system reboots while installing Ubuntu alongside Windows 8.1 Pro

Question

I request you people not to mark this question as duplicate since I have read all the thread related to my problem and they don't work for me.

Here is my problem. I am trying to install ununtu 14.04(64bit) on windows 8.1 pro via USB. I took the following steps.

1. My dell inspirion N5010 laptop don't have UEFI stetting. So disabling secure boot is out of question.

2. I unchecked turnoff power startup.

3. Craeted unallocated space 100 GB using manage computer.

4. When I reached install ubuntu inside windows 8 screen and click continue , my Lapii reboots.

5. I also tried 'try something else' option. it shows about 100Gb allocated to windows and rest 365 GB (on 500 GB HDD). However I am unable to create free space here neither it shows the free space I had created inside wondows. I tried to create free space using Gpart but it failed to do so. Plz help.

   Note that I have 4 paritions in my HDD under windows.one partition(F: drive) is unallocated. When I boot from USB to install ubuntu, selecting 'try something else' option, it displays 3 drives total space merged together as 365 GB.

So, I want to know how to create free space in 365 GB. Gpart failed to do this.

Edit: I created Fat32 partition in windows. Also, my four partitions in windows are dynamic. At try something else option,inside that, I have :-

1. /dev/sda
2. /dev/sda1(windows loader)
3. /dev/sd2 (unknown)
4. /dev/sda3(C:/)

5. /dev/sda4 (395248 MB).

   • +option and new partition table is disabled. How to proceed from here.

Answer 1

Congratulations! You have done all the steps correctly from creating USB till getting into installation menu.

Regarding your point 4, If you have open installation menu (wubi) inside windows then it will not work as wubi have been somewhat disabled to provide you safety and it will reboot. Then when you enter into the installation of ubuntu from boot menu, there you will be able use the option to "install ubuntu along side windows" and it should work fine.

Now moving forward especially, regarding to your point 3 and 5. You may have shrinked the partition to create the unallocated space that's why the partition is not showing up.

It may also be the reason that you may more partition drives in Ubuntu (14.04). If you use the option of "something else" you may see that that there are 4 lines (partitions) and according to my knowledge it can not be increased. So, if the problem persists you may try to reduce the partitions.

You can also have a look at this question and answer to get some more info.: Installing Ubuntu Alongside a Pre-Installed Windows with UEFI

Update (based on new info.):

The Unallocated partition is not a partition, and is a space to let create a partition. Follow the answer to resolve this issue.

You need to create partition in Ubuntu (through 'Something Else' option). Click on the + (plus)icon in the menu that shows up. This will show that short menu to create partition. Type the size, (although it seems you want to use whole "unallocated" partition into Ubuntu. If yes, click on the plus button on the right side, just to be sure that the whole Unallocated partition is being used. If it does not increase then the whole Unallocated space is being shown. Note: 1Gb = 1024 MB).

Now in the Type of partition, select Primary. In Use as, select Ext4. And in Mount point select "/" (it indicates root, and is somewhat like C: drive in windows).

Now you should be able to see the Partition you want and can continue the installation process.

Looking forward to hear good news regarding successful installation from you.