Windows7 Installation Not Recognized

[gnwbr]

Hi,

I’m trying to install Ubuntu 12.10 as a new dual boot installation on a Dell laptop with Windows7 Professional installed. I shrank the C volume and freed up ~250GB of disk space. I booted on the Ubuntu DVD created from an ISO and selected try Ubuntu. I set up internet access and then selected install Ubuntu 12.10. Based on the tutorials I read online I expected that when it got to the drive section of the installation that it would recognize the existing Win7 installation and provide an option to install side by side and choose which OS at startup. It does not recognize the Win7 installation or provide this option. Any thoughts on why? Did I miss a required step?

Thanks

[pauly]

Yeh it's hit or miss. You could set it up manually but it's easier just to go back into windows and extend the partition back out. Then start the install again. Select install alongside windows seven. Hover your cursor over the line between the two partitions and slide it where you want it.

[vinnywright]

once you shrank the windows partition you now have unallocated(no partition or file system) space on the hard drive , some times the Kubuntu installer dosent seam to know what to do with it .
it may not see your windows 7 install if you did not reboot windows after shrinking it's C drive and make shure it was still in proper shape ,, shrinking can cause some miner file system corruption.
the best way to do this is..........
1-defrag windows , reboot
2-run chkdsk in windows it will say it neads to schedule the check for next reboot ,,,,,reboot
3-use the windows disc manager to shrink the C drive ,,,,reboot
4-run chkdsk again ,,,reboot
5-use a parted magick, Gparted or the Kubuntu live cd (KDE partition manager)to partition and create a file system (maby ext4)on the unallocated space you created by shrinking the C drive ,,,,,,at this step I would at least make 2 partitions 1 for swap formated linux swap and 1 for / (root)((the system)) formated ext4 and maby 1 for /home if you have enuff space....swap should bee =to or a bit more than RAM ,,, / can be as small as 12-20Gig and /home all the rest ,,,,or you can just give all of it to / after making the swap partition
6-install to the / & /home you just made and put grub in /sda

VINNY

[SteveRiley]

It may be a UEFI machine. Last time I looked into this about a month or so ago, GRUB's OS-prober couldn't find the Windows 7 UEFI boot loader, and would therefore not create the entry for it.

@gnwbr: boot Kubuntu, and then in a Konsole window, run the following commands:

cat /etc/fstab

ls -lR /boot

Reply here with the output.

[gnwbr]

Sorry I didn’t respond sooner, was traveling.

[gnwbr]

Also sorry that I am responding in multiple posts. But when I try and post the output of the commands that Steve Riley asked for the forum is incorrectly interpreting them as links. It says I must post 5 times before I can post a link. I tried multiple ways to post but can’t get it to accept. So I’m going to get up to 5 posts.

[gnwbr]

Pauly, I expanded the partition back out, but Kubuntu still did not recognize the windows 7 installation.

[gnwbr]

Vinny, I tried running defrag and chkdsk. Still not recognized.

[gnwbr]

Steve, here is the output of running the suggested commands.

Thanks,

Gene

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ cat /etc/fstab
overlayfs / overlayfs rw 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ ls -lR /boot
/boot:
total 4152
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 844882 Oct 9 19:54 abi-3.5.0-17-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 147884 Oct 9 19:54 config-3.5.0-17-generic
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 60 Mar 22 17:49 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 176764 Oct 11 14:10 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 178944 Oct 11 14:10 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw------- 1 root root 2901710 Oct 9 19:54 System.map-3.5.0-17-generic

/boot/grub:
total 5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 699 Oct 17 16:03 gfxblacklist.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Mar 22 17:49 grubenv

[SteveRiley]

Steve, here is the output of running the suggested commands.

Did you start the computer with a bootable Kubuntu USB here?

[gnwbr]

I booted on a Kubuntu 12.10 64 bit DVD that I created from an ISO download on 3/10.

[SteveRiley]

Let's return to your first post. You wrote:

Based on the tutorials I read online I expected that when it got to the drive section of the installation that it would recognize the existing Win7 installation and provide an option to install side by side and choose which OS at startup. It does not recognize the Win7 installation or provide this option.

I'll admit I misread this the first time, and thought that you actually carried through the installation, and that afterward, you could no longer access the Windows 7. Now, upon re-reading, I see that you're describing a different problem: the installer isn't recognizing Windows 7. Am I understanding you correctly now?

You also wrote:

I shrank the C volume and freed up ~250GB of disk space.

What procedure did you follow to do this?

[gnwbr]

Yes, that is correct. I have not yet installed anything.

I used the Win 7 Administrative tools > Computer Management > Disk Management > Shrink Partition.

[SteveRiley]

Please shrink the partition again. Then start the Kubuntu installer. When you reach the point at which you should see the "install alongside" option, please take a photo of the screen and post it here.

[gnwbr]

Hi Steve,

Here are pictures of both the Windows 7 Disk Management window, and the Kubuntu Installation window.

Gene