Ubuntu dual boot issues

Printable View

05-02-2010
ThePyroGuy

Ubuntu dual boot issues

*WARNING* Very complex.

Alright. I've got a computer with 2 drives, a 120 GB and a 40 GB.The 120 is sda and the 40 is sdb. The 120 used to hold Windows and Ubuntu Karmic Koala. I attempted to update to Lucid Lynx, but GRUB was installed to the wrong place. I attempted to reinstall GRUB, but it failed. I took my files off of both partitions on the 120 and reformatted. I installed Windows, then attempted to install Ubuntu. However, Ubuntu's installer wanted to install to the 40 GB and wipe the drive in the process. I told it not to, went into GParted, and set up a 55 GB partition on the 120, leaving Windows some space. Now I have the two partitions on the 120, one empty and one with Windows. I tried the installer again and it still didn't work. I tried setting the partitions to be bootable. No change. I tried changing the format to NTFS and then to Linux 0x83. Nothing worked. I then changed it to an Extended partition, and that didn't work either. I feel like I'm missing something here. Can anyone help?

If I need to, I'm very willing to wipe the drive again and reinstall everything.
Also, I can post screenshots or other info if you'd like.

Thanks in advance!
05-02-2010
devils casper

Hi and Welcome !

We have to check existing partition structure of your Hard disk first.
Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD and execute fdisk -l command in Terminal

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

Post output here.

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

Aren't you selecting Manual partitioning in Partition section? You can assign / mount point to ext3 partition. There is an option to specify location of GRUB too. Installer asks for GRUB location at later stage of installation. You can specify 120GB disk there.
05-03-2010
ThePyroGuy

Think I found a bigger problem...

Either I have a bigger problem than I ever imagined or I happened upon a prototype hard drive with over 18,446,743 terabytes of hard drive space.

Ran fdisk, here's the output

Code:

Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5 Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5 Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00099acf Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 7296 58604096 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 7297 14589 58581022+ 85 Linux extended /dev/sda5 ? 7706 127087 958924038+ 70 DiskSecure Multi-Boot Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40000000000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4863 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x09e109e0 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 4862 39053983+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

When it starts to get interesting is when I run Disk Utility. According to it, I have a 120 GB drive with one 60GB partition for Windows and another 60GB partition that is Extended. Under the Extended partition is 3 sub partitions (none of which I ever created). One is free and 3.4 GB, one is unknown and 982 GB, the last is free and 18,446,743 terabytes. Hmmm. That's a problem.

I can't reformat the 60 GB partition without deleting the 982 GB partition. An attempt to delete the supposed 982 GB partition failed, returning the following error:

Code:

Error erasing: helper exited with exit code 1: In part_del_partition: device_file=/dev/sda, offset=63380383232 Entering MS-DOS parser (offset=0, size=120000000000) MSDOS_MAGIC found looking at part 0 (offset 1048576, size 60010594304, type 0x07) new part entry looking at part 1 (offset 60011642880, size 59986967040, type 0x85) Entering MS-DOS extended parser (offset=60011642880, size=59986967040) readfrom = 60011642880 MSDOS_MAGIC found readfrom = 1060076475904 lseek failed (Invalid argument) Exiting MS-DOS extended parser looking at part 2 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00) new part entry looking at part 3 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00) new part entry Exiting MS-DOS parser MSDOS partition table detected got it Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk! ped_disk_new() failed

Also, in the installer, I was selecting Manual Partitioning, however, only the 40 GB drive was showing up.

EDIT: Added screenshot of Disk Utility.
05-03-2010
ThePyroGuy

At a guess, I'd say my hard drive is corrupted or totally broken. But then why did Windows install flawlessly?
05-03-2010
devils casper

I don't think anything is wrong with your Hard disk. You have created Raid-0 type partition ( Id 70 ). Have you tried to delete /dev/sda5 through Disk Utility package of Ubuntu?
05-03-2010
ThePyroGuy

I tried.

The 982 GB partition is /dev/sda5. Trying to delete it gave the error message in my previous message. The 11 million TB whatever is free space and cannot be deleted,
05-04-2010
ThePyroGuy

SMART data check results

SMART data turned up 2 bad sectors. There's the problem. I'm going to shut down and boot into Windows to attempt recovery.
05-04-2010
devils casper

Did you use LiveCD to delete that partition?
Do let us know how it goes.
05-04-2010
ThePyroGuy

Quote:

Originally Posted by devils casper

Did you use LiveCD to delete that partition?

I think that you are talking about the 982 GB partition, and it gave me the error message and didn't delete it. Windows only recognized its own 60 GB partition, but CHKDSK turned up some problems with it that it fixed. I haven't yet tried to install Ubuntu again, but I will tonight when I get home.
05-11-2010
ThePyroGuy

Still not working.

It still didn't work. Same thing as before. However, shortly thereafter the computer died pretty entirely. I can't even get to the BIOS. Ah well. C'est la guerre.