Windows 7 I am having problems partioning Winodws and Ubuntu

[boxxy27]

Hi all, new to this forum;

First of all i am using a brand new hard drive with no data or partitions on it prior.

im using the GParted program found on the ubuntu live cd to partition my harddrive so i can dual boot between ubuntu and windows 7. However, after i have partitioned my hard drive, when i boot up the windows 7 disc to install it I can not install onto the partition.

It gives me an error which says that I can not install onto this partition because it is using the GPT partition system. So I tried to delete all the partitions that I have created and let Windows 7 handle all the partitioning. After windows 7 is installed, i tried to boot into the Ubuntu live CD. When i go to install ubuntu, the program GParted can not see any of the partitions that windows 7 has created.

So as of right now it looks like my only option is to install one and im going to install ubuntu unless you guys can help me out here cause iv researched and havent found any answers.

 

[SIW2]

Strange, GParted has no trouble seeing the partitions created by 7 on my system.

Please post a screenshot of 7 Disk Management.

 

[boxxy27]

thing is that i can not install 7 with the GParted partitions. So obviously i cant go to the disk management part.

 

[john3347]

I recently had a similar, but slightly different, problem dual booting Debian 5 and Windows 7. Still not really sure exactly what went wrong, but GParted was involved in the massacre. Wound up totally wiping out Windows 7, and having to format and reinstall. I rate the experience as another instance of "Linux is simply NOT ready for the non-professional home user". I have used several versions of Linux before, but never in a dual boot arrangement......and never again in a dual boot.

 

[SIW2]

Sorry,

After windows 7 is installed, i tried to boot into the Ubuntu live CD. When i go to install ubuntu, the program GParted can not see any of the partitions that windows 7 has created.

gave the impression you currently have 7 installed.

You will probably find that a bootable partition manager made for windows would be able to delete all that and inititialize the disk to MBR.

Can't think of any free ones that would definitely do it.

You could try This one and see - it might:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

 

[epk1950]

First things first the new hdd should have been formatted with software like dban or Western Digital Data Lifeguard writing zero's to it.

dban takes depending 11hrs for 500 gig, 4 hrs for a little old 80 gig.
DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke

Western Digital Data Lifeguard takes from 2 minutes for quick write zero's & full could take a bit.
|MG| Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools 1.13 Download

wddlt is an install version, dban can be ran from without an operating system, you just boot up to the disk.

After words, boot into your gparted, right click on unallocated partition, select new, ntfs, a prompt will pop up asking to make it a msdos disk, go ahead and continue with msdos disk, after that you may make your two partitions, First one ntfs, second one ext3 or 4, the third one your swap, or make first one primary ntfs and second one extended with w/e partitions inside the extended for say like partition 2 under extended would be / "root" second would be /home "home" in ext4 or 3 and third would be swap.

Install windows 7 first, after that has been finished, install your unix . don't forget the grub menu .

 

[SIW2]

Hi epk,

I'm sure that will work fine.

Worth trying the PW boot disc first - if it does work, it will be a lot quicker - it's only the cost of a blank cd and is a usefull tool to have around.

For those who don't already have a copy of GParted - it is worth getting . Again it's only the cost of a blank cd. The system Rescue cd includes GParted and a lot of useful other tools - it is also free. You might never need it - but if you do - you will be glad you had it to hand.

Just download the ISO file, and burn it with an isoburner - don't format the cd, obviously.

Download - SystemRescueCd

 

[ubuntujoe]

Just to confirm that you can dual boot Ubuntu (9.04) and Windows 7, I did it on my system although not on a new disk like you, and Windows of course wanted to take charge and I had to go tinker with GRUB again by booting from a ISO cd again. Also I took the upgrade option and now after 3 days of working fine I'm having some problems, but that's for another thread

 

[stueycaster]

I'm not trying to tell people what to do but I need to say this. I dual booted my computer for about 5 years. In that time it was a never ending source of grief. Something was always breaking one O/s installation or another. Or getting GRUB to allow Windows was hard to implement. Then when I installed W7 GRUB wouldn't allow the disk to load. I had to install W7 through XP.

I'm through with dual booting. It's not worth the aggravation.