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I'm trying to dual boot Ubuntu 14.10 on my computer. I have Windows 7 installed and shrunk my main partition to leave a roughly 250 Gb gap (Unallocated).

Partitioned as such:

  • Recovery (20 GB)
  • System Reserved (100 MB)
  • Windows Main (1132.96 GB)
  • Unallocated (244.14 GB)

I would post an image of my disk from Disk Management (on Windows) but I don't have enough "reputation".

I go and launch the liveCD and when I try to install, it doesn't give me an option to install alongside. When I try "something else" my partition table is completely empty.

I've been searching for a solution but can't find something that fits. I don't have more than four partitions, I'm not formatting the empty space, my hard drive is not dynamic, etc.

No idea what's wrong, any ideas?

Output of lsblk:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0  1.4T  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   20G  0 part 
├─sda2   8:2    0  100M  0 part 
└─sda3   8:3    0  1.1T  0 part 

sr0     11:0    1  1.1G  0 rom  /cdrom
loop0    7:0    0    1G  1 loop /rofs

sudo parted -l:

Model: ATA WDC WD15EADS-22P (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Disk Flags: 
Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  21.5GB  21.5GB  primary  ntfs         diag
 2      21.5GB  21.6GB  105MB   primary  ntfs         boot
 3      21.6GB  1238GB  1217GB  primary  ntfs

Model: ATAPI DVD A DH16AASH (scsi)
Disk /dev/sr0: 1163MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: mac

Disk Flags: 
Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name   Flags
 1      2048B   6143B   4096B                Apple
 2      1152MB  1155MB  2327kB               EFI
thepurpleowl
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Laurie
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  • Could you post the outputs of `lsblk` and `sudo parted -l` from you live system? Enter the commands in a terminal and edit your question to provide the output. – Byte Commander Mar 17 '15 at 18:05
  • Added the outputs. Tried to format them as nicely as possible. Thanks for replying! – Laurie Mar 17 '15 at 18:27
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    Nooo... Not nice enough! ;-) Please use "code formatting". For multiple lines, you do this by either starting every line with 4 spaces ( ) or by selecting the whole output block and click the `<$>` button. Thank you. Or just edit it in without changing anything so that the formatting stays intact in the edit window and someone else will edit the necessary markdown format. - PS: Copy it again from the terminal, because you already destroyed the original formatting... – Byte Commander Mar 17 '15 at 18:30
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    It is now obvious that it correctly recognizes the drive and all other partitions, but sees no unpartitioned space. I would try now to boot back into Windows and create a partition in the unallocated area. Just an empty partition without file system or formatting. Then try the Ubuntu installer again and see whether you can now enter the "Something else..." option and replace that empty partition. If that doesn't help, maybe your partition table is somehow corrupt or strange. I am not sure how we would have to preceed if that was the case either... – Byte Commander Mar 17 '15 at 18:35
  • Very nice now. This is exactly how it should look like to be clear and understandable. Good! :-) – Byte Commander Mar 17 '15 at 18:53
  • Could it be the fact that I already have three used NTFS partitions? It still didn't work. – Laurie Mar 17 '15 at 18:54
  • You have three primary partitions, but that should not be a problem as you can have up to 4 primary partitions on a msdos-partitioned (with MBR) device. Ubuntu should also be installable without swap partition, I think (but not recommended). However, that should not prevent it from not working like this. – Byte Commander Mar 17 '15 at 19:04
  • @LaurentiuAnton: Are you using Microsoft Dynamic disks??? – Fabby Mar 17 '15 at 19:11
  • Not that I'm aware of. Disk Management in Windows 7 says my disks are Basic, _not_ Dynamic. – Laurie Mar 17 '15 at 19:17
  • Do you use hibernation? Fast boot? – Fabby Mar 17 '15 at 19:25
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    Full shutdown and boot only my friend. – Laurie Mar 17 '15 at 19:27
  • Have you tried: 1/ Take full system back-up. 2/ Boot Ubuntu Live CD, option "try Ubuntu", `gparted`, post link to screenshot here in comments... (the full system back-up is because I've got a bad feeling about this) – Fabby Mar 17 '15 at 19:40
  • GParted and Disks on Ubuntu both see the partitioning I describe but I still don't get the desired option when installing. – Laurie Mar 17 '15 at 22:29
  • Please share screenshot of what you see after choosing **"Something Else"**. You can still share image which will be added as a link to the question. Make sure your are usning you main HDD(sda) to install Ubuntu – pandafy Dec 28 '17 at 18:01

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