Dual-booting Kubuntu on HP G62-144DX

[PacSci]

I'm attempting to dual-boot Kubuntu on a friend's brand new HP G62-144DX laptop (he's been using Kubuntu for a while on his desktop and laptop). After dealing with all the stupid vendor-specific stuff on the Win7 side, I am now attempting to install Kubuntu.

Due to graphics issues, I am having to use the beta version of 10.04, since the graphics driver and required kernel version apparently don't come with 9.10. I shrunk the Windows partition from 486 GB to 286 GB (or so), but the installer is reading "unusable". The disk layout is four primary partitions, in this order:


209 MB NTFS boot partition
286 GB NTFS partition (this has the main data on it - used to be 486 GB before I shrunk it)
200 GB free space (installer lists it as "unusable")
13.4 GB NTFS partition (I think this is for system restore)
108 MB FAT32 partition with LBA flag set (not sure what this is - it just has a folder named "Hewlett-Packard", with a subfolder "SystemDiags", with a bunch of weird files inside)


So, my questions (if anyone can answer any of these, that would be great):


What the frack is that 108 MB partition?
Can that partition be nuked?
How are there 4 primary partitions on the same MS-DOS drive?
Why is the free space I made reading "unusable"?
Is using the beta affecting this?
Is using Kubuntu affecting this?
Why doesn't Kubuntu come with a graphical partition manager?
Has anyone else had similar issues with this computer?
Has anyone got a dual-boot to work on this computer?
Any ideas?

[PacSci]

I'm sorry for bumping this, but I can't find any useful information on the Internet. Also, the same thing happens with the new 10.04 RC.

[smokineasy]

did you manage to get it workin???
i also have a problem trying to install ubuntu 10.04 (as well as 9.1) alone side windows on a hp g62 :( :confused:

it keeps wantin to use whole hard drive

EDIT: its find now, i just defraged the hard drive in windows and the install side by side option came up
wish i tryed that b4 deleting the recovery partition :(

[deedsofhaphazzard]

did you manage to get it workin???
i also have a problem trying to install ubuntu 10.04 (as well as 9.1) alone side windows on a hp g62 :( :confused:

it keeps wantin to use whole hard drive

EDIT: its find now, i just defraged the hard drive in windows and the install side by side option came up
wish i tryed that b4 deleting the recovery partition :(
I have the same laptop. I bumped into the same problem. Does it really work after the defrag. I tried doing it in vain. However, I accidentally converted my hard drive into a dynamic partition before doing the defrag. If the defrag actually worked I could convert it back to a basic partition (which entails a complete format).

[deedsofhaphazzard]

smokineasy's solution works absolutely fine. Just defragment and ubuntu detects windows and lets you allocate space for ubuntu and dual boot..

[Soul_Retriever]

I'm attempting to dual-boot Kubuntu on a friend's brand new HP G62-144DX laptop (he's been using Kubuntu for a while on his desktop and laptop). After dealing with all the stupid vendor-specific stuff on the Win7 side, I am now attempting to install Kubuntu.

Due to graphics issues, I am having to use the beta version of 10.04, since the graphics driver and required kernel version apparently don't come with 9.10. I shrunk the Windows partition from 486 GB to 286 GB (or so), but the installer is reading "unusable". The disk layout is four primary partitions, in this order:


209 MB NTFS boot partition
286 GB NTFS partition (this has the main data on it - used to be 486 GB before I shrunk it)
200 GB free space (installer lists it as "unusable")
13.4 GB NTFS partition (I think this is for system restore)
108 MB FAT32 partition with LBA flag set (not sure what this is - it just has a folder named "Hewlett-Packard", with a subfolder "SystemDiags", with a bunch of weird files inside)


So, my questions (if anyone can answer any of these, that would be great):


What the frack is that 108 MB partition?
Can that partition be nuked?
How are there 4 primary partitions on the same MS-DOS drive?
Why is the free space I made reading "unusable"?
Is using the beta affecting this?
Is using Kubuntu affecting this?
Why doesn't Kubuntu come with a graphical partition manager?
Has anyone else had similar issues with this computer?
Has anyone got a dual-boot to work on this computer?
Any ideas?





The 108MB partition is used to store HP's tools and other stuff from them
I'd advise against nuking it as there seems to be somthing on the hard drive that is needed to boot properly (i took mine's hard drive out, poped in a new one and it wouldn't boot from it)
4 partitions is the maximum amount of partitions you can have on a drive if i remember correctly

Still trying to get mine to dual boot but not having much luck
I'd take all this with a pinch of salt though, i'm still quite new to messing with partitions and dual-booting