Ubuntu installation without whole hard drive formatting

[gexgik]

Hi guys! I am a new commer in this great ubuntu world and need some help. I decided to get rid of the old pirated windows 7 and to install ubuntu. I have created a bootable usb with ubuntu 11 and i am posting this from it right now. I have erased the windows 7 by formatting that partition. The problem is that i've decided to install ubuntu(now is running from usb) and it looks like when I am running the installer it is only the possibility of formatting whole hard drive.I've allready formatted the 116 gb partition where windows was installed. I don't want to format the hard disk. Can anyone help me to install definitely Ubuntu?! Thank you and if I wasn't clear enough I will give more details about my problem. (sorry for the english mistakes)

[sanderd17]

You will probably need to go to the manual mode. Can you post the output of the boot info script? Follow the instuctions on this page: http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/

[gexgik]

                  Boot Info Script 0.60    from 17 May 2011


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

 => Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
 => Syslinux MBR (4.04 and higher) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:   According to the info in the boot sector, sda3 has 
                       409597951 sectors, but according to the info from 
                       fdisk, it has 409600383 sectors.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sda4: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:   According to the info in the boot sector, sda4 has 
                       614399999 sectors, but according to the info from 
                       fdisk, it has 614402847 sectors.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sdb1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  SYSLINUX 4.04 2011-04-18
    Boot sector info:   Syslinux looks at sector 520 of /dev/sdb1 for its 
                       second stage. SYSLINUX is installed in the  directory. 
                       The integrity check of the ADV area failed. No errors 
                       found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /syslinux/syslinux.cfg /ldlinux.sys

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
224 heads, 19 sectors/track, 293764 cylinders, total 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot  Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors  Id System

/dev/sda1    *          2,048       208,543       206,496   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2             206,848   226,265,983   226,059,136   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3         226,263,040   635,863,423   409,600,384   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda4         635,860,992 1,250,263,839   614,402,848   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS

/dev/sda1 overlaps with /dev/sda2
/dev/sda2 overlaps with /dev/sda3
/dev/sda3 overlaps with /dev/sda4
/dev/sda4 ends after the last sector of /dev/sda

Drive: sdb _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 1006 MB, 1006632960 bytes
65 heads, 32 sectors/track, 945 cylinders, total 1966080 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot  Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors  Id System

/dev/sdb1    *             32     1,966,079     1,966,048   6 FAT16


"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL

/dev/loop0                                              squashfs   
/dev/sda1        6c91c171-53a4-464b-a91c-5a7db88f6787   ext4       linux2
/dev/sda2        6ffc4b62-f964-4bfc-972c-805bf39ee8f3   ext4       linux
/dev/sda3        EC28E77528E73CE8                       ntfs       WorkSpace
/dev/sda4        FAA8E4C1A8E47D8F                       ntfs       FunSpace
/dev/sdb1        1076-05BD                              vfat       PENDRIVE

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/loop0       /rofs                    squashfs   (ro,noatime)
/dev/sda1        /media/linux2            ext4       (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sda2        /media/linux             ext4       (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sda3        /media/WorkSpace         fuseblk    (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_permissions)
/dev/sda4        /media/FunSpace          fuseblk    (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_permissions)
/dev/sdb1        /cdrom                   vfat       (ro,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)


========================= sdb1/syslinux/syslinux.cfg: ==========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# D-I config version 2.0
include menu.cfg
default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 50

# If you would like to use the new menu and be presented with the option to install or run from USB at startup, remove # from the following line. This line was commented out (by request of many) to allow the old menu to be presented and to enable booting straight into the Live Environment! 
# ui gfxboot bootlogo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

================= sdb1: Location of files loaded by Syslinux: ==================

           GiB - GB             File                                 Fragment(s)

            ?? = ??             ldlinux.sys                                    1
            ?? = ??             syslinux/gfxboot.c32                           1
            ?? = ??             syslinux/syslinux.cfg                          1
            ?? = ??             syslinux/vesamenu.c32                          1

============== sdb1: Version of COM32(R) files used by Syslinux: ===============

 syslinux/gfxboot.c32               :  COM32R module (v4.xx)
 syslinux/vesamenu.c32              :  COM32R module (v4.xx)

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

/home/ubuntu/Desktop/boot_info_script.sh: line 1579: [: 2.73495e+09: integer expression expected

I want to keep the partitions created in Windows .

[sanderd17]

I don't know what you did, but this seems pretty bad. How did you erase your windows?

Partitions should not overlap each other.

 

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
224 heads, 19 sectors/track, 293764 cylinders, total 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot  Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors  Id System

/dev/sda1    *          2,048       208,543       206,496   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2             206,848   226,265,983   226,059,136   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3         226,263,040   635,863,423   409,600,384   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda4         635,860,992 1,250,263,839   614,402,848   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS

/dev/sda1 overlaps with /dev/sda2
/dev/sda2 overlaps with /dev/sda3
/dev/sda3 overlaps with /dev/sda4
/dev/sda4 ends after the last sector of /dev/sda

[gexgik]

by formatting it's partition with Disk Utility

[sanderd17]

Well, something went wrong.

Are you still able to access the files on the non-erased partitions? In that case, make sure you have a backup, because the chances are high that you are going to lose everything while trying to repair it.

Now, Disk utility is incapable of creating an ext4 partition, so sda1 and sda2 are certainly wrong. Normally, when you erased it, it should say that they are "unallocated".

I would suggest to start gparted (it's in one of the menus, depends on what interface you are using) and try to resize partitions and apply changes until you don't see those messages of "X overlaps with Y".

[gexgik]

I can access the files. gparted says to me that the 596 gb are unallocated. so it isn't any method to format that free space and install ubuntu on it?

[sanderd17]

you can format the whole disk, but in the previous process with the Disk Utility, something went wrong and Ubuntu is in any case not able to solve it.

Are you still able to access the files on those partitions?

[gexgik]

yes

[sanderd17]

Well, backup those.

And I found a tool that will probably be useful: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Install it from the software center, and try what you can do with it. I have never needed to repair broken partitions, so I don't know how it works to be honest.