Unable to instal Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 on WIndows 7 (Dual Boot)

[yancek]

Let's say the NTFS partition (converted to EXT4) is corrupted and Linux NTFS driver doesn't see it, but why wouldn't the linux installer offer me to shrink the C partition with Windows 7 on?

That is the reason for the manual install option (Somethiing Else). If you want a non-standard installation you need to tell the installer what you want. Generally, the first option is to Erase disk and install whichever OS you are booting from (Ubuntu). I've not used the Install Alongside option but my understanding is that you should have that option if you have unallocated space and should also be offered if you have a valid Linux filesystem on a partition. The installer isn't telepathic so it doesn't know if you want to shrink your primary windows partition. Most users do that with Disk Management in windows, then reboot to test it and probably run chkdsk before trying to install LInux to verify that windows boots. That's a non-standard install and you are always better off using windows tools to manage windows and Linux tools to manage LInux.

[tea for one]

The installer isn't telepathic so it doesn't know if you want to shrink your primary windows partition. Most users do that with Disk Management in windows, then reboot to test it and probably run chkdsk before trying to install LInux to verify that windows boots. That's a non-standard install and you are always better off using windows tools to manage windows and Linux tools to manage LInux.

This is the best bit of advice to try and avoid any difficulty with Windows partitions.

[luke486]

I haven't resized the partitions yet but I deleted the "linux" partition that I had previously created for the sake of installing Ubuntu onto it. So now, apart from regular windows ntfs partitions, there is around 10GB of unallocated space.
I unsuccessfully tried to instal Ubuntu alongside Windows again. I did some printscreens illustrating the process. I put the in the google document to make it clear.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Luaksz.

[luke486]

Sorry for double posting. The format of the forum is somewhat confusing. I was trying to reply to some other user in this thread.

[oldfred]

10GB is really too small to do much.
I have about 8GB used of 30GB in my Ubuntu install, but all data in over 150GB on data partition.
And I aggressively houseclean. Just deleting an ISO I downloaded made my / 2GB larger temporarily.

[ubfan1]

As oldfred had previously mentioned, the old MSDOS partitioning is limited to four primary partitions. You already have the 4 (the extended counts as a primary), so shrinking the C primary will not allow you to make another primary. Only logical partitions may be added, and all of those must be inside the extended partition. so shrink one of those logical partitions, and the Ubuntu installer should find the room it needs.

[luke486]

It doesn't work. I shrank the logical partition D which gave me 20GB of unallocated space, but the Ubuntu installer still isn't able to detect that. Again, it only offers to erase the whole disk (it doesn't see ANY other partitions, inluding the C with Win7 on it).
Basically it looks identical to what I presented in my google doc. Any ideas?

[tea for one]

Did you run chkdsk (Windows tool) on all your Windows partitions?

Is Windows in hibernation?

[Impavidus]

I've been looking at your google drive document (I think it's easier to copy text from the terminal to your forum posts and attatch screenshots), and there's something very weird about your partitioning. You've got 3 primary partitions, 1 extended partition with 2 logical partitions inside and a bit of unallocated space at the end. Nothing strange about that. But the third primary partition (sda3) sits in the middle of the extended partition (sda4). It's positioned on an unallocated part of the extended partition, between sda5 and sda6, so it doesn't directly lead to data corruption, but I doubt this is according to standards and I'm quite sure this will confuse many partitioning tools.

[luke486]

I checked C (no errors). I forgot to check the remaining partitions (I'm doing it now). As for hibernation I'm a bit confused what it means as far as Windows goes. I mean when I turn on my laptop it, Windows 7 boots and it works ...like a regular OS. I've never tried putting it in hibernation (I can't even imagine if it's possible while installation of Ubuntu). I'll run chkdisk and let you know.