ubuntu insallation help

[morgan12345]

I dont know if this is the right place to post this, so I appologise if it isnt.

I have a hp pc which came with win7. I want to dualboot it with ubuntu 10.04.
The problem is when i use the live cd and run ubuntus partition editor, i cant create another partition, it says i have 4 already and thats the limit in modern pcs. the 4 are the usual 'c:', 'HP Tools', 'Recovery', 'System'... I didnt create those, they were by default.
The editor says i can create an extended partition. How do i do that? do i need to format my windows partitions? Because I dont have a windows7 installation disc.

I'm aware of the 'ubuntu windows installer', but it says it doesnt support hybernate mode and can be slow. Dont want to do that.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

You have to delete one of the Windows OS partition and create an Extended Partition. You can create a lot of Logical partitions ( around 60 ) in an Extended Partition.

We have to check existing partition structure of your Hard Disk before suggesting anything. Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD, open Terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l

Post output here.

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

[morgan12345]

the structure was like this

/dev/sda:
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda3
/dev/sda4

Theres also sdb but thats my usb flash

Are you telling i need to delete one of these? Because like i said i dont have a win7 disc and need it for some programs. The other partitions (like 'Recovery', 'System') are by HP and im afraid thats some sensitive data as well.

[devils casper]

/dev/sda1 is recovery partition and /dev/sda2 is Windows 7 main partition. What is in /dev/sda4 partition? What is its size?
If /dev/sda4 is a data partition then nothing will go wrong with Windows 7. You don't need Windows 7 disk to delete/resize existing partitions.
Is it possible for you to post complete output of fdisk -l command here?

Copy output of fdisk -l command from Terminal and post here.

[morgan12345]

OK, here:
HTTP: //a.imageshack.us/img571/9342/outf.gif

Im not allowed to post the actual link

[morgan12345]

You there?

[devils casper]

Last partition is very small, its ID is c and has FAT32 filesystem.
What is in the last partition of your Hard disk? It must be last drive listed in My Computer of Windows 7.

[morgan12345]

it's 'HP_TOOLS', but only 3 drives are visible in my computer

[morgan12345]

So the 4 partitions are:

SYSTEM
C
RECOVERY
HP TOOLS

I read in their forums that those are used for 'diagnosing hardware failure' and 'for recovery manager' somewhere else. I wonder what that means and if removing the partition will affect my PC or the warranty.
"The files to run HP Recovery Manager are in the partition.Functions of Recovery Manager include reinstalling your OS and all drivers/apps, creating a set of Recovery DVDs to use in case of hdd failure, etc."

Was it so hard for these guys to think that I might want to install another OS? I'm sure this will make some people give up at this point, it almost made me.

[yancek]

I'm a little surprised you had 4 partitions on your HP OEM install. I have an HP that came with win 7 and it had a small boot partition (100MB) at the beginning of the drive, a 12GB Recovery partition at the end of the drive and the rest of the space was for system files. Looks like the HP Tools partition has been added, at least to your computer.

I don't know but would guess that removing either of these partitions would void your warranty. Also from what I have read, I doubt that HP would be of much assistance in getting Linux to work on the computer.

Was it so hard for these guys to think that I might want to install another OS?

My opinion is that this has historically been the microsoft attitude. Still, it is surprising to me that you had all four primaries used on an OEM install!