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I am trying to install ubuntu alongside but the option is not available and I have no knowledge to shrink partitions / mess us with dual boot etc.

i read somewhere "I think that you already have 4 primary partitions for Windows 7 (Ubuntu cannot create its partitions because you cannot create more than 4 primary partitions) and so Ubuntu can't show you automatically to install along Windows 7."

now my hd is like this

1- no name 39 MB (oem partition)

2- OS (C:) 80 GB (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

3- Data (D:) 180 GB (Primary Partition

4- Recovery 15 GB (System, Active, Primary Partition)

5- Unallocated 20 GB

What I tried is to create a partition with the unallocated space but there is a pop up windows telling me that the partition will be dynamics and no OS can be installed there, I left it unallocated and from linux is unavailable, plus the option alongside windows is still not available.

can someone explain me step by step how to do the alongside installation without go for the dual boot one?

thanks

Davide
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1 Answers1

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Ubuntu don't need to be on an primary partition. Just boot with live disk and choose to install.

Option 1 :

  • Select "Something else" to manually edit the partition table.
  • Select the unallocated space and create a new partition.
  • The partition format should be "ext4" or "ext3"
  • Select / the mount option from drop down.
  • Then just install ubuntu onto that. A warning may be shown for SWAP space.

Option 2:

This is what I strongly recommend :

use a partition manager tool to boot and convert your data volume to extended partition. Because anyway it will always be data and will not be needed to boot any OS.

After that you can create a primary partition using unallocated space. You can also convert it to extended partition. Data Volume and this new partition will be inside extended partition (I assume your RECOVERY partition is not in between unallocated space and Data partition).

No you can use "run ubuntu alongside windows" option.

One tool I know that can do the conversion efficiently is Acronics Disk director (Paid program). Its very easy to use.

Web-E
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  • Hi, I didn't get your procedure, first you say to select something else and install ubuntu. after to do all the partitions changes with acronis and at the end of it I will be able to use 'run alongside', what is the point if it will be already installed as 'something else' option? – Davide Mar 29 '12 at 09:40
  • actually there are two option .. just edited – Web-E Mar 29 '12 at 12:29
  • ok I am trying to do the second option,

    what i have done is to delete the oem partition which now is unallocated space (windows then has only 3 partitions), and I created a logical partition with the 20Giga available

    Now ubuntu gives me the alongside option, what i didn't understand when is asked to drag left/right the space to assign to ubuntu,

    on the left it gives the data as sda4 and on the right ubuntu as sda5 (logical) but the total amount of giga in the slider are taken from sda4 data and not using the 20 giga of sda5

    will this erase the data partition in some way?

     – Davide Mar 29 '12 at 15:44
  • ok. Click on sda5 (20Gig) and choose delete. After refreshing that 20Gb will be noted as free space. Click on that and then click on Add, now give a small amount of space like 1GB and choose file system as swap. Then again click on free space left after (19GB) , click add , now choose file system as ext4 and mounting option as / . Now click on 19 GB and choose install . I am attaching my own partition map. U will get the idea -- link – Web-E Mar 29 '12 at 17:01
  • hi, quick update, the installation failed twice, now i turned the data partition to logical so I've got sda4 and sda5 both logical plus the 1GB system swap (what is it for?), I will try from USB as maybe the problem is the dvd. cheers – Davide Mar 29 '12 at 19:10
  • swap space is used by linux for better memory management (Memory Pageing). – Web-E Mar 30 '12 at 02:37
  • finally installed, for some reason he didn't even asked me where to install it and didn't see the slider for the amount of space, hope is all good. Linux made partition by its own this is my hd now, could you let me know if it is all good?

    http://imageshack.us/f/839/capturer.gif/

    thanks

     – Davide Mar 31 '12 at 12:03
  • Its all good I think ubuntu created a swap partition itself. You can either delete 3GB partition (if you have good amount of physical memory(RAM)) or 1GB partition (if you have low RAM) – Web-E Apr 01 '12 at 14:47