Partitions not detected by the Live CD installer

[Baladya]

Hello,

Althought this is Ubuntu's forum, but since it worked on Mint too, I would like to ask for your help.

So I am trying to install Mint on my new Dell Laptop. When I click on "Install Linux Mint" on the desktop and the window opens and asks me to choose language, etc... However It doesn't let me choose If I wanna "install along with windows" or " Remove OS and install Linux" or warever those choises are... It straight ahead goes to the partitioning table and for some reason doesn't show my partitions. GParted, on the other hand, shows the partitions.

Now surprisingly I had the same problem on my desktop pc and I found the solution here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1897023
It says it has to do something with RAID metadata. Now when I tried the solution it worked fine.

Now my Dell laptop has a 500 GB HDD + 32 GB SSD Cache (notice its cache not a normal SSD).
Now I know so little about Linux and little about SSD's (especially cache) so I am not sure If I should apply the same fix on my laptop. Maybe there is a RAID connection between the HDD and the SSD that with that code might stop working. Is this even the right solution for my problem?

Hope someone can help... Thanks in advance


Installation window:

*Notice also that the installer only detects the sdb (SSD cache)



500 GB HDD:




32 SSD cache:

[howefield]

Thread moved to "Other OS/Distro Talk"

[oldfred]

It looks like another one of these. I do not have it but saved these links.

Intel Smart Response Technology & Dell XPS
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2036204
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2020155
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2038121
Some info on re-instating
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2038121
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2070491

Disable the RAID, for me it was using the Intel rapid management thingy and telling it to disable the acceleration or the use of the SSD. If you have a different system, just disable the RAID system then install Ubuntu. Once installed you can then re-enable it.

[Baladya]

Alright thanks mate...

I have a few questions I hope you can answer tho:


1) Will this break my Windows installation like Darkrod says?

2) Will Boot-Repair work with Mint?

3) What's the point of installing the / on the SSD instead of HDD? Will it make the starting up faster? Is it safe?

4) Should I install Linux on the HDD normally or better off install it on the SSD like Tall Person did here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2036204
Note: I have 8 GB RAM. Will it be possible to install the OS on the SSD with that much swap or will I run out of space?

5) Looks like asymptoticFault turned on the IRST successfully here
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2038121
The question here... If I install Linux on the SSD cache, will Windows still be able to use it for cache (IRST)?

Sorry for the many questions but I am afraid of screwing things up :/
Thanks

[oldfred]

It primarily depends on whether you are primarily a Windows user or a Linux user. If Windows then keep the SSD for use with Windows, I really do not know how that works, but it is for Windows.

But if you like & use Ubuntu a lot then installing in the SSD makes sense. I have a 60GB SSD and have Ubuntu (actually two / partitions) in the SSD. Do not put swap on the SSD. With 8GB of RAM you almost never will use the swap but system seems to like to find some, so just create a small 2GB swap on the hard drive.

Boot-Repair I believe works with all Debian versions, not sure about others. It is more the default commands that are included that the scripts rely on.

[Baladya]

hmm....

Alright If I choose to install Linux on the SSD,

1)I won't be installing that much programs on linux
2) When I mentioned swap, it's cuz I would like to be hibernating... should I still use only 2 GB on the HDD?
3) 19 GB free on the SSD so I can try using the IRST on Windows
4) Gonna be installing bootloader on it too.

With the above requirments, could you please draw up a partition table for me including the "/" "/home", "swap", "/boot" or/and whatever I need.
* Also if you look at the partitions (above in the pic above) the SSD, is already partitioned into a 8 GB partition and another 22 GB one... What should I do about them?