I'm trying to install Ubuntu 13.10 alongside Windows 7 on my DELL INSPIRON 14z 5423 laptop and I'm new to all of this.
I'm using the Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit ISO burned onto a CD.
The first time I tried to install it, Ubuntu said it did not detect any other OS, which meant I only had 4 options:
- Erase disk and install Ubuntu (I don't want to do this)
- Encrypt new Ubuntu.
- Use LVM.
- Something else.
If I choose the Something else option, it brings me to the partition menu and says that I have 1 disk with free space of (500Gb), but that's not true because I have Windows 7.
I restarted the laptop several times and booted the CD again and I got exactly the same as I did previously.
How do fix this problem and install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7?
After executing "sudo fdisk -l" command in terminal
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
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: 0xd2b811c5
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 314574847 157184000 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 314574848 629147647 157286400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 629147648 976771071 173811712 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
After removing one partition I executed command once again
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
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: 0xd2b811c5
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 629145599 314469376 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 629147648 976771071 173811712 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
I have WIN7 home perimum os it shows local drive as
If you want to install Ubuntu 13.10, try the live version, go through the installation steps and install Ubuntu. If you have Windows on your machine, it will recognize your Windows system and save its bootloader. I've done the same way on my desktop and my laptop and it went well. I had Windows 7 on both machines.
Hey I just had the same problem. in my case i had to install it along with windows 7 for some software i need and my pc came with windows 8. so before switching to windows 7 i was able to install ubuntu and all went fine, but then, i decided to delete all and install win 7 and then ubuntu and then when i tried to do that, i had that problem, it turns out that when you do that with windows installer it only deletes one part of the partition table and left another, so ubuntu installer get confused and sees your disk as "empty" even when linux kernel is able to see your partitions. After days of googling i found a solution that work just fine for me. please check this:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/
you need to download it and run it. (first i donwloaded in windows but it didnt run properly so i use my live cd of ubuntu to donwload it and install it and then run it)
Follow the steps and the important thing is this command:
fixparts /dev/sda
note that it says sda, in my case, the first hard disk was a. try it. if thats your problem, you will see that it tells you a message that you have letf over info in your partiition table that is not right and if you want to delete it, press y and then, exit it and run your instalator, it worked well for me
hope it helps