10.04 says I have no operating systems installed

[DazMcK]

Hey guys,

I have been reading around the internet but I cant find any solutions, and on a side note im new to linux.

When I try to install ubuntu 10.04 on my dell xps 420 desktop it doesn't detect my windows 7 install, would this have anything to do with me having my RAID set to on? and if I do change my RAID settings will I damage my windows 7 installation?

here is my sudo fdisk -l:


Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 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: 0xf8000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 6 48163+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 7 1965 15728640 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * 1965 77826 609357824 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 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: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Thanks for any help guys, I would really love to dualboot ubuntu with windows 7, oh and btw ubuntu detects my windows 7 install on my laptop(dell xps m1330) without any problems.

[want2bdifferent]

exactly the same problem i am having.

[DazMcK]

I have just tried to install Ubuntu 9.10 and the same thing is happening, it does not detect any partitions at all.

[paydaydaddy]

check your bios and make sure it is set to boot from the correct drive/partition. Do the same for grub. Sure sounds like you system is looking for an OS where there isn't one. Possible problem with MBR.

[DazMcK]

check your bios and make sure it is set to boot from the correct drive/partition. Do the same for grub. Sure sounds like you system is looking for an OS where there isn't one. Possible problem with MBR.

Thanks for the reply, but im a bit of a newbie when it comes to these things, in my bios boot sequence it says this:

1. onboard or usb floppy drive (not present)
2. onboard SATA hard drive (not present)
3. intel array
4. onboard or usb cd-rom drive
5. onboard network controller (not present)
6. usb device

oh and how do I go about changing my grub settings?

[DazMcK]

any ideas?