Overlapping partitions can't install ubuntu

[dink123]

Hi, when I try to install ubuntu it doesn't detect the windows OS and doesn't show up harddisk partitions as well. I think the issue is due to partition overlapping.
Here is the output of fdisk. How do I fix it?

sudo fdisk -lu /dev/sda



Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xde15f6b0


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 219014144 109403648+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 259971072 628623449 184326189 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 628609024 976768064 174079520+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 628611072 751504634 61446781+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

[TheFu]

You have a tough decision to make. Appears the system has already used all 4 primary partitions and Ubuntu needs 2.

I can't tell from the table above (don't feel like doing hte math) - but shrink sda5, and add 15G for sda6 and 2G for sda7 - leave them empty. During the Ubuntu install - when it comes to disk questions - "do something else" is the choice you want. Then put / on sda6 and make sda7 "linux swap". It will work.

Oh - and please, please, please use "code tags" when posting command output here - much easier to read.

fdisk may be incorrect on GPT disks. Use parted going forward until the fixed fdisks are part of every distro installed. It is correct here, so don't worry.

[oldfred]

/dev/sda3 259971072 628623449 184326189 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 628609024 976768064 174079520+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)

Your sda4 starts before the end of sda3. (and sda5 inside sda4 also starts before the end of sda3.
Best case you have not written any data at the end of sda3, but with ext4 it is possible.

Make sure you have good backups.
And you will need to shrink sda3 to one or two sectors less than the start of sda4.

First backup partition table, use your drive for sdX or sda, sdb etc.
sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda > parts_sda.txt

Save that file to external disk.
But sfdisk is is not like the fdisk output which has start & end. sfdisk has start an size, so some math is required.

A few posts from those who really know partitions.

Using sfdisk to fix partition table problems - not without risk
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1192598
Equivalent sfdisk values would keep the start point and convert the end point via the formula size = end - start + 1.
Also fdisk -lu shows start & blocks, blocks * 2 also equals size in sectors

Caljohnsmith using sfdisk to edit partition table from text file
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1036600
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1038943
caljohnsmith and meierfra use sfdisk links:
Exported partition table & reimported to fix with sfdisk.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1591704