Ubuntu 11.10 Installer won't detect Windows 7

[nautica17]

I have a 1TB hard drive with Windows 7 installed on it. When I run the Ubuntu installer, it says it didn't detect Windows or any other OS. In Windows, I shrunk my C volume down and freed up about 200GB (which is unallocated at the moment). This usually works for me, and I've done this since 10.04 whenever I dual boot.

fdisk displays the two partitions that Windows 7 runs on. It doesn't show my unallocated 200GB though. I looked at gparted out of curiousity (running live right now) and it shows that I have an empty 1TB hard drive. So something somewhere is not reading something properly. I simply just want Ubuntu to automatically install side-by-side with 7.

fdisk printout:

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf6eb4065

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848  1534089215   766941184    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

[Mark Phelps]

Messing around with partitioning runs the risk of corrupting the Win7 filesystem, so before you do anything else, use the Win7 Backup feature to create and burn a Win7 Repair CD. This will come in handy later, should you need to repair your Win7 boot loader from the dual boot setup.

What do you see when you open the Disk Utility in Ubuntu? Is the free space shown there?

[Hakunka-Matata]

please post output of

sudo sfdisk -luS && sudo fdisk -l

[LinuxFan999]

What brand is your hard drive? How old is it?

[nautica17]

Okay so to answer all the questions..

The hard drive is a Hitachi 1TB 7200RPM SATA, bought it new 2 years ago. Have never had a single problem with it, but I've never installed anything but Windows on it.

Ubuntu disk utility shows my Windows partitions, and my 200GB of unallocated space that I set aside in Windows. (It actually shows 215GB which is sort of weird because I set exactly 200GB).

The way I created space on my hard drive was using Windows very own utility for doing these things as that is the safest way to do so. This has always worked for me without a hitch, so it doesn't look like Windows was corrupted or anything (but then again you never know). And if anything goes wrong I have a back up disk, or I use EasyBCD to repair MBR.


sudo sfdisk -luS && sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 121601 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0

   Device Boot    Start       End   #sectors  Id  System
/dev/sda1   *      2048    206847     204800   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2        206848 1534089215 1533882368   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
        start: (c,h,s) expected (12,223,20) found (13,163,20)
        end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,239,63)
/dev/sda3             0         -          0   0  Empty
/dev/sda4             0         -          0   0  Empty

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf6eb4065

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848  1534089215   766941184    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

[nautica17]

Here's an update on my situation. I tried a few older versions of Ubuntu and I get the same issue. I'm guessing my problem is one of two things. Either a) the hard drive is the problem, or b) Windows or the MBR has an issue.

Does anybody have any recommendations as to what I should do at this point?

Edit: I just reinstalled MBR, and that didn't help.

[darkod]

I think your issue is that the disk has a GPT partition table and not msdos (the old type).
On top of that, in the windows disk management check if it says the disk is Basic or Dynamic. It wouldn't install easy on dynamic (if it would install at all).

[nautica17]

I think your issue is that the disk has a GPT partition table and not msdos (the old type).
On top of that, in the windows disk management check if it says the disk is Basic or Dynamic. It wouldn't install easy on dynamic (if it would install at all).

In Windows, it says I'm using basic. I've dual booted Ubuntu with 7 and Vista many times in the past though, and I think in every instance I was using a GPT partition table since that is I believe the default nowadays.

I'm wondering if maybe there is a hardware issue. I built this computer 2 years ago, so none of the parts are legacy or anything like that. I'm gonna look in BIOS and see if there is something in there maybe.

Edit: After googling a bit, I think you're right, the GPT is the issue. And it doesn't look like I can convert it back to the old type without data loss.

[Hakunka-Matata]

install gdisk if you don't yet have it. It will convert your guid partition table back to mbr. gdisk is a command line tool, do a "man gdisk", to see how to use it.

[nautica17]

install gdisk if you don't yet have it. It will convert your guid partition table back to mbr. gdisk is a command line tool, do a "man gdisk", to see how to use it.

Cool, I'll definitely look at that!