Unable to create a new partition table

[noahmcbadass]

I have recently acquired a used laptop and have been attempting to install Ubuntu onto it; however, when I reach step 4 in the installation stage I am not given any options, and instead forcied directly to the "something else" section. In addition, I have no disk to partition, it would seem. I will be the first to admit I have no idea what I am doing. Please help.
262479

[Elizine]

Hi,

Please refer to the installation guide of Ubuntu -http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/install-ubuntu-desktop

[deadflowr]

Go to the top icon in the left pane (the icon that looks like Ubuntu logo) and click it to open the Ubuntu menu.
Then type "Terminal" and press enter.
Now in the Terminal run this command

sudo parted -l
post the output here if you please.

[noahmcbadass]

Go to the top icon in the left pane (the icon that looks like Ubuntu logo) and click it to open the Ubuntu menu.
Then type "Terminal" and press enter.
Now in the Terminal run this command

sudo parted -l
post the output here if you please.

262489

[Bashing-om]

noahmcbadass; Does not look good for the home team !

We can assume that the 31.X drive given the identifier 'sda' is in fact a USB thumb drive. As it is the only device seen we can "assume" that bios is not able to pass on to the operating system anything about the internal hard drive.

So, what does bios have about the internal hard drive ? Is it listed in the bios settings utility ?

No ? Then it is open the box up - might be tough - and check the connections that they are tight and clean these at both the drive end and at the controller.
maybe the controller port is 'bad' ?
A bit of a hassle but if cleaning does not reveal the internal drive in bios, tear it open again and swap to a different controller port .

Worst case situation: The controller on the hard drive is non-functional and OR the hard drive it's self has failed.

Until bios accepts the hard drive, there is nothing



the operating system can do

[noahmcbadass]

Thank you all for the help! I've determined that the laptop's hard drive was shot and managed to fix the issue by replacing the hard drive. Thanks much.

[Bashing-om]

noahmcbadass; Good deal !

Pleased you have resolution.

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