Dual boot win7 and ubuntu 9.10 on 2T HDD wouldn't work.

Asked by Frank Han

Help!

I have a 2T HDD, and want to install both Ubuntu 9.10 and windows 7 pro on it.

1.first install ubuntu, partition during ubuntu installation,then install win7, it doesn’t recoganize the partition and can’t continue installation.

2. install win7 first, then use Wubi, after Wubi installed reboot, it shows “ no file system is defined”error loop ,the posts shows wubi support IDE HDD only not SATA.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-distributions-5/cant-install-wubi-on-windows-7-64bit-755176/

3.install ubuntu first, then partition using Gparted in ubuntu liveCD to format it to ntfs. Then install win7. It still doesn’t recoganize the partition showing MSR (Microsoft reserved mode) can’t continue win7 installation.

4. Gparted partition to 1T ntfs, 1T unformatted can’t install win7. Both using ubuntu CD and richard’s Gparted only CD.

5. install win7, then use ubuntu live CD to use Gparted to partition, then install Ubuntu. Can not recognize partition.

Any help are really appreciated.

Thanks,
Frank

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A. Denton (aquina) said :
#1

1] I had recommended you to install Windoze first and let the GNU/Linux installer determine the rest. I realize you tried it later though.

2] Some of these are new problems with recent Ubuntu distributions and Wubi I assume. Maybe it's easier to use an older one than to track down these errors. By the way http://wubi-installer.org/ tells me that Windows 98, 2000, XP and Vista are recommended. Microsoft windows 7 is not yet listed there.

3] Well.. Windows 7 is buggy crap in my opinion. Why the hell does someone want to install that? don't you people read the news. eZines were full of installation and migration problems for the last weeks. It's probably the price early adopters have to pay!

I recommend you to install either Windows XP (with SP3 and all patches then secure it) or Windows Vista and *then* run Ubuntu 9.10 (KK) in a virtual machine. Nevertheless running it vice versa (Windows in a secure VM like VirtualBox on Linux) would be a much greater idea! What does that sound like? It gives you about the same advantages (depending on the VM) and avaoids *several* multiboot problems. Really... if you found the problem mentioned by you a though one just wait for the usual file system corruptions and stuff the like.

Multiboot is bad and unprofessional. One computer system should run one operating system as a base constantly.

Revision history for this message
Frank Han (frank-han) said :
#2

Thanks Aquina!

I do not like MS that much though, I find out the real issue is on Ubuntu part -GPT issues. Because my HDD is 2T, Ubuntu 9.10 was unable to recognize the former partitions. Only the entire HDD can be recognized, this means, when windows partition will gone, if I have it installed first. And I try to borrow another 1T HDD, every thing runs good...

I guess this is a Ubuntu bug, isn't it?

Thanks again for trying to help me out.

Revision history for this message
A. Denton (aquina) said :
#3

Sorry, I don't know what "Ubuntu part -GPT" is and thus can't verify that. It's hard to imagine a unixoid operating system cannot handle HDD's with a physical size of 2 terrybytes. How did you come to that conclusion?

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Frank Han (frank-han) said :
#4

Refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

Because one friend help me try 1T HDD, everything works fine. So I am wondering if Ubuntu will detected the total capacity of entire HDD is over 2T. Ubuntu seems choice GPT instead of MBR automatically. This is also a gray area of my knowledge, I do not know why Ubuntu cannot use windows GPT and only can see the entire HDD as a unlocated one.

Thank you very much for helping,
Frank

Revision history for this message
A. Denton (aquina) said :
#5

Sorry, I still don't know what "Windows GPT" is, but since it may have something to do with Microsoft stuff I recommend you to *keep this out*. Unfortunately I cannot help you with this and I cannot help someone who can't read or at least send some logs. I think you shud rather stick with Microsoft Windows and avoid the GNU/Linux OS altogether.

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Frank Han (frank-han) said :
#6

I figured it out by myself :)

When you install Windows 7 on a 2T HDD, it will continuing use MBR as default boot record table. But in Ubuntu, the OS will treat the HDD default as GPT once its over 2T. That is the root reason causes dual-boot unsuccessfully, each OS can not recognize other's partitions.

Anyway, thanks Aquina, who is the only one try to help.

Frank

Revision history for this message
A. Denton (aquina) said :
#7

Hello Frank,

first I need to say, that using the MBR as default boot record is a standard behaviour. I recommend you to check for the wikipedia.org article about "MBR". I explains quite well how the boot record is tructured and what it's purpose really is. The MBR's function is totally independant of a hard disk drives size. Regarding Ubuntu treating the hard disk drive as a GPT is still have to stat that the abbreviation is yet unknown to me. I assume it's something like "gradn partition table" or some other generic descriptor which refers to the logical view of the operating system to it's attached disk drives. Anyways... I still don't see why Ubuntu shouldn't be able t adress 2TB (2048 Mib) of disk space. That IMHO seems to be totllay independant of the boot loader. Also the necessary code to address that much space is within the GNU/linux kernel for a long time. It also hasn't to do anathing with GNU/Linux not being able to recognize NTFS volumens. You can load a module so that read/write support is available to you. The other way round, namely Windows recognizing ext3/4 partitions is a different matter. As much as I understand about the issue Windows 7 is not fully able to handle large disk drives or there is still a problem with the Microsoft Windows 7 setup routine (like the weeks before). I recommend you to install Ubuntu 9.10 (in case you want the latest distribution) on your system and run Windows 7 in a virtual machine. Avoid dual boot systems or a direct installation of Windows 7. You will be fine then...