10.04 live CD installation, not detecting windows 7

[want2bdifferent]

Hey guys
I am attempting to Dual boot windows 7 and ubuntu 10.04 on my netbook.
When i boot the Live CD from USB, and then go to the installation, then when i get to the partition part, it does not detect windows at all. It says that i have no operating systems installed.
Is anyone else having this problem?
Sorry if there is already a thread on this, I could not find one with a search.

[want2bdifferent]

Bump
Anyone?

[want2bdifferent]

Sorry for Posting So much I tried again and took screen shots
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[P4man]

make sure windows is not hibernated and the filesystem is clean (try running a chkdsk on windows). If that doesnt help, can you open a terminal in the live cd session and copy paste the output of this command


sudo fdisk -l

[want2bdifferent]

this is the results i got from the fdisk thing
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x98e102e4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 13 7817 62685184 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 7817 9729 15358976 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 4025 MB, 4025810432 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 489 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x009e7235

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 490 3931424 b W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(1023, 254, 63) logical=(489, 113, 7)

[P4man]

A bit of googling suggests GPT is some (not so) new 64 bit partition table, but it ought be supported by ubuntu for a long time, so Im wondering whats going on here.

If you select "specify partitions manually" in the installer program, does it show the partitions correctly?

[snappy46]

Sorry for Posting So much I tried again and took screen shots
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I have the exact same problem as you other than the fact that I have window and ubuntu installed on that drive sda. During install it show that no operating system is on the drive and if I run gparted if show sda as being unallocated.

fdisk -l list all the partition and I can even mount them manually using the mount command and yet gparted says there sda unallocated. Very strange. Sorry not much help there for you but now you know that you are not alone with that problem.

[DazMcK]

I also have this exact same problem.

EDIT: When I try to install 10.04 on my dell xps 420 desktop, no partitions are recognised.
When I try to install 10.04 on my dell xps m1330 laptop, all partitions are found including windows 7.

[want2bdifferent]

A bit of googling suggests GPT is some (not so) new 64 bit partition table, but it ought be supported by ubuntu for a long time, so Im wondering whats going on here.

If you select "specify partitions manually" in the installer program, does it show the partitions correctly?

It shows the same as gparted does if i click select partition manually

[anthonws]

Same problem here!

320GB SATA Disk with Windows 7.

1. Tried livecd installer hoping to resize NTFS partition there and install. It doesn't detect no partition at all (Recovery and NTFS).

2. In Windows I resized NTFS Volume and left 120GB unallocated. Started livecd and still no go.

None of the options (manually or empty contiguous space) works...

There is another thread regarding this subject, one of the possible solutions is to uninstall "dmraid" or to eliminate raid metadata from the drive. Problem is, I formatted the drive when I installed Windows and I don't have any RAID settings (in BIOS also).

Please advise.

Anthon.

[P4man]

While this is an old post, I think its still worth trying:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2486121&postcount=10

Basically install testdisk on the livecd (or on windows) and let it analyze and rewrite the partition table. It seems everyone having this issue resized their partitions in windows prior to booting the ubuntu cd, so Im guessing windows drive manager writes a partition table that ubuntu doesnt like for some reason.

To install testdisk on the livecd, just go to the ubuntu software center and install it. You can run it from the terminal by typing in


sudo testdisk

[DazMcK]

While this is an old post, I think its still worth trying:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2486121&postcount=10

Basically install testdisk on the livecd (or on windows) and let it analyze and rewrite the partition table. It seems everyone having this issue resized their partitions in windows prior to booting the ubuntu cd, so Im guessing windows drive manager writes a partition table that ubuntu doesnt like for some reason.

To install testdisk on the livecd, just go to the ubuntu software center and install it. You can run it from the terminal by typing in


sudo testdisk

I will try this out, because I too resized my partition from windows before doing the install for ubuntu, thanks!

[want2bdifferent]

I will try that out later, i am so busy at the moment.

[want2bdifferent]

that did not work, i will fiddle around more in my holidays

[darkod]

There is another thread regarding this subject, one of the possible solutions is to uninstall "dmraid" or to eliminate raid metadata from the drive. Problem is, I formatted the drive when I installed Windows and I don't have any RAID settings (in BIOS also).

Please advise.

Anthon.

In your particular case, I would still try eliminating raid metadata with the command:

sudo dmraid -r -E /dev/sda (if the disk is /dev/sda)

Format doesn't destroy metadata, and not having RAID enabled does not always mean there is no metadata already on the disk. If the command reports metadata you know that was your problem. At least you will eliminate that possibility.

Other posters have issues because of GPT partition table (not the older type DOS or MBR). I need to study that, it seems more and more common problem with large drives these days using GPT and not MBR.

[darkod]

Basically install testdisk on the livecd (or on windows) and let it analyze and rewrite the partition table. It seems everyone having this issue resized their partitions in windows prior to booting the ubuntu cd, so Im guessing windows drive manager writes a partition table that ubuntu doesnt like for some reason.


Resizing the windows system partition in windows is ALWAYS the right way to go. This is because windows is stubborn and wants to do its disk checks after the resize. By letting the ubuntu installer do the resize and install ubuntu in the same step, you risk corruption. Especially XP has problems with that. The two step approach is always best:
- resize the partition, boot windows few times to do the checks
- install ubuntu

Why the above may have solved their problem is perhaps testdisk writing a new DOS partition table in place of the GPT. There will be no problems with DOS partition tables. Grub2 is supposed to support GPT but it's a new partition table system and there seems to be a lot of hiccups.

So it just looks like resizing from inside windows is a problem, it's not. Unless the resize corrupts your partition which sometimes can happen with any tool. :)

[dandnsmith]

This problem likely started with Vista, and got more severe as new PCs were issued with Win7. It's all linked to use of the EFI system on newer PCs.

There's a site referring to converting the Partition Table (http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/index.html), which includes a page on converting GPT to MBR and notes on problem areas.

HTH

[want2bdifferent]

actually i did not know i still had EFI on there, the reason it has GPT is it used to be a hackintosh.
I will try it again later