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:
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.
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.
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.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1970636
If you read this thread, the moderators answer to the OP suggests that if you run gparted from a live cd / usb and partition your drives yourself beforehand, it will solve this glitch, and also speed up the install process, since it can now use the swap partition to speed up the process.
Google how to make a gparted live usb/cd, whichever you prefer, and format your partitions with however much space you want for the root system, a separate /home if you like, and a swap formatted partition equal to the amount of ram you have, measured in GiB (according to the moderator in the linked forum thread).