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I have the following partitions:

enter image description here

When trying to install Ubuntu, it failed to read any of them and said "unusable space".

The same from Kubuntu, Arch Linux and OpenSUSE.

I tried to reinstall Windows and restructure my partitions, but I could not delete all of them and I am unsure if I should delete the 39MB "OEM" one and the 100MB "System reserved". I am a novice, so please keep any advice at a minimum knowledge level.

From what others tell me, the primary partition should be C:\ and that might be part of the fault

updated screen

Gaff
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andrei
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    You are only allowed 4 primary partitions on a disk. – David Schwartz Oct 09 '11 at 17:18
  • @DavidSchwartz yes but I only have 1 and it's not even the right one! – andrei Oct 09 '11 at 17:21
  • How did you establish that? I strongly suspect your first four partitions are all [primary](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning#Primary_partition). – David Schwartz Oct 09 '11 at 17:22
  • @DavidSchwartz The print screen does not include this but there is a legend for that program(Disk Management in Win7).Blue means primary, that weird yellow means simple volume and black is unallocated – andrei Oct 09 '11 at 17:25
  • If you right-click on the unallocated space, does it let you allocate it? – David Schwartz Oct 09 '11 at 17:56
  • @DavidSchwartz yes, it makes another simple volume, i made it unallocated on purpose hoping to install ubuntu on it – andrei Oct 09 '11 at 20:07

3 Answers3

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(People please read the image more carefully.)

The OP's real problem is that the disk is Dynamic instead of basic. This is a M$ proprietary format that builds on GPT. For OSes that do not support it the whole disk is seen filled with a big data partition and a small one for metadata.

The OP should first convert the disk to a Basic one in GPT and then you should be able to create a partition in the unused space with your Linux installer.

If your BIOS does not support GPT, you should convert the disk to use MBR partition table and convert partition D: to an logic partition in an extended partition. Then the extended partition can be expanded to include the unused space and another logic partition for Linux.

billc.cn
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  • Any recommendations ? How should i do this how should i format my HDD (which software) ? – andrei Oct 10 '11 at 07:56
  • Dynamic discs do not imply the EFI partition table format. They can employ either partitioning scheme, and the partitioning scheme used here is largely irrelevant (given that Ubuntu can handle both the EFI and the old PC/AT MBR scheme, and the version of Windows in use _clearly_ can handle whatever currently exists). – JdeBP Oct 10 '11 at 10:49
  • You don't have to format the disk. Windows can convert it back for you. Just right click on the grey area saying "Disk 0 Dynamic ..." and select "Convert to Basic disk...". – billc.cn Oct 10 '11 at 13:35
  • @billc.cn that whole area is gray i cannot do anything – andrei Oct 10 '11 at 15:51
  • Hope this screen cap helps: http://img.skitch.com/20111010-ens4i4xubqbh1mdjxaiwgcifn2.png – billc.cn Oct 10 '11 at 16:41
  • @billc.cn the only thing i can select from that list is Properties and Help i cannot modify the partitions ! – andrei Oct 10 '11 at 17:38
  • I think Windows is imposing this limitation because this is your boot drive. You may have to use a Windows PE disk to boot the system and do the conversion there. – billc.cn Oct 10 '11 at 19:18
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This was my answer http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php, made a boot cd and completely re-wrote my partition table. now i have 4 primary partitions and i was able to install windows and ubuntu in parallel

andrei
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-2

Just run Ubuntu 14.04 from a Live CD

Open the terminal and run the following commands - 

sudo fixparts /dev/sda

and then press the key w

Ramhound
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Ashish
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