joe Ker1086]

This isnt an ideal fix but it will work. If you are having trouble booting into your partitions it might make sense to install This (http://gag.sourceforge.net/index.html). It is a graphical user interface that allows you to boot up to 9 partitions. And from what some other users say it can fix some unbootable partitions even when fixmbr doesnt work.

[Joe Ker1086]

*side note* GAG can be run from a bootable disk so it is not necessary to install it if you don't want to :D

[jasonaugustyn]

Any other ideas? I've found several other posts describing the same problem, but nobody seems to have any answers. I could set up a new partition table and create the partitions manually, but that makes me nervous.

[kyuubi777]

had issues w/ gparted as well, used Disk utility instead which read me errors every time i tried to modify partitions but completed the tasks successfully

[lidex]

Seems to be slightly epidemic. Some links:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1290215
http://newyork.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=878204
https://launchpad.net/bugs/bugtrackers/parted