Failed installation of Ubuntu 10.10

[PatD]

Hello
I am completely new to Linux but having purchased a magazine on the subject decided to give it a try. I have an old Windows XP laptop with 30GB of hard drive and decided to run Ubuntu 10.10 alongside XP. I allowed about 14GB to each OS but unfortunately part way through the installation process the computer froze and I had to force a shutdown. On restarting the computer there is no option to start Ubuntu, as the installation didn't complete and in XP I now find the hard drive is just 14GB in size with no sign of the other half which I allocated to Ubuntu. Where has half my hard drive space gone??? My query is, if I now try to install Ubuntu again but perhaps use all the hard drive (ie deleting XP) will there only be 14GB available for the installation?
Any information or advice would be much appreciated.
Patrick

[rcgreen]

Most likely the rest of your hard drive is "unpartitioned space"
due to the fact that you had to restart before the installation
was finished. You can probably just boot the install disk and try
again. It will probably allow you to choose whether to use the
whole disk or use the unpartitioned space for linux and dual boot
with your existing Windows installation.

[MASONTX]

If you shut down part way through installation, you will need to reinstall anyway to make sure you don't have errors or missing files. Most likely you don't see the second 14 GB because you shut down before GRUB2 was installed to the MBR to tell the hard drive where the 14 GB are. Like the spagetti sauce commercial says, "It's in there."

[chadfluegge]

When, and if, you do decide to attempt a reinstall, I would recommend that you disable the screensaver.

I have had various distro-installs fail on me before because I did not disable the screensaver.

If it happens again, you may be faced with a hardware issue...such as a failing cdrom drive.

[firbolg]

If and when you do have another go. Before you actually start the install process, open a terminal from the Apps Accessories menu, run this command and look to see if there are now some linux partitions - probably linux and linux-swap

sudo fdisk -l

If you do have some then you can either delete them and start again or use them in the install.

If you do decide to use them pick the manual (or advanced - never remember what it's called) at the partition stage.

You could then edit the existing linux partition - giving ot a mountpoint of /

[PatD]

Thank you to all those who posted advice. I tried to install again, this time using the entire hard drive and was encouraged to see that there was the full 28GB available. However, the installation froze again, twice, shortly after starting (I hadn't even reached the "Who are you?" screen). In desperation I dug out a disk for version 8.10 that I had from an earlier time of thinking about installing Ubuntu, thinking that maybe the disk was at fault but the same thing happened again. So perhaps I have to admit defeat because the computer is too old and the spec. too low. Ah well, back to Windows (well half of it at least!)
Patrick

[MASONTX]

Don't give up. Unless you are on a really ancient computer, we can find a linux version that will work for you. What are your specs? You can also go to distrowatch.com and search for "old computers" plus your chip architecture and preference as to desktop and see their recommendations.

[PatD]

Don't give up. Unless you are on a really ancient computer, we can find a linux version that will work for you. What are your specs? You can also go to distrowatch.com and search for "old computers" plus your chip architecture and preference as to desktop and see their recommendations.

Thanks for your encouragement. I tried again today to use the Ubuntu 10.10 disk and this time I managed to complete the whole process. I hadn't done anything to the computer between times but miraculously it worked. It's a very slow, old (10 years maybe) computer with very little RAM (352 MB) and it has always been temperamental but on this occasion it was on its best behaviour. Now I have to learn how to use Ubuntu so maybe expect some more posts in the near future asking for help!
Many thanks once again.
Patrick

[yancek]

in XP I now find the hard drive is just 14GB in size

Windows default does not recognize Linux filesystems which is why you only saw 14GB.
If you go to the Ubuntu page, you will see the minimum hardware requirement for RAM is 512MB with 1GB recommended. Glad you got it installed but with the amount of RAM you have, you can expect problems.

[MASONTX]

YOu might want to look at Mint LXDE or Lubuntu with that amount of ram.