Question

5

No partitions showing during installation

rated 0 times [ 5] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 12342 / 2 Years ago, wed, october 5, 2022, 3:04:18

I have a HP EliteBook 8570w with Windows7 pre-installed. when I try to install ubuntu from either a disk or a USB-stick, it skips the third step and I don't get to see any partitions at all:

Installation window

The output of sudo fdisk -lu:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disk identifier: 0xb760cea1



   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/sda1   *        2048      616447      307200    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda2          616448   210339044   104861298+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda3       210339840   959995903   374828032   83  Linux

/dev/sda4       959995904   976773119     8388608   82  Linux swap / Solaris



Disk /dev/sdb: 24.0 GB, 24015495168 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2919 cylinders, total 46905264 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: 0x57000000



Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

The output of sudo parted -l:

Model: ATA WDC WD5000BPKT-6 (scsi)

Disk /dev/sda: 500GB

Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B

Partition Table: msdos



Number  Start   End    Size    Type     File system     Flags

 1      1049kB  316MB  315MB   primary  ntfs            boot

 2      316MB   108GB  107GB   primary  ntfs

 3      108GB   492GB  384GB   primary  ext4

 4      492GB   500GB  8590MB  primary  linux-swap(v1)





Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label                                  



Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sr0

has been opened read-only.

Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!

What I've tried:

sudo gdisk /dev/sda2:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disk identifier: 0xb760cea1



   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/sda1   *        2048      616447      307200    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda2          616448   210339044   104861298+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda3       210339840   959995903   374828032   83  Linux

/dev/sda4       959995904   976773119     8388608   82  Linux swap / Solaris



Disk /dev/sdb: 24.0 GB, 24015495168 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2919 cylinders, total 46905264 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: 0x57000000



Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

chdisk /f

In Windows I've tried this but it also didn't solve my problem.

Setting my SATA mode from RAID to AHCI

This didn't work out either. I had to reset it to RAID to get Windows7 working again

Installing 12.04 instead of 13.04

But the problem keeps persisting

Disabling my SLC mSATA cache module

Windows wouldn't start again and the problem persisted

If anyone could provide me with an answer I would be delighted. Thank you in advance.

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answered 2 Years ago taigysel · Accepted Answer

You also have the 4 primary partition issue.

My laptop already has 4 primary partitions: how can I install Ubuntu?

Be sure to create recovery DVD(s) first as well as a Windows repair CD.

HP Tools Partition discussion

If you shrink Windows using Windows disk tools and backup HP tools. You can then use gparted to create one large extended partition and have many logical partitions. You can restore HP tools in one if you want. You can make a shared NTFS data partition if you want and you can install Ubuntu in / (root), swap and /home again if you want that as a separate partition.

Update:

If system was an Ultrabook it has Intel SRT which somehow uses RAID. You need to turn off the SRT and then remove the meta-data on both drives. If still booting Windows you can turn SRT back on and it should work.

sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda

sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sdb

Some other issues can be dynamic or LDM partitions if you used Windows to create extra partitions, or left over gpt backup partition table where drive was gpt and you use Windows install in MBR mode.