drucifer
August 29th, 2011, 09:45 PM
I'm having trouble installing Ubuntu in my Dell Inspiron 630m.
I inherited this laptop, and it was full of evil, evil software. So, immediately upon getting it, I installed Natty Narwhal. For a whole week, I've been successfully dual-booting Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows XP as I cleaned the computer up--no problemo. But yesterday, I decided to do a fresh install of Windows XP Pro, and that's when everything went wrong. XP now works fine, but as is the wont of Windows, it blew Linux away. When I go to re-install Linux, the live CD does not recognize any partitions on the harddrive at all; in fact, it seems to think that the entire harddrive is unformatted. The same goes for GParted.
I've looked at previous posts regarding partition problems upon install, but I can't find any solutions that really fit the bill. I've defragmented my Windows partition to no avail, and fdisk knows that the partitions are there (see the output below). When reading the fdisk output, it looks to me like I have a corrupted partition table, which I would have no clue how to fix. Any help here would be much appreciated--anything, anything that might save me from the horror of primarily proprietary bootage :|
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu
omitting empty partition (5)
Disk /dev/sda: 78.7 GB, 78732380160 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9572 cylinders, total 153774180 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: 0x41ab2316
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 128262959 64131448+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 128278526 153772031 12746753 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 149600256 153772031 2085888 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 128278528 145424383 8572928 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 145426432 149598207 2085888 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/sdb: 1048 MB, 1048051712 bytes
33 heads, 61 sectors/track, 1016 cylinders, total 2046976 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: 0x6f20736b
This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 ? 778135908 1919645538 570754815+ 72 Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(357, 116, 40) logical=(386555, 11, 23)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(357, 32, 45) logical=(953624, 6, 61)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 ? 168689522 2104717761 968014120 65 Novell Netware 386
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(288, 115, 43) logical=(83800, 2, 1)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(367, 114, 50) logical=(1045562, 23, 53)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb3 ? 1869881465 3805909656 968014096 79 Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(366, 32, 33) logical=(928902, 28, 32)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(357, 32, 43) logical=(1890665, 16, 36)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb4 ? 0 3637226495 1818613248 d Unknown
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(372, 97, 50) logical=(0, 0, 1)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(0, 10, 0) logical=(1806868, 19, 53)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order
I inherited this laptop, and it was full of evil, evil software. So, immediately upon getting it, I installed Natty Narwhal. For a whole week, I've been successfully dual-booting Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows XP as I cleaned the computer up--no problemo. But yesterday, I decided to do a fresh install of Windows XP Pro, and that's when everything went wrong. XP now works fine, but as is the wont of Windows, it blew Linux away. When I go to re-install Linux, the live CD does not recognize any partitions on the harddrive at all; in fact, it seems to think that the entire harddrive is unformatted. The same goes for GParted.
I've looked at previous posts regarding partition problems upon install, but I can't find any solutions that really fit the bill. I've defragmented my Windows partition to no avail, and fdisk knows that the partitions are there (see the output below). When reading the fdisk output, it looks to me like I have a corrupted partition table, which I would have no clue how to fix. Any help here would be much appreciated--anything, anything that might save me from the horror of primarily proprietary bootage :|
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu
omitting empty partition (5)
Disk /dev/sda: 78.7 GB, 78732380160 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9572 cylinders, total 153774180 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: 0x41ab2316
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 128262959 64131448+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 128278526 153772031 12746753 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 149600256 153772031 2085888 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 128278528 145424383 8572928 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 145426432 149598207 2085888 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/sdb: 1048 MB, 1048051712 bytes
33 heads, 61 sectors/track, 1016 cylinders, total 2046976 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: 0x6f20736b
This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 ? 778135908 1919645538 570754815+ 72 Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(357, 116, 40) logical=(386555, 11, 23)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(357, 32, 45) logical=(953624, 6, 61)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 ? 168689522 2104717761 968014120 65 Novell Netware 386
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(288, 115, 43) logical=(83800, 2, 1)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(367, 114, 50) logical=(1045562, 23, 53)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb3 ? 1869881465 3805909656 968014096 79 Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(366, 32, 33) logical=(928902, 28, 32)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(357, 32, 43) logical=(1890665, 16, 36)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb4 ? 0 3637226495 1818613248 d Unknown
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(372, 97, 50) logical=(0, 0, 1)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(0, 10, 0) logical=(1806868, 19, 53)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order