Installer doesnt detect my windows partitions in /dev/sda

Question

In the installer I have no option to install Ubuntu alongside Windows (I have Windows 7). After clicking on Something else I can see that my Windows is installed on /dev/sda2 and the installer didn't notice it. I think it checked /dev/sdb for my OS but it didn't find it.

How can I get the installer to notice my OS?

With every option it says that it didn't detect any operating systems. I already have "taken" some memory and have free space (100GB).

Your other question was marked a duplicate; did you read the duplicate question & its answers? The most likely answer to your question [in my opinion] 'why isn't windows seen by installer' I can see is already provided in the answer to your other question (in the duplicate link), so we should we type the same thing out again?. If you have questions, ask them rather than repeating the same question (ask in comments, edit & change your question & put why you don't think it's duplicate, or better what you read, didn't understand [of the marked duplicate] or why you believe things don't apply) — guiverc, Dec 29 '18 at 11:18
Possible duplicate of "Install alongside" option missing. How do I install Ubuntu beside Windows using "Something Else"? -- prior question is https://askubuntu.com/questions/1105170/install-checking-dev-sdb-and-my-os-is-on-dev-sda2 — guiverc, Dec 29 '18 at 11:19
possibly see also Why does the Ubuntu installer not detect the hard drive during installation? — Zanna, Dec 29 '18 at 18:48

Mike Slinn · Answer 1 · 2018-12-29T19:42:45.320

I perceive this question as being slightly different from the alleged duplicate post, and since I encountered (and solved) exactly this issue yesterday, but not the issue described in the previous post, I will share my findings here. The warning that the NTFS drive was possibly damaged was disturbing but irrelevant. I found layers of issues, where fixing one problem revealed the next problem.

The key issue is that Ubuntu needs an AHCI SATA controller, which was not the default, and the laptop was configured at the factory to use a RAID SATA controller.

I have a Dell XPS 15 (9570) that I am installing Ubuntu on as a dual boot with Windows 10. These instructions were correct and complete. I thought that I would skip steps 2-4 and just change the SATA controller from RAID to AHCI in the BIOS without going into Windows Safe Mode - that was a mistake. Below I have paraphrased the steps that I followed from the reference I provided, which you will have to adapt if you do not have a Dell XPS 15:

Start Windows 10.
Press the Windows key and paste ‘Change advanced Startup Options’.
Click ‘Restart Now’- your computer will switch a blue screen with some options.
Click Troubleshoot -> Startup Settings -> Restart — This will restart your computer.
When you see the Dell logo appear start pressing F2 repeatedly until you get into the Dell BIOS Settings.
Once you see the BIOS menu, go to System Configuration -> SATA Operation and change it from ‘Raid On’ to ‘AHCI’
Click Exit and Save. Your computer will reboot again.

I did not encounter any BitLocker issues, even though the NTFS partition was encrypted with BitLocker. The rest of the article I reference discussed the additional instructions necessary complete the Ubuntu installation - but I did not follow those instructions since I did not encounter video stability issues. I did find that my mouse stopped after 10 seconds, but after installing XFCE4 and switching to XFCE windows manager that went away. I prefer XFCE4 anyway.

Installer doesnt detect my windows partitions in /dev/sda

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