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I am trying to dual boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04 . I have Windows 10 pre installed on a 466 GB HDD using Dynamic Disks, with three partitions (150 280 150) approx, and 78 GB unallocated (made by shrinking an existing partition), which you can see at https://imgur.com/a/QQwFDlF

I have made a bootable USB for Ubuntu. Whenever I go to the installation, it doesn't shows me the 'Install Ubuntu Alongside Windows' option, so I chose 'Something else'.

At the time of installation, it shows me only 2 partitions ( One of 125gb and one of remaining 350gb of my hard drive.) I am unable to see other partitions and unallocated space.

ANY SOLUTIONS? PLEASE ASAP.

K7AAY
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Ahsan Tanveer
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    You have dynamic partitions in Windows. It used to be that Linux would not see that at all, but now it can at lease see it. You need to remove dynamic partitions. But first fully backup system. https://askubuntu.com/questions/482768/changing-windows-dynamic-disk-partition-to-basic-partition-and-not-the-full-driv & https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2325331&p=13492758&viewfull=1#post13492758 – oldfred Oct 18 '19 at 20:16
  • Don't use dynamic drives. Back up all data first and follow your own link on Dynamic Disks on how to convert back to Basic disks. Will mean re-installing Windows 10 after that as well. If you haven't made a W10 USB installation drive I'd do that after the data backup as you'll need it.. – Paul Benson Oct 18 '19 at 22:06

2 Answers2

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Conversion of Dynamic disk to Basic disk is the first step, as recommended by Microsoft (who no longer recommend Dynamic Disks): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/basic-and-dynamic-disks

However, first make a backup of your data, then verify it matches the source files. Then, make a second backup to a different destination (drive or cloud), and verify it matches the source files.

While in Windows, download and extract TestDisk, an open source app, then we will follow instructions courtesy of http://surenseven.blogspot.com/2012/11/converting-dynamic-to-basic-disk.html

  1. Launch the testdisk_win.exe app.
  2. A window should open up. Create a log file if you want to or just go ahead without creating one.
  3. Now it must show your physical disk followed by the partitions and of any other devices connected to your PC. TestDisk does a great job of this. It can even detect drives that Windows can't due to various reasons.
  4. Select your physical drive and proceed. TestDisk will automatically figure out your partition table type.
  5. Proceed to the next step and click analyse. It will provide you with the findings. Now hit quicksearch.
  6. Now the trick is to use your arrow keys to toggle between the options. Once you see a ' P' stop and proceed (P for primary) ,select '*' for your system drive which is the active boot partition.
  7. Once you've made your change press enter and toggle with your arrow key to choose 'WRITE".
  8. Restart your PC into Windows.
  9. After it restarts, click Start, type Run, type cmd, and then click OK. On the command line, type chkdsk to scan for errors. If any errors are found, type chkdsk /f on the command line to fix these errors.

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Once conversion to Basic is complete, you can install Ubuntu, starting by booting from a LiveUSB.

In Step 6, Allocate Disk Space, look for the top option, named Install Alongside Windows Boot Manager.

Install Alongside Windows Boot Manager

Choose that top option, which will prompt you for your choice as to how much space Ubuntu should take. Since Ubuntu can mount, read from, and write to the Windows NTFS partitions, you will be able to easily access files in the Windows portion of your drive.

K7AAY
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When you created your partitions, how did you do it? Did you use the Disk Management tool in Windows 10?

Also, when you boot into the thumb drive, are you booting into UEFI or Legacy BIOS? You'll know you are in Legacy (you do not want to be) if one of your partitions shows 'extended'. You will also want to disable your "fast start/quick boot" option in your BIOS if it is enabled. This should allow you to enable UEFI and boot from your drive in UEFI mode.

Once UEFI is enabled, you should see it next to your USB drive's name when you reboot into the boot menu.

Rod Nintendeaux
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  • @road nintendeaux .. I bought a used laptop. So didnt set the partitions myself . Ive changed the boot order from legacy to uefi.. issue is still the same – Ahsan Tanveer Oct 18 '19 at 17:36