linux partition manager showing partitioned drive as non par

[yasirassassin]

hey guys i have 300 gb hard and it has got three partitions but whenever i try to install any linux on it when setups runs at the tym to partition comes .it shows that there is only one partition and it has unallocated space in it all of it unallocated it means it shows that there is no partition on my hard and there is no data on it and i should be making a new partition table well in my case thats not true cuz i have 3 partitions in my drive ... but in other setups like windows and acronic partition manager it shows all of the partitions correct help me out what should i do

[keghn]

Hello.
Unallocated space is not a partition untill is changed to one.
The software is probably showing that space because it dosen't
so you do not write over any of the working partitions.
Gpart can be used if you do a custome install.
Gpart can be run from a live usb thumb drive, or live dvd, or
from another linux OS on the computer.
Your allowed at max of have 4 primary partition, or 3 primary and one
extended partition.
If you have 3 primary partitions already use all of the remaining unallocated
memory as a primary, or extended partition.
primary will be your last patition. If you do extended you can have a
lot more working partitions inside it.
I use primary, and extended partition and have 4 working OS on my computer.
windows 7, ubuntu 12.04, Mint 13, Mint 13 again. Also have two swaps and storage
partition formated in ext4.

[wayne128]

hey guys i have 300 gb hard and it has got three partitions but whenever i try to install any linux on it when setups runs at the tym to partition comes .it shows that there is only one partition and it has unallocated space in it all of it unallocated

Boot you computer with Live DVD, then, open a terminal and check partition table with

sudo fdisk -l

if partition table shows up, you might be able to use fdisk to rewrite partition table.

[srs5694]

As keghn says, there's a difference between "only one partition" and "unallocated space." My suspicion is that the partitioner is showing a completely unallocated disk. This is a common problem when libparted (the software upon which the Mint partitioner is based) doesn't like something about a disk. The solution is to perform a disk repair, but the details of what must be done vary depending on the problem. Several problems can be handled by my FixParts program, as described here. Another common cause of this problem is if the disk was ever used in a RAID configuration; leftover RAID data can confuse Linux and make it try to treat the disk as if it were part of a RAID array. The solution here is to wipe the RAID data. Disabling RAID in your firmware can also help. I don't happen to have links to detailed instructions on handling this specific problem, though.

[yasirassassin]

hey dear i found thread related to my thread but unanswered here have a look you then u will understand what ma trying to say

[http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/11/06/why-is-windows-8-on-ssd-invisible-to-ubuntu-12-10s-installer/]

[cwsnyder]

ARE you in Windows 8? Are the three alleged partitions Windows 8? You do realize that Microsoft in particular does not want Linux software to be installed with Windows 8? And have you checked into all of the various threads in the Ubuntu forums on dual-boot with Windows 8?

[yasirassassin]

hey dear am not using window 8 am using window 7 ive also tried xp
both shows partitions also acronic parition manager shows partitions but ubuntu nd mint doesnt i think its because of gparted so what is the solution to tackle this problem ??

[cwsnyder]

First, let's see if it is the libparted or just gparted. Try entering fdisk -l (that is the lower case L). If fdisk finds your partitions, it isn't libparted, just the graphical gparted and you can try parted, kparted (a.k.a. partitionmanager using qt libraries), or the command line fdisk, cfdisk, gnu-fdisk, and others. That doesn't help you use the installer to do your partitioning for you, but you can do a custom install after you create the partitions.

More hand holding needed, or can you take it from here?

[keghn]

Hello
Do you have SSD "solid state drive" on you rig and 300 gbyte hard drive? I read
that internet location you gave.
My window is instalation take up three primary partitions.

[srs5694]

First, let's see if it is the libparted or just gparted. Try entering fdisk -l (that is the lower case L). If fdisk finds your partitions, it isn't libparted, just the graphical gparted and you can try parted, kparted (a.k.a. partitionmanager using qt libraries), or the command line fdisk, cfdisk, gnu-fdisk, and others. That doesn't help you use the installer to do your partitioning for you, but you can do a custom install after you create the partitions.

fdisk doesn't use libparted, so testing with fdisk will tell you nothing about whether the problem is in libparted or GParted.

