Ubuntu 11.04 Natty installation doesn't show my partition table

[arman_prof]

I'm web developer with fairly good tech knowledge.
First of all I'm new to this community, but I've used your forums for my problem researches very frequently and really appreciate the work all of you does. Thanks for the best linux community.

I've used to use Ubuntu 4 years ago, but it was immature for me at that time, so I've abandoned Ubundu Os and came back to it a 2 weeks ago.
I have Windows 7 already installed. Want to mention that Wubi is not for me, I want to dual boot without Wubi as I'm going to remove Windows 7 and reformat that partition in week or so.
I'm stuck at the window of selecting partition for installation of Ubuntu now. I had the same problem 2 week ago, but after some research I'd fixed it and installed Ubuntu. Today after some experimentation with source codes of software that I'm going to contribute to, I ran low on disk (some 700mb was left from 8 GB initial Ubuntu partition). After rebooting Ubuntu tried to update the packages and everything crashed. So I've deleted the old partition from live CD, added some more space partition from my Windows partition and again stuck the same window but can't recall what I did 2 weeks (linux/unix world is a little new for me, I've used to use simple things and commands to administer linux web servers).

my parted output:

GNU Parted 2.3
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print device
Model: ATA Maxtor 6V160E0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB primary ntfs boot
2 106MB 96.7GB 96.6GB primary ntfs
3 96.7GB 141GB 44.0GB primary ntfs
my fdisk -lu output:

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
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3cbf3cbe

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 206848 188950527 94371840 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 188950528 274829311 42939392 7 HPFS/NTFS
The first partition is Windows 7 (SYSTEM RESERVED partition). Maybe the proble is with it.
/dev/sda2 - Windows 7 partition
/dev/sda3 - my important files are here

I have also 18GB unallocated space at the end of partition for the Ubuntu and swap disk.
Here is screenshot where I'm stuck:
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/3277/screenshotfg.png

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[oldfred]

One thing to try is to run chkdsk on all your NTFS partitions. If you get errors you have to rerun until no errors as it does not fix everything on each pass. My gparted would not see my sda at all even though my XP booted. I ran chkdsk then everything was ok.

Partitions not seen in gparted
http://www.rodsbooks.com/missing-parts/index.html

Windows 7 has a hidden in windows 100MB boot.recovery partition. That is so you can boot if you want to encrypt the main install as the boot cannot be encrypted. And it has a copy of the recovery console for repairs. You probably still should have a windows repair CD any way.

If your PC did not come with a complete Vista or Win7 installation CD, you can download a Repair Disc at the following links:
Windows Vista Disc - for repairs only
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/
Windows 7 Disc - for repairs only
http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/
Vista/7 will not auto repair XP (they create the boot sectors differently) but can run chkdsk on any NTFS partition.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

[arman_prof]

Hello and thanks for reply.

I've actually tried chkdsk previous time when I had the same problem. At that time I'd run 2 times without any errors and it takes about an hour each run. I can see my hard disk and partitions from everywhere on liver CD except installation. Gparted on LIVE CD does see my partitions. The last time I had done something in terminal and that actually fixed my error. The problem is that I can't recall where I had found the solution and commands and what I had done :(

[coffeecat]

You can get that blank allocate drive space window where there is residual RAID metadata where a drive was once used in RAID array. It confuses the installer. Have a look at post #5 in this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10435866#post10435866

The fix is here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9447593&postcount=3

Which the OP of the first thread reposted as working for him.

[arman_prof]

Thank you very much. This has solved my issue. 2 weeks ago I've solved the issue the same way and I've even used the same post :)

command that solved the issue (for reference):

sudo dmraid -r -E /dev/sda (or whatever your hdd /dev/sd*)The command was originally found here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9447593&postcount=3