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I installed Edubuntu 12.04 alongside windows 7 ultimate on my asus laptop and it worked ok then i tried to do it for two of my friends, both HP and windows 7 ultimate, but instead of showing "install ubuntu alongside windows 7" it says install it inside the Windows OS i want it outside of Windows and to be alongside it, how's that?

Thanks

bayarfaj2004
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    Possible duplicate? - http://askubuntu.com/questions/149821/my-laptop-already-has-4-primary-partitions-how-can-i-install-ubuntu – jrg Oct 12 '12 at 01:28
  • The answers assume you have booted to the CD. Have you booted to the CD, or did you just run the program on the CD in Windows? – nanofarad Oct 12 '12 at 10:21

2 Answers2

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OK.

This is a problem when a Laptop comes with already 4 primary partitions in MBR (cuz GPT has not this limit).

MBR has this limit where you cannot create another primary partition when 4 of them already exists. I bet that your friend(s) laptop have 4 primary partitions. Usually 2 for Windows and 2 are 1) HP-Tools and 2) The Recovery partition.

The easy way is to delete one of the partitions, for example: Recovery Partition - (BUT you will LOSE the ability to recover your Windows) or Hp-tools (but sometimes are useful). Here is the way on how to install Ubuntu when you already have 4 primary partitions and you don't mind to delete one: My disk already has 4 primary partitions, how can I install Ubuntu?

The hard way is to convert the Windows C: partition from primary to Logical.
When you do this , you will be able to create Logical partitions and install Ubuntu normally.

So our goal here is to convert the Windows C: primary partition to Logical and to resize the C: partition to leave a space for Ubuntu installation.

Now take a big breath and read carefully.

  • First of all we must defragment the hard disk to avoid mistakes and tough situations. After defrag finish we proceed.

  • Boot in to Windows and download the free version of Partition Wizard and install it.

  • When installation finish , open the application as an Administrator. (right click and open as administrator)

  • Select the Windows C: partition and right click and modify and select "Set partition as Logical"

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Then a window with 3 options will pop-up . We must select the option with the reboot. . The conversion will be done during reboot , as it cannot be done when partition is mounted.

  • When the process of conversion finish , it will boot again in Windows. We open again the Partition Wizard (as administrators).

  • Now we want to resize the C: partition. So we select the C: partition and then we select move/resize.

enter image description here

Resize the partition always from the end to begin (and never from the begin , cuz there are critical Windows files) and again a window with 3 options will pop-up. Again we select the option with the reboot inside. Because the resize can be done only when partition is unmounted. (during reboot).

  • When resize complete successfully it will boot in to Windows again. Now we open for the last time the Partition Wizard (as administrators) and select the Unallocated space and create a NTFS filesystem (Yes NTFS , no matter we will delete it after, but creation of NTFS decrease the possibilities of a mistake as we are in a Windows Environment). After the creation of filesystem it is time to boot in Ubuntu.

  • Boot in Ubuntu from the LiveCd/Usb and begin the installation process. When you reach the window with the options , select "Something Else"

  • Locate the NTFS partition we created and click "change" . Then allocate the space you want (leave some space for the swap partition) and mount it to root. Do not forget to mark the "Format the partition". Do the same for Swap area.

install2

install

Enjoy Ubuntu !

Community
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NickTux
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    +1 just for all the work you did! I didn't know windows could run from logical partition - is this new since XP (my last Windows OS)? If so, it's about time. – Marty Fried Oct 12 '12 at 03:46
  • @MartyFried Thanks. This is tested successfully by me in a HP laptop with Windows 7. I don't know if applies in Windows Xp. – NickTux Oct 12 '12 at 11:29
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Don't use the "Windows installer for Ubuntu Desktop", also known as Wubi. You need a different disk, the normal installation disk.

This link has the Windows disk at the top, and below has the links to download or buy the normal disks.

Marty Fried
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    He already has the correct desktop installation disk and has already done one successful install with it. The problem is that the machines have been factory installed with all four primary partitions used up. Ubiquity has no way to make its extended partition to do a proper installation to so is only offering the Wubi install.

    Really this is a bug in the way Ubiquity handles this situation. It should tell the user that there is a problem making an installation partition to install to.

     – fabricator4 Oct 12 '12 at 01:02
  • I didn't know the normal install disk had the option to do a Wubi install. It appears that there are 2 different disks; why have 2 if one will do both? But I really wonder why HP would create 4 primary partitions anyway; that's totally dumb. – Marty Fried Oct 12 '12 at 03:42