Installation failed and partitions disappeared

[Snitz]

Hello,

I've decided to give ubuntu another test drive now that I got a bigger and better desktop. I downloaded the latest version of ubuntu, loaded it into my usb stick and booted from it. I then clicked on the install icon on the desktop to star the installation.

Everything was going ok, until I came to the partitioning part.
I had already (on windows 7) created a separate partition for ubuntu which is 56GB. so I chose "manual partitioning" and selected the ubuntu partition as /home and began the installation.

Everything seemed to have went well, the window suddenly closed and then nothing happened. I waited for 15mins and still nothing happened. I decided to restart and see what happened, but I discovered that I couldn't boot into windows anymore. It said something about intel boot manager cannot find filesystem.

So I decided to boot back from the usb and see if I can reinstall ubuntu, I came to the partitioning part and all the drives were gone, I couldn't see anything, it was blank.

I don't know what to do, I'm really stuck here. Any advise please?

[srs5694]

Boot the Ubuntu disc into its live CD mode, open a terminal (a command prompt shell), and type "sudo fdisk -lu". Post the results here, preferably preceded by
and followed by for legibility. This will show us the nitty-gritty on your partition table. My suspicion is that something like this (http://www.rodsbooks.com/missing-parts/index.html) is happening, but I can't be positive of that.

[Snitz]

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x36ec9971

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 206848 1024002047 511897600 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 1024002048 1830641663 403319808 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 1830643710 1953521663 61438977 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 1830643712 1953521663 61438976 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 2054 MB, 2054426624 bytes
64 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1011 cylinders, total 4012552 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb0bcd68e

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 ? 3223366781 3470046704 123339962 78 Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(518, 102, 15) logical=(812340, 26, 50)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(743, 0, 62) logical=(874507, 47, 15)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 ? 432871117 1208554935 387841909+ 10 OPUS
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(205, 7, 0) logical=(109090, 32, 14)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(920, 235, 50) logical=(304575, 21, 34)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb3 ? 1869562563 3788792630 959615034 8b Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(260, 125, 54) logical=(471159, 58, 56)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(893, 46, 60) logical=(954836, 54, 35)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb4 ? 2119696384 2128019511 4161564 a OS/2 Boot Manager
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(269, 111, 50) logical=(534197, 43, 23)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(536295, 15, 22)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order


This is what you've asked.

PS: I can see windows partitions now from ubuntu, and I can open them too.

EDIT: I have attached a screenshot of "GParted" to show you my drives. Note that I attempted to install ubuntu on /sd4/ and if I go there I can find the ubuntu files but I'm not sure if it installed correctly as I can still see the install button on the desktop.

[Snitz]

Ok, I gave up on the quest to install ubuntu on sda5 and simply selected it to install next to windows (default option) and it worked. Ubuntu is now installed though but on booting, windows 7 does not show up. I need to be able to boot into windows as well. Only ubuntu shows.

How can I fix this?

[srs5694]

Try downloading and running the Boot Info Script, (http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/) then post the results here.