Partitions not listed at kubuntu installer!

[srikar]

I have windows installed in c drive and there are 3 other partitions namely e,d,f.I booted kubuntu live cd.The installer doesnt show any partitions.

This is my windows:-
http://imagebin.ca/view/Uj-KB26v.html

This is at kubuntu installer step:-
http://imagebin.ca/view/wZBYBV.html

fdisk -l report:-
http://imagebin.ca/view/CH8fiE6r.html

Help Me!

[oshunluvr]

Re: Partitions not listed at kubuntu installer!

The first thing I notice is your partition sequence numbering is really odd.

It appears:
Your partitions are numbered; 1,2,3,5,6,7
Their actual order is; 1,2,5,6,3,7
Partition 1 is primary partition.
Partition 2 is a primary partition containing your extended partition.
Partitions 3 to 7 are logical partitions within your extended partition.
Partitions sizes are approximately;
1=21gb
2=139gb
3=52gb
5=21gb
6=2gb
7=64gb

This is odd because:
A drive prepared by linux would follows these rules:
Partitions numbered 1,2,3,4 are primary partitions.
Logical partitions numbering begins at 5 regardless of the number of primary partitions.

Rather than digging into why this happened (we'll leave that to the experts);Assuming you have backed-up any data you don't want to lose, I would start by downloading a copy of gparted and fix your numbering sequence.

I also assume you're booting to sda1 as drive C: so I can't think of any reason why renumbering would leave windows unbootable, but you never know with windows. It may re-arrange your D: E: F: "drives" however.

Then booting to windows, defrag all your partitions. I suggest defragging, because I am again assuming you intend to use one of these windows data partitions as your space for linux. Defragging in advance will allow you to use gparted to resize (shrink or grow) your partitions easier and you may want to move them around to consolidate space.

Then re-boot to gparted and create space for your new install: remove un-used partitions, shrink current ones, whatever. Keep your swap partition as is if you like. Then create two new partitions for your linux install and format them. Make one about 10-12gb for Kubuntu and the rest for /home. Format choice is up to you but ext4 is the new default for kubuntu, ext3 or reiserfs are also good choices. Personally, I recommend reiserfs because it's quick and stable (ext4 is still developing) and I think reiserfs is faster than ext3.

After doing all this - the installer should see your partitions correctly and allow you to install to your new partitions. One advantage to formatting with gparted is you can skip it in the installer.