Install from DVD not showing drives

[mac173]

I am trying to install Mint on a HD with Win 7 and Win 8 on two partitions of a single drive. I want to install on the Win 8 partition, and the installer tells me I have Win 8, but it does not say anything about Win 7, and does not tell me how large the partition is that it will install to. That leaves me unsure of whether it is installing on the Win 7 or Win 8 partition. I am not sure what partitions I need for Mint, so I did not try to manually partition.

How can I positively ID the partition that Mint is installing to?

I also notice that the LiveDVD does not seem to have wireless support.

[caf4926]

Boot the live DVD
From the live desktop, open a terminal and get us the result of:

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l

You could also open Gparted and do a print screen of it showing the partitions of sda and post the image here

If win 7 and win 8 are only using 2 partitions I'll eat my hat

[mac173]

Don't eat your hat!
IIRC, I have a 149 meg partition, 647 gig partition (Win 7) and 74 gig (Win Eight[darned smilie replaces the number . I was trying to install to the 74 gig partition, but when the choices come up, it is

1) Install alongside Win 8
2) Replace Win 8
3) Other

It does not mention Win 7.

When I chose 3, I could see all three partitions. It did not show what was on each partition. I tried to select the 74 gig partition and click install, but I guess I have to re-partition that area with the /boot, /bin, etc. partitions for the install, and I don't remember what I need. I haven't manually installed Linux in a while.

My concern is, when the installer says it sees Win 8, is it seeing the 74 gig partition, or the main partition which is Win 7? The installer does not tell you the SIZE of the partition it is installing to, so I am not sure if it is looking at the correct partition. I CANNOT lose my Win 7 install, my backup drive went down and I cannot get all my stuff backed up on other media.

I just don't want to wait on the RMA of my backup to try out Mint!

I will follow you instruction tonight, and post the info.

[caf4926]

We really need the proper disk info
Any info you have gleaned from windows is totally useless I'm afraid.

You will probably need to shrink either win 7 or win 8
So I would plan ahead and back them up and then defrag them

I advise using gparted in the live session to partition the HD
Then use the option in the installer to do 'something else'
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3e0lL ... XpwbFVtdk0

see also
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3e0lL ... zVFNGpmd2s

[mac173]

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fdisk -1
fdisk: invalid option -- '1'
Usage:
fdisk [options] <disk> change partition table
fdisk [options] -l <disk> list partition table(s)
fdisk -s <partition> give partition size(s) in blocks

Options:
-b <size> sector size (512, 1024, 2048 or 4096)
-c[=<mode>] compatible mode: 'dos' or 'nondos' (default)
-h print this help text
-u[=<unit>] display units: 'cylinders' or 'sectors' (default)
-v print program version
-C <number> specify the number of cylinders
-H <number> specify the number of heads
-S <number> specify the number of sectors per track

mint@mint ~ $

First option did not work.

[mac173]

JUST figgured out my stupid............

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x64faca59

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 1321166847 660480000 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 1321166848 1465145343 71989248 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
mint@mint ~ $

[mac173]

The install options.

[741cc]

First, make sure you have any important stuff backed up.
Your 68GB (sda3) is plenty big enough for Mint.
Run the installer and choose "Something Else".

When you reach the partitioning screen, select sda3 and then the "Change" button. Right click works too.
Resize to leave two or three GB's spare.
"Use as" --> ext4
"Mount point" --> / (root)
Tick the "Format Partition" box

Select the empty space, click "Change" and use this as "linux-swap"
Continue with install. hth

caf4926 vid good, too.

[caf4926]

My choice would be to shrink sda2, because it's so much bigger. You should be able to get 100GB off that no problem.
One you have that free space you need to create an extended partition and then your Mint partitions in that

This may help (sorry it's on openSUSE) https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3e0lL ... EVVRHlwOTA

You need the following:
swap - which should be 2 x RAM, so if you have 3GB RAM make swap 6GB

then at least 1 ext4 partition for Mint

Some might make 2 ext4
1. @ 20GB for /
2. @ 80GB for /home

Then with the installer - use the something else option to point to the new partitions, see my earlier vid

[caf4926]

But if you want to remove win 8 to replace it with Mint

Just use Gparted to delete it
Then in all the free space create an extended partition (see above vid) and then you need
swap + ext4 for the system
Here I would just use 1 ext4, which will mounted as /

It's totally a doddle

[mac173]

First, make sure you have any important stuff backed up.
Your 68GB (sda3) is plenty big enough for Mint.
Run the installer and choose "Something Else".

When you reach the partitioning screen, select sda3 and then the "Change" button. Right click works too.
Resize to leave two or three GB's spare.
"Use as" --> ext4
"Mount point" --> / (root)
Tick the "Format Partition" box

Select the empty space, click "Change" and use this as "linux-swap"
Continue with install. hth

caf4926 vid good, too.

Install completed. Thanks for the help. I got rid of that awful Win 8, and can now play with Mint.

We can mark this as solved.