That said, the fdisk output can be diagnostic of what the problem is, since it can show issues like overlapping partitions or partitions that are too big for the disk.

[keghn]

Hello yasirassassin.
Are you doing all this inside windows?
Are running the live Mint with a window virtual OS player?
Most Linux install are run with out the windows boot manager?
If you are you need to boot into a live media without windows.
Just need window to get mint and put it on dvd, or usb thumb drive.

[praty888]

I do have similar problem.
Earlier I had 4 partitions 2003 server(Scm OS), win7, Data and Scm Data all of them were primary partitions. I shrinked the 'Data' drive and able to create some space for linux mint installation. Windows partion manager and gparted was not able to create a logical drive from the unused space(as I have mentioned I created by shrinking 'Data' drive). I used a third party tool 'Acronis Partition Manager' to create a logical drive(named 'Mint') from the unused space. It was done successfully. As max 4 primary partitions/3 primary and 1 extended are allowed 'Acronis' converted 'data' drive and 'scm data' drive from 'primary partition' to 'logical drive' . That means currently I have 2 primary partition and 2 logical drives. Here is the screenshot of the partition table viewed from Win7.

partition table.jpg (226.32 KiB) Viewed 734 times

Prolem: When I booted through usb drive to install Mint 13 'Gparted' was not able to detect my existing partitions. After lot of searches I found somewhere some kind of solution, " If I can convert the 'Mint' drive to extended then the problem can be solved. And also this is mentioned by 'keghn' here in this post."
so the problem here is how to convert the 'logical drive' 'Mint' to extended partition?


Many many thanks in advance
Praty

[cwsnyder]

The simplest and best solution would be to back up your Data partition (about 32G), remove it and the mint partition, then create an extended partition with your Data and mint partitions installed in the extended partition with your Live CD and gparted.

Another solution, not as good, would be to reverse what you previously did and install Mint with Mint4Win, which installs Mint on top of Windows on the NTFS partitions. This means your Mint install could be corrupted or even wiped out by problems with Windows, but removes the problems of re-partitioning the drive. Mint is then subject to removal by using the Add/Remove Programs part of Control Panel, as well.

[praty888]

The simplest and best solution would be to back up your Data partition (about 32G), remove it and the mint partition, then create an extended partition with your Data and mint partitions installed in the extended partition with your Live CD and gparted.

Another solution, not as good, would be to reverse what you previously did and install Mint with Mint4Win, which installs Mint on top of Windows on the NTFS partitions. This means your Mint install could be corrupted or even wiped out by problems with Windows, but removes the problems of re-partitioning the drive. Mint is then subject to removal by using the Add/Remove Programs part of Control Panel, as well.

Hi cwsnyder. Thanks a lot for your valuable suggestions. Earlier I had thought of your first suggestion. I have kept it for the last solution. Again I don't know how to do it. I mean to say, after copying all the data from 'Data' drive and merging it with 'Mint' drive what to do then? How to make it extended partition, also plz note that 'Data' drive, 'Mint' drive and 'Scm data' drive they reside inside an extended partition.

Your 2nd solution also interests me. Look I have not installed mint on my hard disk. I want to install it. The drive named 'Mint' is only a name given to it. It's a totally blank drive with ntfs format. Nothing is there inside. Can you explain your second method bit elaborately. I could not understand it.

[srs5694]

The simplest and best solution would be to back up your Data partition (about 32G), remove it and the mint partition, then create an extended partition with your Data and mint partitions installed in the extended partition with your Live CD and gparted.

