Linux mint is not recognizing windows 8 during dual boot

[Lalitha niharika]

I am using a Asus netbook 1015e. I already installed windows8 long back. Now I have compressed the drive(320GB) and made free space(100GB). I want to install mint 17 into that space. I connected DVD drive and tried to install mint through DVD. Installation process was running but, there is no 'install mint alongside windows' option. I tried selecting 'other' option. Then there are no partitions visible. It shows 320MB free space. I don't want to loose my present windows at any cost. Please help me to solve the problem.

[Umbra Polaris]

Important note: by dual-booting , you may mess up the Refresh/Reset feature of Win8.xx, indeed Win8 hidden recovery partition will have a new UUID and cant be tracked anymore by the recovery option of Win8, render this feature broken. the recovery partition will still be present but unusable, i don't find a way to fix it yet. something to do with the .wim file)

if you can do a full backup of the whole drive, or clone the drive to an External HDD , it will a good thing.

now if you still want use Linux


first, it will be better if you separate the linux partition you made in 3 (you can do it from Windows or from the Live CD using Gparted)

- one around 20-30gb (will be the system partition)
- one around your RAM x2 (will be the swap partition), example if you have 4gb RAM , choose 8gb
- one with the rest of space available (will be the Home partition)

when you click "install Linux", the wizard appears and at some moment it will ask you to select a partitioning option, you have to select "Something else" then:

on the first one : select "change" > use as "Ext4 journaling file system" , tick "format the partition" , mount point as "/"
on the second one: select change > use as "swap area"
on the last one : select change > use as Ext4 "journaling file system" , tick "format the partition", mount point as "/home"



on the box asking where to put the boot loader, select the HDD (should be "/dev/sda")

then click "install " and continue the installation. When you will reboot at the end , Win8 will be recognized as "Windows Boot manager" in the Bootloader.

[Mark Phelps]

Then there are no partitions visible. It shows 320MB free space.

I think you meant 320GB free space -- which says the installer can't see the partitions on the drive. If this is a UEFI machine (most Win8 machines are), there are major hurdles that need to be jumped to safely install Mint -- and since I don't have such a machine, I can't help you with them.

I don't want to loose my present windows at any cost.

Then basically, choose only ONE of the following options:
1) Make a full image backup of your Win8 setup to an external drive. Macrium Reflect (the free version) will allow you to do this. Also use the Win8 feature to make a "recovery drive" to a CD. You may need that to do repairs on the Win8 boot loader if the Mint install corrupts it.
2) Don't mess around with the PC -- installing another OS ALWAYS comes with the risk of filesytem corruption. The safest course is to leave it alone.

[mr_raider]

boot from the mint DVD. When starting from teh DVD do you see a nice picture with teh Mint logo and all the boot options, or just a black screen with two lines and two choices like this:





Next, open a terminal and post the output of the following command:

Code: Select all

sudo parted -l

Next.

[gold_finger]

Installation process was running but, there is no 'install mint alongside windows' option. I tried selecting 'other' option. Then there are no partitions visible. It shows 320MB free space. I don't want to loose my present windows at any cost.

Don't attempt installing until you post back with output from mr_raider's command.

There are a few likely causes to your problem, but because the installer is not seeing any partitions I'm inclined to think this might solve your problem: http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/. Read through that and follow directions carefully to fix the problem. Once fixed, then the installer will see the partitions and be able to install properly.

Even after fixing, post back with the output from command posted by mr_raider before attempting installation. It will show us the current partition structure on your drive -- we'll give it a quick look to make sure nothing else will cause you problems and/or offer advice based on the output.

[Lalitha niharika]

mint@mint ~ $ sudo parted -l
Warning: /dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table.
However, it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should.
Perhaps it was corrupted -- possibly by a program that doesn't understand GPT
partition tables. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are now using an
msdos partition table. Is this a GPT partition table?
Yes/No? Y
Model: ATA ST320LT012-9WS14 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!

[gold_finger]

Ok, your parted output shows what I thought. Your drive is most likely MBR partitioned (not GPT partitioned), but has left-over GPT signatures on it. That can cause the installer to not read the drive properly. Go ahead and follow the instructions on the link to FixParts that I gave you above. Run that to get rid of the stray signatures, then the disk will be read properly.

If you run that and it does NOT tell you that it found anything wrong, exit the program immediately (without doing anything further to the disk) and post back here with a screenshot of your partitions from within Windows disk manager. Also, run the parted command again and answer "No" to question asking if it is a GPT disk. (Then post its output back here.)

After it's fixed, the parted command will no longer give that warning. Go ahead and post the output from that command when you're done fixing drive. If it shows 4 partitions already on the disk, then you will still have a problem installing Mint and we'll have to provide advice for getting around that.

[Lalitha niharika]

mint@mint ~ $ sudo parted -l
Warning: /dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table.
However, it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should.
Perhaps it was corrupted -- possibly by a program that doesn't understand GPT
partition tables. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are now using an
msdos partition table. Is this a GPT partition table?
Yes/No? N

Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!

[Lalitha niharika]

I am sorry, I am not understanding the procedure given in link clearly. What am I supposed to do after downloading fixparts? I have downloaded it in windows. It opened as command line prompt. What should I give as devise filename?

[gold_finger]

Just wrote a tutorial that hopefully will help: HowTo: USE FIXPARTS

[Lalitha niharika]

Thank you so much for spending your valuable time and writing article.
but there is a 'system' NTFS partition in my system

[austin.texas]

mint@mint ~ $ sudo parted -l
Warning: /dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table.
However, it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should.

The only reason for parted to warn about not having a fake msdos partition table is if you are trying to install Mint in MBR mode, and Windows is installed in UEFI mode.
Your first challenge is to get your Mint DVD to boot in UEFI mode - which would eliminate the need for the fake msdos partition table.
You have to go through the options in your computer's boot system, and make sure you are booting the DVD in UEFI mode. Disable Secure Boot and Fast Boot. Boot into Windows and disable "Fast Startup" (make sure Windows is completely shut down).

[gold_finger]

Thank you so much for spending your valuable time and writing article.
but there is a 'system' NTFS partition in my system

I'll go back and emphasize this better in the tutorial. The partition you are looking for the existence of MUST be one that is formatted as FAT32. It will typically be one of the first two partitions on the disk and is usually only 100 - 500MB in size. If the one you found is formatted as "NTFS", then that is something different (but not uncommon on Windows machines). So it sounds like you don't have that small FAT32 partition, which means FixParts will likely solve your problem.

If you want to be absolutely certain, post back here with a screenshot of your partitions as shown in Windows disk manager. Use the "Upload attachment" tab on the forum interface for that; or use an image posting site like this one and post the link to the picture here in the forum. We'll be able to tell from that what type of partitions you have.