Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

I've been trying all day to find a way to duel boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu. None of the google links I read seem to work on my computer.

My computer has two internal hard drives, Widows 8 is installed on the first drive c:. The second hard drive has two partitions, one for use with Windows while the other partition is where I want to install Ubuntu. The links I have read say it's quite simple, just tell Ubuntu to use the partition I want. But neither Ubuntu version 12 or version 13 recognize the two partitions on the second hard drive, instead it wants to take over the entire hard drive. I have a lot of files on the second hard drive that I can not let Ubuntu delete.

I can't use the Utuntu Windows Installer because it is not compatible with Windows 8. Any suggestions on how to make Ubuntu recognize the two logical volumes on the second hard drive?

Edited by Ancient Dragon
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Short expert note on the root causes and a safe path forward.

The message you reported about GPT means the second disk uses the GUID Partition Table (GPT), and older tools (and older Ubuntu media) can fail to show GPT partitions correctly — that is why the installer looked like it wanted the whole disk. Another common cause of "missing" partitions is a Windows Dynamic Disk (LDM), which Linux installers do not handle the same way as normal basic disks. Stop and make a full image/backup of that second drive before doing anything else. Microsoft on basic vs dynamic disks.

Practical, low‑risk steps (in order): first, in Windows use Disk Management to check the disk type (GPT vs MBR and basic vs dynamic) and to shrink the Windows partition if you want free space for Ubuntu — shrinking from Windows is safer for NTFS. If the disk is dynamic you must convert it back to a basic disk (only after a verified backup); Microsoft documents the conversion steps. Next, boot a modern 64‑bit Ubuntu live USB (booted in the same firmware mode Windows uses — UEFI if Windows is UEFI/GPT). Use a current GParted (Live or from the Ubuntu desktop) to inspect the second disk; GParted understands GPT and will show partitions without forcing a new table. See the GParted manual and the Ubuntu UEFI notes for the important UEFI/ESP details.

When you install, choose manual partitioning ("Something else"), put Ubuntu into the unallocated space, and — if the system uses UEFI — mount the existing EFI System Partition at /boot/efi but do not format it. If GRUB does not list Windows afterward, Boot‑Repair or updating GRUB from the installed Ubuntu usually fixes it. For advanced GPT fixes (if needed) consider GPT‑aware tools such as gdisk (Rod Smith’s GPT fdisk pages).

References: Ubuntu UEFI guide (how to match boot modes and use the EFI partition), GParted manual (inspect/resize safely), Microsoft dynamic‑disk doc (why dynamic disks confuse Linux).

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Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

If you boot from the LiveCD, you should be able to pull up a terminal and enter this:

$ sudo fdisk -l

to list the hard-drives, partitions and their formatting information. That's the first information you should fetch (and post here), to know what Ubuntu is actually seeing.

In general, I prefer to create the free space on the hard-drive before starting the Ubuntu installer. This way, you just tell the installer to use the free-space on the given hard-drive instead of telling it to take over a particular partition. So, I would suggest you go into Windows, and re-arrange the partitions on that hard-drive to free up some "unformatted" space. A comfortable space for Ubuntu is around 100Gb (no need for much more than that), minimum about 20Gb. So, if you can simply shrink one of the partitions down by about that amount, it should free up enough space.

Afterwards, you start the Ubuntu installer and you must choose to manually select / create the partitions where to install it, and then, select the free-space from your hard-drive to install the different partitions (reserve a good 1.5 times your RAM memory as swap space). Also, remember to select to install Grub on the same partition as where you install Ubuntu.

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

After booting with Ubuntu 12 Live fdisk reported "GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on /dev/fdb. This fdisk doesn't support GDT. Use GNU Parted". That's probably why it doesn't recognize the partitions when I try to install ubuntu. I'm reluctant to use GNU Parted for fear it will destroy Windows partitions.

I wanted to boot with Ubuntu 13 live but it said it couldn't find Live on the disk.

Edited by Ancient Dragon
Member Avatar for skyBlue1992

Select the hard drive that you want to install ubuntu as the first hard drive to boot. This will work I think. After installing Ubuntu if grub doesn't show up the windows installation, update the grub.

Edited by skyBlue1992
Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

Well, I've given up on this idea after reinstalling Windows 8 for the third time because I screwed up the entire hard drive. Maybe I'll just get another computer that only has Ubuntu on it.

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