That's neither the simplest nor the best solution. My very first post in this thread provided links that will most likely solve praty888's problem, although I can't guarantee that:

• My Missing Partitions in GParted Web page describes one common source of the problem: A mis-sized extended partition. It's possible to fix this with Linux's sfdisk, but an easier solution is also possible....
• After writing that page, I kept running into posts on various forums from people who had this problem and who were challenged by using sfdisk, so I wrote FixParts. This program automatically fixes the mis-sized extended partition problem and a couple of other problems that produce similar symptoms.

There's a good chance that running FixParts on the affected disk will make it visible to GParted. I can't guarantee that, though; there are disk problems that FixParts doesn't correct. Sometimes the symptom can be caused by leftover RAID data, too, in which case you've got to remove that data and/or remove the Linux software packages that support it.

[praty888]

The simplest and best solution would be to back up your Data partition (about 32G), remove it and the mint partition, then create an extended partition with your Data and mint partitions installed in the extended partition with your Live CD and gparted.

That's neither the simplest nor the best solution. My very first post in this thread provided links that will most likely solve praty888's problem, although I can't guarantee that:

• My Missing Partitions in GParted Web page describes one common source of the problem: A mis-sized extended partition. It's possible to fix this with Linux's sfdisk, but an easier solution is also possible....
• After writing that page, I kept running into posts on various forums from people who had this problem and who were challenged by using sfdisk, so I wrote FixParts. This program automatically fixes the mis-sized extended partition problem and a couple of other problems that produce similar symptoms.

There's a good chance that running FixParts on the affected disk will make it visible to GParted. I can't guarantee that, though; there are disk problems that FixParts doesn't correct. Sometimes the symptom can be caused by leftover RAID data, too, in which case you've got to remove that data and/or remove the Linux software packages that support it.

Hey **** thanks for your precious suggestions. I have not noticed your post since I was busy solving the problem. Anyway finally I solved it. I would like to mention some of the things I learned from this scenario.
1. Manipulation and frequent modification of parttion table would definitely lead you towards inconsistency. It may cause you data loss.
2. Linux may show you the partition table but windows may or may not and viceversa. But this doesn't mean that you have lost your all data. Keep patience and consult with professionals, forums to find out a working solution for you. It may happen that problem might be similar to multiple person but solution may differ for them.
3. Gparted was not able to detect my partitions due to inconsistency arised during disk space manipulation.
4. As I had already posted the screenshot of the disk partition viewable from win7. But it's actually wrong. You can say it's some kind of abnormality one can expect from windows7 disk manager. According to the pic 'Data', 'Scm data' and 'Mint' are logical drives. But when I used EaseUs to check 'Mint' drive is not existing. Instead It was showing it as 'unassigned'. And this is the point where inconsistency arised. I had created this partition using 'Acronis Disk Manager'. Though 'Acronis' was showing successfull partition was created and 'windows disk manager' was agree with it but 'EaseUs' detected the real problem. Also it was showing 'Data' as primary partition. So I made it logical drive and created a partition using the 'unassigned' space. When I booted up in linux mint 'Gparted' now able to detect all my partitions. Now onwards everything is fine.

Below is my new partition table, which is mis-aligned by 512bytes. May be it will create a problem in later time. But for now everything is running fine.

p.jpg (22.37 KiB) Viewed 691 times

5. EaseUs is really a nice application for partition management.

Dear srs5694, I am really sorry to inform you that I have not tried your application till now. But I think it must be great. If I'll let you know about the results once I use your application. Thanks for your effort.

I would like to thank all the forum mates who put a thogut about the problem to solve.
Praty

[yasirassassin]

Hello yasirassassin.
Are you doing all this inside windows?
Are running the live Mint with a window virtual OS player?
Most Linux install are run with out the windows boot manager?
If you are you need to boot into a live media without windows.
Just need window to get mint and put it on dvd, or usb thumb drive.

no dear i am not doing it on ant virtual software like VMware or virtual boz etc am doing it by plugging in usb drive which contains bootable blinux in it

[yasirassassin]

The simplest and best solution would be to back up your Data partition (about 32G), remove it and the mint partition, then create an extended partition with your Data and mint partitions installed in the extended partition with your Live CD and gparted.

