All windows partitions are "removable devices"?!?!

[Guest]

Hi,

I'm trying to install the latest Kubuntu 13.10 alongside an existing Windows 8 installation.

I have shrunk the windows partition so I have just over 50GB unallocated for the Kubuntu install.

I created a bootable flash drive and managed to get into the 'try Kubuntu' mode.

In the installer, when selecting partitions I obviously chose 'manual' but to my surprise I was shown that I had 500GB free space!

Where did the Windows partition go... apparently both the recovery partition and the windows partition are 'removable devices' and so I'm guessing that Kubuntu is really confused!

How do I get it to recognise my existing partitions and let me partition off the unallocated space? (btw I have had Ubuntu 13.10 installed on a previous Win 7 laptop and it worked just fine).

Help would be enthusiastically greeted!

Thanks,
Lee

[oshunluvr]

This happens often, unfortunately. For some reason, the installer doesn't always detect the partition table correctly. I've had to skip a version in the past (never installed 10.10 because of this issue) and more recently I had to install the previous version, then upgrade to 13.04. I've never found any "magic bullet" to solve this issue.

I suggest trying to create a partition from the live desktop (not using the installer) and see if your partitions are detected properly that way. If they are, create a new partition and format it from the desktop, then re-run the installer and see if it shows up. If this doesn't work, try booting an older version to see if it sees your partitions. If it does, install it, fully update it, then upgrade to the next version until you're at 13.10. Hopefully, one of these will work for you.