gparted and ubuntu installation does not detect my hard correctly

[I&U]

Hi all,
recently I've downloaded ubuntu 12.10 and I'm not able to install it because of I think
a hard disk failure, ubuntu installation and G-Parted dont recognise my drives correctly and they just show my hdd as a raw one, (unallocated).
I just have one hard (sda) and winxp is installed on that,
disk utility on the ubuntu live recognises my hdd correctly,

This is what sudo sfdisk -l command shows me:

Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.

Disk /dev/sda: 60801 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 0+ 6373 6374- 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 6374+ 60801- 54428- 437186342+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda5 6374+ 19121 12748- 102398278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 19122+ 31221 12100- 97193218+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda7 31222+ 43434 12213- 98100891 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda8 43435+ 60800 17366- 139492363+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

AND:

G-parted shows a warning too, (can't have a partition outside the disk!)
it takes a long time for g-parted to scan my devices when it starts, and at last it just shows an unallocated part with that warning (can't have a partition outside the disk!).

thanks for any help

[carl4926]

That's the strangest output I have seen...

What do you think is on those logical partitions?

[dino99]

so you are using vista or w7 right ?
the first step is to check hdd settings inside the bios: how are they set ?

maybe the partition table needs to be rebuilt

http://askubuntu.com/questions/48717/how-to-manually-fix-a-partition-table

is your issue with the gparted found on 12.10 ?

[I&U]

That's the strangest output I have seen...

What do you think is on those logical partitions?

thanks for your reply

they are just my drives with ntfs format, nothing else,
my last drive (sda8) is empty, and I want to allocate it for my ubuntu, but I couldn't do it,

[carl4926]

thanks for your reply

they are just my drives with ntfs format, nothing else,
my last drive (sda8) is empty, and I want to allocate it for my ubuntu, but I couldn't do it,

Honestly it's not a pretty sight.
But obviously you need to format sda8.
But if Gparted isn't seeing the partitions, I think I agree that your partition table needs re-setting.

But tell us, if you go this route with the installer
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Ubuntu/12.10_tips/12.10_advanced.png

Do you see your partitions like this
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Ubuntu/12.10_tips/12.10_set_root_home.png
(ignore the text for now)

[I&U]

Honestly it's not a pretty sight.
But obviously you need to format sda8.
But if Gparted isn't seeing the partitions, I think I agree that your partition table needs re-setting.

But tell us, if you go this route with the installer
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Ubuntu/12.10_tips/12.10_advanced.png

Do you see your partitions like this
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Ubuntu/12.10_tips/12.10_set_root_home.png
(ignore the text for now)

Yes I went there but as I said above it just shows me a raw hard disk named /dev/sda and with no partitions on it, and I just can make new partitions on it so this will cause data loss of course,

I formatted sda8 with disk utility but didn't help.

[carl4926]

So
In windows, you can see the partitions? No errors reported?

Not sure what your best move is or at least how that can be done from windows ( I don't use it)

Perhaps @dino99 has idea

[dino99]

how that hdd partitionned ? (extended, how many primary)

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/faq.php

[I&U]

how that hdd partitionned ? (extended, how many primary)

one primary and extended part includes three drives and some unallocated part,
I used fdisk, as u mentiond before, to delete my last drive (sda8) which became the unparitioned part, and I created new partition there, but no result, still G-Parted and ubuntu installation dont detect my hard properly and my hdd is still unallocated and raw with no drives, but correct in disk utility.

more:
I cant delete new partition from disk utility, when I do it it gives me this warning again:
(can't have a partition outside the disk!)

[darkod]

It obviously thinks there is a partition outside the disk, although according to sfdisk doesn't seem so.

You can try what parted shows from live mode, and also fixparts:

sudo parted -l

www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/

[I&U]

It obviously thinks there is a partition outside the disk, although according to sfdisk doesn't seem so.

You can try what parted shows from live mode, and also fixparts:

sudo parted -lwww.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/ (http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/)

sudo parted -l
reported this:
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!

****** AND

sudo fixparts /dev/sda
reported this:

MBR command (? for help): p

** NOTE: Partition numbers do NOT indicate final primary/logical status,
** unlike in most MBR partitioning tools!

** Extended partitions are not displayed, but will be generated as required.

Disk size is 976771055 sectors (465.8 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x33043303
MBR partitions:

Can Be Can Be
Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Logical Primary Code
1 * 63 102398309 primary Y Y 0x07
5 102398373 307194929 logical Y Y 0x07
6 307194993 501581429 logical Y 0x07
7 501581493 697783274 logical Y 0x07
8 697785400 900000000 logical Y Y 0x83

[jmore9]

You should try to download the gparted live cd and burn it to a cd and use that. I use it all the time on windows and linux machines.

[darkod]

Sometimes all it needs is to rewrite the same table again. The fixparts output looks fine, if you select 'w' to write the table as it is, it should be fine.

But before doing that it's always a good advice to make a full backup of your system and data, just in case.

[I&U]

Sometimes all it needs is to rewrite the same table again. The fixparts output looks fine, if you select 'w' to write the table as it is, it should be fine.

But before doing that it's always a good advice to make a full backup of your system and data, just in case.

thanks, really thank u
It worked ...

I rewrote the partition table on itself,
now I can see my hdd with partitions corrctly as it is in the ubuntu installation.

[carl4926]

thanks, really thank u
It worked ...

I rewrote the partition table on itself,
now I can see my hdd with partitions corrctly as it is in the ubuntu installation.

Still looks like something the Dog dumped though :-)

Show us a screen of what you see in Gparted now

[I&U]

Still looks like something the Dog dumped though :-)

Show us a screen of what you see in Gparted now

I took a screenshot of my ubuntu installlation page.
thanks again ;)

[carl4926]

So maybe you plan to delete sda8 and then create:

swap 2GB or thereabouts
ext4 to use all the remainder for /