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I have a Dell inspiron 5521 laptop with 4GB RAM 1TB hard-disk with windows 8 pro genuine. My hard-disk includes 4 partition (including c drive): In 4th partition, which is of 71 GB, I want to install ubuntu 13.04 (alongside with windows 8- dual boot), but whenever I try to install with the helpof bootable usb, it shows only 1 harddisk: no partitions, and another option "Erase all and install ubuntu" which I don't prefer. How can i install Ubuntu alongside Windows 8?

jobin
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Abhijeet Gupta
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1 Answers1

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It seems that your Ubuntu cannot see any partitions. This is probably due to the new UEFI and the GUID Partitioning Scheme. Some Windows 8 machines also include a "secure boot" feature which makes installing Ubuntu much harder. Is your drive encrypted?

UEFI, or EFI, is a firmware interface that is widespread on recent computers, especially those more recent than 2010. It is intended to replace the traditional BIOS firmware interface that is prevalent on earlier machines.

Make sure that you are using the 64-bit version of Ubuntu. Also, in the Allocate Drive Space menu, press the button which says Something Else. This will allow you to modify the partitions.

If all else fails, you might want to consider using GNU Parted. After booting up, press the Try Ubuntu button, and open up the application called gparted or Partition Manager. This program does support GPT and will allow you to see those partitions.

fuzzyhair2
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  • thnax but i checked my setup , secure boot option is disabled, and legacy option is set for booting . i am trying to install ubuntu 13.04 but again the same problem: partition is not showing: only the one hard disk(/dev/sda) is showing in partition table. ... should i also enable ufei mode to insatll ubuntu, and if i enable it ... is there any harm ?? – Abhijeet Gupta Jun 11 '13 at 15:00
  • I think this is due to 4 primary partitions in current setup. A hard disks allows only 4 primary partitions and if all are used by windows, Ubuntu will not succeed in detecting windows. If this is still a problem, you should search for solutions to 4 primary partitions case apart from UEFI related possibilities. – Jamess Sep 09 '13 at 12:28