Ubuntu Installer (and GParted) don’t properly recognize drive.

[garywclem]

I am trying to install Ubuntu 11.10 on a 320 GB drive partitioned as a 15GB Primary Partition and a 283 GB Logical drive. The 15GB Primary partition is FAT32 (empty) which I created for Ubuntu. The other (Logical partition) formatted as NTFS contains about 220 GB of data, and is accessed by various Windows OS’s as a backup drive. My problem is that neither Ubuntu installer nor GParted recognize the partition setup. All they see is one partition of 298.09 GiB with Partition unallocated and File System unallocated. Windows 7 Disk Management sees them properly, and marks them as healthy. I ran diskcheck on both partitions. Ubuntu installer only allowed me the option of formatting the 298 GiB unallocated partition to install Ubuntu.

As background, this box contains 3 physical drives. One drive contains XP on a Primary, with several supporting logical drives in an extended partition. The second drive contains W7 Home Premium on a Primary, with several supporting logical drives in an extended partition. Both the XP and W7 drives were unplugged for the Ubuntu install. I prefer each drive to be capable of stand-alone operation. I then use EasyBCD to construct the multi-boot menu.

I have used Microsoft since Dos 3 but have almost no knowledge of Linux. Any suggestions regarding the above problem will be appreciated.

[leclerc65]

Fat32 for Ubuntu ? No, you should format it as EXT4, or just delete it, and configure it during installation.

[garywclem]

Thanks for the reply. The 15 GB partition originally was unallocated and freespace, but Ubuntu said it was 298 GiB of unallocated. That's why I formatted it, to see if it made any difference.

[bluexrider]

Ubuntu doesn't like FAT 32 but plays well with NTFS. You can even install Ubuntu in NTFS if you wanted.

[oldfred]

Ubuntu needs Linux partitions to support ownership & permissions. An install in NTFS is wubi and is just one file that has the full Ubuntu stuffed in it. Since you have room, you need to do a full install.

Installing Ubuntu in Hard Disk Two (or more) internal or external
Maverick screens shown, other versions have slight difference in screens but process is the same.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p24.html (http://members.iinet.net.au/%7Eherman546/p24.html)
p24/041.png Shows combo box to select where to install the grub2 boot loader.
Where Do You Want To Install GNU/GRUB boot loader?
http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p24/041.png (http://members.iinet.net.au/%7Eherman546/p24/041.png)


Install 11.10 with screenshots of Unity, gnome3, & gnome fallback - Not everything is necessary, but shows how to do many things
http://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/to-do-list-after-installing-ubuntu-11-10-aka-oneiric-ocelot/
Install 11.04
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installing
Ubuntu Install steps - then choose guide, close to what you want.
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/index.html (http://members.iinet.net/%7Eherman546/index.html)

GParted partitioning software - Full tutorial
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html
Screenshots of using gparted
http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted

[darkod]

If the disk is not seen properly there is something wrong with it, or the way it's set up.

Windows and Linux sometimes do differ in what they mind on a disk, and what not.

Few basic things that windows ignores and ubuntu doesn't are:

1. Is the disk maybe a dynamic disk? That is a windows feature and ubuntu will not work on it. Check in Disk Management, it should be Basic.

2. Has the disk been used in fakeraid (mobo raid) earlier? In that case it keeps raid meta data even after formatting which windows ignores but ubuntu not.

Also if you did any resizing for example with some program in windows, it might have been done in a way that windows considers "normal", but ubuntu picks up some error on it and refuses to use it.

[coffeecat]

My problem is that neither Ubuntu installer nor GParted recognize the partition setup. All they see is one partition of 298.09 GiB with Partition unallocated and File System unallocated.

Is Gparted showing the whole drive as unallocated, rather than an unformatted partition? If the former, this is almost certainly due to a partition table irregularity which needs fixing before you can proceed. Windows Disk Utility and some Windows partitioning apps seem to tolerate partition table problems, which is not really a good thing.

Let's take a closer look at your partition table. Boot up the Ubuntu 11.10 live CD and choose "try Ubuntu" to get to the live desktop. Open a terminal and run this command:


sudo fdisk -lu

Post the fdisk output between
and tags for clarity. The simplest way of doing this is to highlight the output and then click on the http://ubuntuforums.org/images/editor/code.gif button in the message toolbar. Also, if you highlight the output with the mouse, you can right-click -> copy so that you can paste it into your post.

[garywclem]

Coffeecat - here is fdisk output:


Disk /dev/sdb: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 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: 0x5ba61be1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 31503464 15751701 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2 10522575 625137344 307307385 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 31503528 625137344 296816908+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ^C


Post the fdisk output between
and tags for clarity. The simplest way of doing this is to highlight the output and then click on the button in the message toolbar.

Don't see a # in the message tool bar. What am I missing?

Oldfred - Thanks for the great links.

[coffeecat]

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 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: 0x5ba61be1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 31503464 15751701 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2 10522575 625137344 307307385 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 31503528 625137344 296816908+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ^C

There's a really nasty illegality in your partition table. I've highlighted the relevant figures in red. The start sector of your sdb2 extended partition is showing as inside your sdb1 primary partition, which is completely impossible. Fortunately, the start sector of the logical sdb5 partition comes after the end sector of sdb1. The start sector of sdb2 should be somewhere between 31503464 and 31503528. I have a strong suspicion that the Windows Disk Utility is responsible for this - I've seen worse. Whatever - this needs repairing before you do any partitioning.

I'm fairly sure that fixparts will deal with this. Have a look here:

http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/

There are both Windows and Linux (which you can run from the live CD session) versions. Have a read through and post back if you have any questions. If you feel confident enough to proceed, OK, but do backup everything of importance first. Manipulating partition tables has the potential for further trouble.


Don't see a # in the message tool bar. What am I missing?

Have a look at my screenshot. There are several useful toll icons in the toolbar.

[garywclem]

Coffeecat – (and all others), Thanks for the help. Fixparts seems to have fixed the problem. Both partitions are now visible in Ubuntu installer and GParted as well as windows. I had to use Fixparts from Windows, as I seem to lack the knowledge to run it in Ubuntu.

As to the # symbol, I used the “Quick Reply” instead of the “New Reply” box.

[coffeecat]

Excellent. I'm glad fixparts did the trick.

Going back to an earlier comment. As someone has already pointed out, your sdb1 FAT32 partition won't be suitable for Ubuntu unless you format it with a Linux filesystem such as ext4. Also - you will need a separate swap partition.