12.04 Installer showing a blank hard drive during installation

[shizz]

I'm trying to install Ubuntu on a friend's Sony Vaio. It's about 4 years old, and I think the model number is VGN-NR38.

During the installation process it gives no option to boot alongside windows as it doesn't recognise anything on the hard drive.

Any thoughts on what the error could be here?

From what I remember there are three partitions, System recovery, Windows 7 and a spare partition that was never used. All primary partitions.

I was thinking of trying 12.10 instead? Perhaps an update in the installer might help the issue?

[darkod]

Try running the cd in live mode and check what Gparted says about the disk.

If Gparted also doesn't recognize the partitions, there might be an error or corruption in the partition table.

If Gparted can see it correctly but the installer doesn't report partitions, usually the problem is raid meta data if the disk has been used in raid (or is configured in some sort of raid). In a laptop this is not very common, it's more common in desktops after people started playing with the bios raid option too much. If there are raid meta data leftovers on the disk, the ubuntu installer ignores it.

You can remove meta data with:
sudo dmraid -Er /dev/sda

but MAKE SURE it's not used first. Some Intel Rapid Storage configurations do use a smaller SSD combined with larger HDD in some strange raid config.

[shizz]

Try running the cd in live mode and check what Gparted says about the disk.

If Gparted also doesn't recognize the partitions, there might be an error or corruption in the partition table.

If Gparted can see it correctly but the installer doesn't report partitions, usually the problem is raid meta data if the disk has been used in raid (or is configured in some sort of raid). In a laptop this is not very common, it's more common in desktops after people started playing with the bios raid option too much. If there are raid meta data leftovers on the disk, the ubuntu installer ignores it.

You can remove meta data with:
sudo dmraid -Er /dev/sda

but MAKE SURE it's not used first. Some Intel Rapid Storage configurations do use a smaller SSD combined with larger HDD in some strange raid config.

Yeah I checked what Gparted could see and it shows the same thing.

I'm not sure of the RAID but I'd be doubtful about it.

Could any other error in the way it is partitioned bring on this?

[darkod]

If Gparted shows the same, looks like an error in the table. Windows can sometimes do weird things and then ignore them. Linux is much more sensitive to errors.

Boot into live mode and post the output of:
sudo fdisk -l (small L)

[shizz]

If Gparted shows the same, looks like an error in the table. Windows can sometimes do weird things and then ignore them. Linux is much more sensitive to errors.

Boot into live mode and post the output of:
sudo fdisk -l (small L)

Will do when I get the chance. Thanks for the help.

Just for a bit in advance, If the partition's are visible from that, any idea what the problem could be? Likewise with if they aren't.

[quentinl]

i used a cd and it works. also i think 32-bit is better
thats what worked for me

[darkod]

Will do when I get the chance. Thanks for the help.

Just for a bit in advance, If the partition's are visible from that, any idea what the problem could be? Likewise with if they aren't.

I have one suspicion but we need to see the output first.

If the hdd had a gpt partition table earlier and it was reformatted as msdos with windows, windows doesn't delete the backup gpt table. So uubntu is confused which table to follow, the msdos or the backup gpt.

Or it simply might be case of overlapping partitions or a partition outside the disk.

[shizz]

I have one suspicion but we need to see the output first.

If the hdd had a gpt partition table earlier and it was reformatted as msdos with windows, windows doesn't delete the backup gpt table. So uubntu is confused which table to follow, the msdos or the backup gpt.

Or it simply might be case of overlapping partitions or a partition outside the disk.

Easy to fix?

I'd really love to wipe his whole drive and partition it properly. Would be too much work though.

[darkod]

If it's the gpt issue, very easy. There is an excellent program called fixparts that can be run from live mode, even from windows I think. But I would rather use it from linux.
http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/

Also, most partition errors can be fixed with this program too, like a partition wrongly saying it's bigger than the disk (goes outside the disk), etc.

[shizz]

If it's the gpt issue, very easy. There is an excellent program called fixparts that can be run from live mode, even from windows I think. But I would rather use it from linux.
http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/

Also, most partition errors can be fixed with this program too, like a partition wrongly saying it's bigger than the disk (goes outside the disk), etc.

Thanks for all the help man. Will update when I can.