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papuaq
March 21st, 2010, 12:13 PM
I am using Ubuntu for more then 2 years with no problem. Installed almost every release of Ubuntu from 7.04 to 9.04 with every consecutive release. Recently I got some problem with window Vista. I re-installed it. After installing Windows Vista, i tried to recover the grub of Ubuntu 9.04. But didn't succeed. (dont explored much the reason, although I have done it several times) I decided to install Ubuntu 9.10 through USB disk. The installer is not able to detect my hard disk partition. I explored lots of thread, but didn't found any useful link. After a lot of try, I decided to delete the existing Ubuntu partition.
One thing I found is the start and end sectors of the partition were overlapping. I tried to fix it with testdisk utility. Now every thing is messed up. Following is the output of fdisk -lu


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

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
Disk identifier: 0x20000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 160649 80293+ 6 FAT16
/dev/sda2 * 21133312 80675811 29771250 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 80678493 119732444 19526976 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4 119732445 312592769 96430162+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 119732508 173341347 26804420 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 173341413 212395364 19526976 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 224108544 307335167 41613312 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 307337216 312578047 2620416 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdb: 4022 MB, 4022337536 bytes
12 heads, 4 sectors/track, 163669 cylinders, total 7856128 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04030201

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1096 7856127 3927516 b W95 FAT32




While using the gparted from live CD of Ubuntu 9.10, Its not showing up the partitions.

vanadium
March 21st, 2010, 01:06 PM
You have an unused gap between 160649 and 21133312. However, because you already have three primary partitions and one extended partition, there is no way that that space can be used again under the current partitioning.

It might be possible to solve this by moving partitions, then expanding the extended partition. However, it might be quicker, cleaner and more fool proof to just restarted from scratch, i.e. wipe the entire disk, have Windows installed on the desired size, and have then Ubuntu use the remaining space.

papuaq
March 21st, 2010, 06:38 PM
Thanks for the hellp Vanadium. I am also thinking for the same.

raymondh
March 21st, 2010, 07:20 PM
Just curious ....

- can you share the actual error message, if any?
- are you running any RAID functionality? In your liveCD and in live session, access a terminal and type


sudo apt-get remove dmraid

exit terminal and proceed to install. See what happens.

I have seen installs that would not go through because of the partition limit. However, selecting 'manual' usually overcomes that.

If you do decide to re-do everything ..... and assuming you install windows first, remember to defrag (at least 2x) before installing Ubuntu. Also note that you may run into the 'immovable files' that windows does put all over the HD. Usually by turning off system restore or page filing will allow you shrink windows better. Just rememeber turn them back on after.

As always, have a working/tested back-up of your files.

Raymond

papuaq
March 22nd, 2010, 04:35 PM
Hi Raymondh,
for

- can you share the actual error message, if any?

There is no error message. Actually Partition editior showing the whole Harddisk as a single partition. Even gparted(not sure if its used by the installer) is not showing any partition nor error.

for
- are you running any RAID functionality? In your liveCD and in live session, access a terminal and type

I am not using any RAID functionality. Infact, I have already tried installation after removing dmraid. but no luck.

I will keep in mind points mentioned by you while re-installing the whole system. Hopefully will be doing this in coming weekend.
Till then, any other suggestion is welcomed.

thanks once again.