Another solution, not as good, would be to reverse what you previously did and install Mint with Mint4Win, which installs Mint on top of Windows on the NTFS partitions. This means your Mint install could be corrupted or even wiped out by problems with Windows, but removes the problems of re-partitioning the drive. Mint is then subject to removal by using the Add/Remove Programs part of Control Panel, as well.

hey dear thanks for reply i reallly appreciate it but i dont know how to create an extended partitions am using acronic disk director for partition purposes i know only two type of partitions primary and logical

[srs5694]

Below is my new partition table, which is mis-aligned by 512bytes. May be it will create a problem in later time. But for now everything is running fine.

Alignment is an issue with Advanced Format disks, SSDs, and some types of RAID arrays. If your partitions are misaligned everything will work, but performance is likely to suffer. See this article I wrote on the topic for details. Note that some partitioning tools give false alarms about alignment problems, often because of "misaligned" extended partitions -- but the alignment of extended partitions is unimportant. It's filesystems that need to be properly aligned, and extended partitions don't house filesystems (except indirectly, via logical partitions, which do have to be properly aligned). To learn what's up on this score, you must obtain a sector-precise partition table, such as via "sudo fdisk -lu /dev/sda". Check that the start sectors for all the partitions (except the extended partition) are divisible by 8. If so, you're fine. If not, performance may suffer. If you suspect problems, I recommend you start another thread that shows your fdisk output (in code tags).

i dont know how to create an extended partitions am using acronic disk director for partition purposes i know only two type of partitions primary and logical

Acronis Disk Director is Windows software and I'm not familiar with it, so I can't say how to use it. Partition types, though, are the same in any program that manages MBR partition tables:

• Primary -- You can have a maximum of four primary partitions per MBR disk. These are defined in a data structure in the first sector of the disk (the Master Boot Record, or MBR, hence the name of the partitioning system). Given its other uses, there's only room in the MBR to define four partitions.
• Extended -- This is a special type of extended partition that serves as a placeholder for the next type of partition....
• Logical -- These partitions are defined within an extended partition, and are located within its borders, too. You can have an arbitrary number of logical partitions, but they all must reside within the one extended partition. Because logical partitions reside within an extended partition, if you use any logical partitions, the number of non-extended primary partitions the disk can support is reduced from four to three.

Using GParted in Linux, you can create an extended partition by clicking an unpartitioned space on the disk, selecting Partition->New from the menu, setting "Create As" to "Extended Partition," and then clicking Add. You can then click free space within the extended partition to create logical partitions. Note that most tools will let you create just one extended partition per disk, so if you've already got an extended partition, you can't create a second one. Some tools will let you increase or decrease the size of an extended partition, though -- say, if you want to shrink a primary partition that's next to the extended partition and create a new logical partition in that space. To do this, you'd need to increase the size of the extended partition before you could create the new logical partition.

[praty888]

The simplest and best solution would be to back up your Data partition (about 32G), remove it and the mint partition, then create an extended partition with your Data and mint partitions installed in the extended partition with your Live CD and gparted.

Another solution, not as good, would be to reverse what you previously did and install Mint with Mint4Win, which installs Mint on top of Windows on the NTFS partitions. This means your Mint install could be corrupted or even wiped out by problems with Windows, but removes the problems of re-partitioning the drive. Mint is then subject to removal by using the Add/Remove Programs part of Control Panel, as well.

hey dear thanks for reply i reallly appreciate it but i dont know how to create an extended partitions am using acronic disk director for partition purposes i know only two type of partitions primary and logical

Hello yasirassassin. It's Acronic or Acronis disk director? I was using it for partition management and backup management. After facing some problems with Acronis I looked for some alternative and I found 'EaseUs partition manager'. This tool is really very simple, lots of options available and very powerful. And please note that the free version is available for home users. It supports windows7 too. All my headache for partition problem was solved within 2 min after using this tool.